Education Scotland has published the report of the February 2024 inspection of Sgoil Lìonail and Sgoil-Àraich carried out in conjunction with the Care Inspectorate.
In developing the report, inspectors engaged directly with the headteacher, pupils, parents/ carers, and staff.
The Care Inspectorate report scores the Sgoil-Àraich as good or very good across all categories and makes no requirements for improvement.
The Education Scotland HMI report is also positive with inspectors scoring the school’s performance as ‘Good’ across all four measured categories.
The Education Scotland inspection team found the following strengths in the school’s work. Unless stated, these apply to Gàidhlig (Gaelic) and English Medium Education across all stages.
- The executive headteacher has very effectively put in place key improvements to raise standards on a short- and long-term basis. In so doing, she has made very good use of information on attainment, progress and what matters to the local area. She is well respected for her well-judged, ambitious and clear leadership of learning, teaching and raising attainment.
- Children are making good progress in literacy and numeracy through the medium of Gàidhlig, and as appropriate, English. Children are resilient and embrace change well. They participate with enthusiasm in learning activities to promote the island’s heritage, and Gàidhlig language and culture.
- Children experience high-quality learning through play across the early level that is motivating, meaningful and develops children’s creativity very well. In Gàidhlig Medium Education, this is developing children’s fluency well in a range of total immersion situations.
The Education Scotland inspection team identified the following areas for improvement which were identified and discussed with the acting headteacher.
- Build further on the strengths in learning and teaching to ensure high-quality experiences for all children across the sgoil. Children who are higher achieving should experience more challenging learning.
- Continue to raise attainment by ensuring that children have sharper next steps for improvement and to reach their full potential. Children in English Medium need a more planned approach for Gaelic (Learners) as an additional language. This should build on their total immersion in Gàidhlig in sgoil-àraich.
The full report is available on the Education Scotland Website.
Donald Macleod, Chief Officer for Education & Children’s Services said:
‘I am pleased to note the positive outcome of the joint inspection of Sgoil Lional and Sgoil-Àraich Lional and wish to acknowledge and thank the staff, children and parents of Sgoil Lional for their work in contribution to the inspection.”