/ Providing Inspection Services for
Department of Education
Department for Employment and Learning
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

Education and Training Inspectorate
Report of a Standard Inspection
Bloomfield Collegiate
Belfast
Inspected: January 2006

CONTENTS

SectionPage

1.INTRODUCTION1

2.MAIN FINDINGS2

3.CONCLUSION3

APPENDICES

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1CONTEXT

Bloomfield Collegiate is a voluntary grammar school for girls situated just off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast. The enrolment has remained steady over the past three years and stands currently at 701. Just under 2% of the pupils are entitled to free school meals. The school draws its pupils from a wide area which covers much of east Belfast, the Ards peninsula and the greater North Down area. Fifty-two percent of the pupils in year 8 obtained a grade A in the Transfer Test.

1.2FOCUS

The inspection focused on the quality of the leadership and management throughout the school and also on the subject of history, the provision for careers education, advice, information and guidance (CEAIG) and information and communication technology (ICT) across the curriculum. The school’s provision for pastoral care and the arrangements for child protection were also inspected.

1.3THE VIEWS OF PARENTS, GOVERNORS, PUPILS AND TEACHERS

The arrangements for the inspection of pastoral care and child protection included the completion of questionnaires by a sample of the parents, as well as meetings with the Board of Governors (BoG) and with groups of pupils from years 8, 12 and 14. Prior to the inspection, 140 confidential questionnaires were sent to parents: 38% of the parents responded with 27 taking the opportunity to write additional comments. The responses from the questionnaires and the comments from the BoG indicated, in almost all cases, satisfaction with the work of the school. In particular, the parents feel the school is well thought of in the community, encourages good behaviour and that their children are well cared for by the hardworking teachers. The BoG also commented on the high standards of behaviour, the caring ethos and the good working relationships established between the BoG and the staff. The pupils reported that they felt safe and happy in school. The inspection findings confirm that the confidence expressed in these aspects of the school’s work is well placed. Almost half of the teachers also completed confidential questionnaires. The few concerns raised through the parents’ and teachers’ questionnaires were discussed with the Principal and the BoG.

The school has procedures in place whichenable the staff to implement the main guidelines outlined in Department of Education (DE) Circular 1999/10, 'Pastoral Care in Schools: Child Protection' and in Circular 2003/13, 'Welfare and Protection of Pupils Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order'and has identifiedappropriate further areas for development within its pastoral programme.

1.4EXAMINATION RESULTS

Overall, the standards achieved by the pupils across the subjects at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level and General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced (A) level are good. Over a three-year period almost all pupils achieved A* - C grades in at least seven GCSE subjects. This compares favourably with other girls’ selective schools.Over the same period, at GCE A level, approximately73%of thepupils achieved grades A to C in at least three subjects.These GCE A level results are above the Northern Ireland (NI) average for similar selective schools. Almost all of the pupils achieved grades A to E in at least three GCE A level subjects. More details about the examination results are provided in appendix 2.

2. MAIN FINDINGS

2.1The strengths of the school include:

  • the excellent caring and supportive ethos;
  • the hard work and commitment of the Principal and Vice-principals; in particular to the development of the pastoral provision for the pupils and the promotion of continued improvement in the educational standards;
  • the very good quality of pastoral care provided for the pupils;
  • the excellent relationships between the pupils and the teachers;
  • the quality of the learning environment which, in many instances, the teachers have enhanced with good quality displays of the pupils’ work and other materials;
  • the overall quality of the teaching which, in most cases, is good or very good;
  • the high expectations set by the teachers and, as a consequence, the standards achieved by the pupils in many aspects of their work;
  • the success of the pupils in external examinations;
  • the good ICT skills demonstrated by most pupils and the opportunities provided in a significant minority of subjects to apply these skills to support their learning;
  • the provision for careers education and guidance;
  • the positive start made to self-evaluation through audits which include useful analyses of examination and other assessment outcomes; and
  • the hard work and commitment of the teachers illustrated by the willingness of many staff to take on additional responsibilities.

2.2The areas for improvement include the need to:-

review the existing structures for management at all levels, and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the members of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in order to take greater account of recent curricular and organisational change and to improve communication throughout the school; and

  • plan more strategically for the systematic development of ICT throughout the school and develop further the use of ICT to ensure that its potential to support and enhance learning and teaching is realised as fully as possible.

