A Garnock Valley primary school has achieved high ratings across the board following a recent inspection.

Gateside Primary, near Beith, received "very good" ratings from Education Scotland after inspectors paid a visit in April to carry out an assessment.

They found that children in the school and nursery class were "highly confident and kind to each other, adults and visitors".

In the nursery, children had fun in their environment and in the school, children are eager, motivated learners.

They also praised the strong nurturing relationships that exist across the school and nursery class between staff, children and their families, adding: "These relationships support children well to respect themselves and others."

Inspectors said there was a "strong sense of teamwork between staff and their willingness to take on leadership roles based on their professional learning".

They added: "Senior leaders supported and guided staff well to improve children’s learning experiences, particularly in literacy.

"The approaches senior leaders and staff take to identify children’s barriers to learning quickly and address their needs. This is helping staff to get it right for every child in the school and nursery class."

They found high levels of attainment of children across the school and nursery and said children make very good progress in their learning and development.

In conclusion, the inspectors rated the school and nursery "very good" in all categories, including leadership of change, learning, teaching and assessment, ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion  and raising attainment and achievement.

The school also received "very good" rankings for care, play and learning, nurturing care and support, play and learning, setting, high quality facilities, leadership, quality assurance and improvement and the staff team.

Just one area of improvement was identified. Inspectors said senior leaders and all staff should continue to work on areas identified within the school and nursery class improvement plan. 

The inspection report concluded: "We are confident that the school has the capacity to continue to improve and so we will make no more visits in connection with this inspection.

"North Ayrshire Council will inform parents/carers about the school’s progress as part of its arrangements for reporting on the quality of its schools."