25 April 2017

Dear Parent/Carer

In January 2017 a team of inspectors from Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate
visited Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class. During our visit, we talked to parents/carers
and children and worked closely with the headteacher and staff. We gathered evidence to
evaluate the quality of leadership and management, learning provision and childrens
success and achievements.

The inspection team found the following strengths in the schools work:

Bramble Brae School is a happy school where children feel valued within a warm and
caring ethos. It is clear that positive and trusting relationships exist across the nursery
and school community for children, staff, parents and partners.

There is a strong sense of teamwork across the nursery and school. Led by the
headteacher, staff have become more evaluative and are committed to improving the
school. This includes a willingness to engage in professional learning, with a strong
focus on improving experiences and attainment for all children.

Health and wellbeing is promoted in a supportive and nurturing nursery and school.
Staff and partners have worked well to develop a shared understanding of wellbeing
across the school. They make effective use of wellbeing indicators to help children
reflect on their own wellbeing, and set personal targets.

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the headteacher and
representatives from Aberdeen City Council:

Ensure approaches to improving the school are rigorously implemented to ensure all
children experience consistently high- quality learning and teaching in the nursery and
across all primary stages.

Improve childrens progress and attainment in literacy and English language and
numeracy and mathematics in the nursery and across the primary stages.

The school should continue its work in developing a bespoke curriculum that is relevant,
meets the needs of all learners and supports children to develop knowledge and skills
across all curriculum areas.

1 | Aberdeen City Council: - Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class

Quality indicators help schools, education authorities and inspectors to judge what is
good and what needs to be improved in the work of the school. You can find these
quality indicators in the publication How good is our school? for the primary stages and for
the nursery class, How good is our Early Learning and Childcare?1. Following the inspection
of each school, the Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three important quality
indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish schools are doing.

Here are Education Scotlands evaluations for Bramble Brae School

and Nursery Class

Primary stages

Leadership of Change satisfactory

Learning, teaching and assessment satisfactory

Raising attainment and achievement weak

Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion good

Nursery class

Leadership of Change weak

Learning, teaching and assessment satisfactory

Securing childrens progress weak

Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion satisfactory

1 th
How good is our school? (4 Edition) 2015; How good is our Early Learning and Childcare? 2016 How Good Is
Our School? How good is our early learning and childcare?

2 | Aberdeen City Council: - Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class

Here are the Care Inspectorate gradings for the nursery class

Quality of care and support adequate

Quality of environment adequate

Quality of staffing adequate

Quality of management and leadership adequate

Requirements/recommendations made by Care Inspectorate for the nursery class:

During the previous Care Inspectorate inspection, the setting had no requirements and no
recommendations. As a result of this inspection, there are two requirements and five
recommendations.

Requirements

1. The management team should ensure that personal plans are in place for each child; and
that these are reviewed with parents every six months or more often when there is
significant change. These plans would include:

Childrens learning journals, including recording meaningful observations and clearly

identified next steps; and information on childrens personal preferences; Admissions forms
being fully completed, along with relevant permission forms.

This is in order to comply with The Social Care and Social Work Improvement
(Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011 (SSI 2011/ 210), regulation 5. A
requirement that personal plans should be in place.

Timescale:
i) to be implemented by August 2017
ii) audit to be carried out within 2 weeks of publication of the report.

2. The management team must ensure risk assessments, for maximising childrens safety, are
developed in partnership with the staff team covering all areas the children access. The risk
assessments must identify all potential risks and detail how these will be addressed.
3.
This is in order to comply with The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland
(Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011 (SSI 2011/210) - regulations 4(1)(a)

Timescale: within 2 weeks of publication of the report.

3 | Aberdeen City Council: - Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class

Recommendations

1. A medication policy should be developed. In particular, parents should be very clear with
staff on the criteria for administering as/when required medication. Any medication that is
stored in the service should be in the original container with the childs name clearly
displayed.

National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16: Standard: 3
Health and Wellbeing

2. Staff should ensure that accidents/incidents are signed by parents to ensure that there is a
written audit of when any accident/incident information was shared with parents. Childrens
surnames should be detailed to ensure consistency when sharing information. Regular
audits should be carried out on accident/incidents to identify if any patterns are emerging;
and if need be appropriate action should be taken.

National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16: Standard: 3
Health and Wellbeing

3. A clear training plan should be developed from results of staffs Personal Review and
Development. This will enable the impact of training to be planned and measured.

National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16, Standard 12
Confidence in staff.

4. Staff should have more formal opportunities to reflect and discuss improving outcomes for
children. A programme of staff meetings should be developed which provides opportunities
to discuss their practice, procedures and self-evaluation.

National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16, Standard 12
Confidence in staff.

5. The management team should develop robust systems to effectively monitor the quality of
the service as a whole and the work of each staff member. Staff should be involved in the
systematic evaluation and discussion of their work and the work of the service. In order to
achieve this, the management team should look at accessing appropriate training and/or
making use of good practice documents.

National Care Standards Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16 years,
Standards 13 and 14: Improving the Service; and Well Managed Service.

4 | Aberdeen City Council: - Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class

The letter and more detailed summarised inspection findings will be available on the
Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate website at
https://www.education.gov.scot/reports/aberdeen-city/5238129 and

http://www.scswis.com/

What happens next?

We will liaise with the Aberdeen City Council regarding the schools capacity to improve.
Taking account of the significant staffing issues, and other challenges faced by the school,
we believe the school needs time and support to successfully continue its improvement
journey. We will return to carry out a further inspection of the school and nursery classes
within 18 months of the publication of this letter. We will discuss with Aberdeen City Council
the details of this inspection. When we return to inspect the school, we will write to you as
parents/carers informing you of the progress the school has made.

A notification from the Care Inspectorate will be sent to the Provider to complete an action
plan to address any Requirements and Recommendations made as a result of this
inspection.

Susan Duff Jane Macleod

HM Inspector Care Inspector

5 | Aberdeen City Council: - Bramble Brae School and Nursery Class

If you would like to receive this report in a different format, for example, in a translation
please contact the administration team on the telephone number below and we will let you
know what is available.

If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact us by
e-mail: complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk, or telephone us on the number below, or
write to us addressing your letter to

The Complaints Manager

Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston EH54 6GA

T +44 (0)131 244 4330

E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk

www.educationscotland.gov.uk

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