report
HMI and Care Inspectorate Report February 2025
Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate conducted a inspection of the School in late October 2024.
We are pleased to share the letter prepared by HMI Inspectors and the Care Inspectorate following their visit to St Mary’s Music School in October 2024. This inspection provides a thorough evaluation of our provision, and we are delighted that the findings reflect the strength and quality of our specialist music education.
We invite you to review the report and letter, which highlights the commitment of our pupils, the dedication of our staff and the excellence of our educational and pastoral provision.
Full Inspection Report | Education Scotland
| Quality indicator for the school | evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership of change | Very good | |||
| Leaning, teaching and assessment | Very good | |||
| Ensuring wellbeing, equility, and inclusion | Very good | |||
| Raising attainment and achievement | Excellent | |||
Inspection Selected Notes
In October 2024, a team of inspectors from Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate visited St Mary’s Music School.
During our visit, they talked to parents/carers and children and young people and worked closely with the headteacher and staff. The inspection team found the following strengths in the school’s work:
• The outstanding commitment from children and young people to work hard to produce the highest quality of music performance from an early age. They demonstrate great concentration, while making music using well-practised techniques, evidence of musical refinement and exceptional expressive musical maturity.
• The excellent quality of children and young people’s attainment and achievement. This includes both their very high quality of musical attainment and their wider academic success.
• The outstanding quality of music teaching. Staff are passionate about supporting young people to reach the highest standards of musicianship in their chosen area of study. They demonstrate thoughtful well-planned teaching and strong supportive music assessment and monitoring practices.
• The relationships between the senior leaders, staff and children and young people. Staff support children and young people to understand the level of work to be undertaken while at the school to achieve their music and academic goals. They work very well together, supporting and caring for each other to achieve this.
From the SIF:
The whole school community work very well together to ensure the continuing vision for the outstanding music provision at St Mary’s Music School is realised daily.
Children and young people experience caring, nurturing relationships with adults and their peers. They learn and develop their musical talents in calm, supportive learning environments.
Children and young people are polite, kind and demonstrate very well the school values of ‘creative, inclusive and committed’ in their work and engagement in the life of the school. Staff encourage actively, children and young people’s ownership of their music learning through promoting a very strong culture of challenge and high expectations.
Young people participate in a very personalised learning experience at St Mary’s Music School with each child following a bespoke timetable.
Instrumental and vocal learning is outstanding with learners enjoying exploring and participating in a very wide range of advanced music activities, selected from a wide range of genre.
Across the school, children and young people demonstrate strong self-motivation and independence. This is particularly evident in their daily music practice and impacts positively on their learning in the classroom as they display resilience and a strong determination to succeed.
Children and young people work very well in their academic classes. Children in the primary class enjoy sharing ideas and supporting each other in paired and group activities. They are highly motivated by their current enterprise project. At the secondary stages, young people benefit from relatively small class sizes. In these classes, most teachers adopt a tutorial style approach to teaching, particularly lessons at the senior phase.
There are examples of outstanding teaching evident in one-to-one and ensemble lessons where learners experience clear and well-focused music pedagogy. Staff challenge children and young people well to demonstrate higher-order thinking skills as they learn. Children and young people understand what is expected of them and how to achieve success. High-quality teaching is a strong driver for learners’ success at the school. Teachers encourage learners to seek advice whenever they need support and staff demonstrate highly-skilled questioning in music lessons. This leads to better learning and children and young people becoming well-rounded musicians.
All children and young people follow a well-considered music pathway which leads to very high musical attainment. This deep learning in music across a very wide range of learning activities is leading to an outstanding music curriculum experience. Staff meet the needs of all learners, planning opportunities that extend music learning and performance well beyond the classroom. Learning activities also provide participation in a large variety of school music performance activities.
Children and young people benefit from very positive and supportive relationships with staff and with each other. They behave very well and are respectful to others. They are highly focussed on achieving success in both their music and wider academic subjects. Children and young people have a very strong work ethic and display high levels of commitment to improving their music skills and knowledge through dedication and practice.
The quality of children and young people’s attainment and achievement in music across all levels is outstanding. Young people attain in performance and composition and can also analyse and comment on music, at a very high level.
The Head of Primary gathers a range of evidence to track individual children’s progress and attainment. Across the primary school, consistently high levels of attainment in literacy and numeracy are maintained over time. In the senior years…..Young people’s academic success is excellent. Standards of attainment have been consistently high for number of years.
From the Care Inspectorate:
Children and Young People….enjoyed warm and trusting relationships with staff who were kind and caring and attuned to their needs. The staff strongly advocated for all the young people in their care and endeavoured to ensure they experienced warmth, compassion and got the most out of life.
Leaders in the boarding house led by example and had established a very positive culture.
Young people were very well supported with their music and staff were also ambitious for them to develop other talents such as art and sport. The speciality of the school meant that young people were strongly devoted to their music and practice, however there was also a strong emphasis in boarding to support young people to take time for themselves and promote their wellbeing.
