Education inspectors have told Fife Council to support teachers at Cardenden Primary amid concerns about the disruptive behaviour of some pupils.
Cardenden Primary School was rated as weak by Education Scotland inspectors who highlighted issues with the impact of ‘distressed behaviour’ shown by a significant minority of children.
They said the school needs help from Fife Council to look at how staff manage incidents and how they can be supported when dealing with pupils’ behaviour.
Teaching disrupted by some pupils’ behaviour
In the report, published last month, inspectors said: “A significant minority of children display distressed behaviour during the school day.
“Learning and teaching is continually disrupted.
“Teachers and support staff are anxious they have insufficient time to teach, are unable to meet learners’ needs.
“They spend too much time managing behaviours and incidents.
“The headteacher and PT [principal teacher] are too frequently called to support individual children and remove them from class.”
It added: “The school needs support from the local authority to review approaches to managing and supporting children’s behaviour.”
A ‘growing anxiety’ among Cardenden Primary staff
The inspectors visited the school in October.
They said the behaviour of a ‘significant minority of children across several classes’ is having an impact on all pupils.
The report continued: “Staff report that they feel a growing anxiety around their capacity to manage learning and teaching in this context.
“They recognise that support staff have to be deployed to provide intensive or responsive support.
“But this has an impact on learning and teaching across the school on a daily basis.”
Inspectors also said that a few parents are very unhappy with how Cardenden Primary deals with behaviour.
They noted the school has plans to develop a relationships and behaviour policy, and said parents and children should be involved.
Cardenden Primary committed to the care of pupils
However, the inspectors praised staff for demonstrating warm and supportive relationships.
They found the staff know ‘their children, families and the community very well with staff across the nursery and the primary committed to the care and wellbeing of all children’.
They also found teachers to be ‘very caring in their roles and understand children’s individual backgrounds and circumstances’.
But they highlighted a number of areas where improvements must be made.
Inspectors will liaise with the council and return to the school in the next year.
Improvements need to be made
Head teacher Donna Shiels said an action plan is in place.
She said they are proud of the links they have with parents and the relationship they have with the children.
“We are pleased our commitment to the care and wellbeing of our children has been recognised as a key strength.
“We are very aware of the improvements that need to be made and have already taken steps to address these.”
Lesley Henderson, council education manager, added: “We are working with Mrs Shiels and her staff to support them to take forward the areas for improvement.”
Conversation