A primary school and nursery in Cumbernauld has received a positive report from inspectors who visited in January.

Whitelees Primary School was rated “very good” in all four criteria in the report, while the nursery unit was assessed as “good” across the board.

Positive aspects mentioned in a letter to pupils’ families included the attitudes of the children themselves, who were described as “articulate, happy, confident and keen to learn”, with a strong sense of belonging to the school and nursery.

The head teacher was also praised for providing “highly effective leadership and direction”, with inspectors also noting the good support from her two principal teachers, saying this leadership had created a very positive culture and ethos for everyone.

The staff were noted for being highly responsive to the needs of the children, helping them feel safe, valued and nurtured which was reflected in terms of the progress made in learning.

The staff were also commended for their commitment to improvement through continual professional learning and development.

Levels of attainment by pupils in terms of literacy and numeracy were described as high, and used well across their learning including outdoors.

Some areas for improvement were also discussed with the head teacher and a representative from North Lanarkshire Council. The inspectors want to see continued evaluation of transitions throughout the day by nursery children, improved tracking of individual children’s progress in nursery, and continued development of approaches to delivering consistently high quality learning experiences with children given additional responsibilities in leading their learning.

Overall, the inspectors concluded no further visits will be required in connection to this report as they are satisfied the school will continue to improve.