Head achieves U- turn over brutal HMI report
A plucky headteacher who disagreed with a “brutal” school inspection persuaded officials to change their minds.
Donald Currie who is in charge of Bellsbank Primary near Dalmellington challenged the judgement of inspectors.
The Education Scotland team rated attainment as weak at Bellsbank - but Mr Currie persuaded them to eat their words. The final report ended up satisfactory and the nursery good.
Mr Currie branded the inspection “difficult.” and added: “We found it brutal in many ways. The original draft report did not reflect the school we know. They came back and recognised the evaluation was not accurate. The report we have now is an accurate reflection of the school.”
Inspectors visited Bellsbank in May and carried out a full model inspection of the primary and early childhood centre.
Mr Currie presented his thoughts on the inspection to politicians at an East Ayrshire Council Governance and Scrutiny Committee last week.
Councillor Ian Grant asked the head what the inspectors got wrong.
Mr Currie replied: “They said attainment was weak.
“They got that wrong.” Mr Currie said the findings needed to take context of the setting of the school in an area of poverty. Ninety per cent of pupils come from the highest levels of deprivation - SIMD 1.
The children moved into a state of the art £ 6.1m new school building last week.
Mr Currie said: “There is a sense of Bellsbank almost being reborn as a school.”
Education Scotland rated the primary as satisfactory for leadership of change, learning, teaching and assessment, raising attainment and achievement and ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion. The nursery scored satisfactory for leadership of change and learning, teaching and assessment. It was judged good at securing children’s progress and ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion.
Bellsbank was praised for its “highly effective partnership working with parents,” which is empowering them to help with their children’s learning.
Ins p e c t o r s s a i d t h e management team needs to provide “clear, strategic leadership and direction.” They want results in literacy and maths to improve.