Glowing inspection report for Carnoustie primary school

Burnside Primary School has been highly praised following its latest visit by inspectors.

An Education Scotland team found pupils at the Carnoustie school were highly motivated and articulate, and said they were confident, responsible and showed very high levels of empathy towards each other.

The head teacher Nicholas Murray was commended for his “outstanding and inspirational” leadership, which had led to highly effective learning at all levels.

The inspectors found Mr Murray supported the 420 primary and 68 nursery children, as well as parents and staff, and had put in place a culture of innovation and empowerment across the school.

The report also highlighted the performance of the depute head, principal teachers and staff, saying they provided consistently high quality teaching, showed high levels of commitment to professional learning and fully embraced opportunities to continually improve their practice.

The nursery team also came in for praise. Inspectors found a strong commitment to developing the health and wellbeing of children and their families and said youngsters in the nursery were enthusiastic and confident and showed respect to each other and their well-resourced learning environment.

Staff were found to have caring, respectful and supportive relationships with families.

The school was graded excellent, or very good in all of the categories in the report.

The findings have been welcomed by Carnoustie independent councillor Brian Boyd. He said: “This is an absolutely outstanding and well-deserved report, and I have written to the school congratulating all of the staff on what is an amazing achievement.

“A positive and nurturing learning environment is absolutely vital to give children the very best start in life, and I am delighted that the inspection found this to be the case at Burnside.

“I know they will keep up the good work in the future.”