Vale of Leven Academy’s new head teacher is establishing a sense of direction for the school, according to an inspection by Education Scotland.

Overall, the school received satisfactory grades for leadership of change; learning, teaching and assessment; and raising attainment and achievement.

The school’s ability to ensure wellbeing, equality and inclusion, meanwhile, was rated as good.

Matthew Boyle took over as acting head at the beginning of the 2017/18 session before being appointed to the role permanently in April last year.

Inspectors said his approachability along with his presence in the school is beginning to engage staff more directly in taking forward improvements.

Positive relationships between pupils and staff, underpinned by high levels of care, along with the range of groups and clubs provided were also highlighted as strengths.

The school was also praised for its high-quality careers fair and for helping pupils to secure employment and progress to further education by developing a range of vocational pathways to meet individual needs and aspirations.

Inspectors also described support for identified groups of young people both in the school and the communication base as effective.

Read more: Education Scotland publish Balloch Primary inspection report

Along with these strengths, several areas for improvement were also identified and discussed with the head teacher and a representative from West Dunbartonshire Council.

Included in this, is the need for the school to use information on attainment “in a more meaningful way to make well timed improvements to the curriculum”.

The report also called on teachers to “make better use of assessment to plan learning which meets the needs of individuals” with increased pace and challenge required.

The need to “develop further the strategic overview of additional support needs to evidence more clearly that all young people who face barriers to their learning are making appropriate progress” was also identified.

A letter from Education Scotland following the inspection stated: “We will ask West Dunbartonshire Council for a report on progress with the agreed areas for improvement within 12 months of the publication of this letter.

“Taking account of the progress report, we will then decide whether further engagement with the school is required. This may involve another inspection visit.

“West Dunbartonshire Council will write to you again detailing the improvements the school has made and outlining any further action that we intend to take, as agreed with West Dunbartonshire Council.”