3.CONCLUSION

3.1The school has strengths in many aspects of its educational and pastoral provision; the areas for improvement need to be addressed if the school is to meet as fully as possible the needs of all of the pupils.

1

APPENDIX 1

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

1.1 i. School: Bloomfield Collegiatev.Date of Inspection: W/C 9 January 2006

ii. School Reference Number: 1420018vi.Area of Study: Standard Inspection
iii. Age Range: 11-18
iv. Status: Voluntary Grammar

1.2Intake/Enrolment

School Year / 2000/01 / 2001/02 / 2002/03 / 2003/04 / 2004/05 / 2005/06
Year 8 Intake / 101 / 102 / 100 / 99 / 100 / 100
Total enrolment / 707 / 711 / 697 / 709 / 690 / 701

1.3Attendance

Year 2004/05 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / Average
2004/05 / NI Average
2003/04
% Attendance / 96.5 / 96.1 / 94.8 / 93.4 / 96.7 / 92.5 / 93.4 / 94.8 / 95
1.4 / i. / Total Number of Teachers: / 48.4 / iii. / Contact ratio (percentage of
timetabled time in direct
class contact): / 59.81
ii. / PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio): / 14.46 / iv. / Numbers of Teachers
involved in Area of Study:
(Focused Only) / 0
Year 2005/06 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / TOTAL
Enrolment: Total / 100 / 104 / 103 / 106 / 104 / 107 / 77 / 701
PTR / 28.87 / 30.01 / 29.93 / 24.54 / 24.39 / 20.62 / 16.31

1.5Staying On Rate (2004/05) (Current year 13/14 as proportion of year 12 from 1/2 years previously)

Year 13 / 84.0 / NI Av Year 13 / 90.1
Year 14 / 91.1 / NI Av Year 14 / 86.4

1.6Leavers Destinations

2003/04 / Year 12 / NI% / Year 13/14 / NI%
Total Number of Leavers / 20 / 101
Another School / 35% / 18.3 / 0% / 0.9
Employment / 15% / 7.7 / 10% / 4.7
Full-time Further Education / 50% / 58.2 / 11% / 9.4
Full-time Higher Education / N/A / N/A / 78% / 82.1
Full-time Training / 0% / 10 / 0% / 0.9
Seeking Employment/Unemployed / 0% / 1.8 / 1% / 1.2
Unknown/Long Term Sick/Pregnant / 0% / 4 / 0% / 0.9

1

1.7NAME OF SCHOOL: / Bloomfield Collegiate / SCHOOL YEAR: / 2005/2006
GCSE / 2003 / 2004 / 2005
Percentage of Year 12 taking GCSE in at least 5 subjects / 100% / 100% / 100%
Percentage of Year 12 obtaining Grades C or above in at least 7 subjects / 88% / 93% / 93.3%
Percentage of Year 12 obtaining Grades C or above in at least 5 subjects / 95% / 95% / 96%
GCE A2 Level or equivalent / 2003 / 2004 / 2005
Percentage of Year 14 obtaining Grades C or above in at least 3 A2 levels / 73% / 76% / 67.4%
Percentage of Year 14 obtaining Grades E or above in at least 3 A2 levels / 94.4% / 91.6% / 90%

Within this report, when commenting on examination results of individual subjects, the respective CCEA average is used as a proxy for the corresponding average for all pupils in NI taking that subject.

APPENDIX 2

EXAMINATION RESULTS

Table showing the GCSE subject results over the previous three years ending in June 2005, in comparison with the respective Northern Ireland (NI) averages

Table 1

More than 10 percentage points above / Between 5 and 10 percentage points above /

Within 5

percentage points

/ Between 5 and 10 percentage points below / More than 10 percentage points below
GCSE
A*- C
/ German
Mathematics Additional
Spanish / Art & Design
Biology
Chemistry
English
English Literature
French
History
Home Economics
Home Economics Child Devt
Mathematics
Music
Physics
Religious Studies / Geography
Science Double Award
Sport/PE Studies / Design & Technology

Table 1 (Contd)

More than 10 percentage points above / Between 5 and 10 percentage points above /

Within 5

percentage points

/ Between 5 and 10 percentage points below / More than 10 percentage points below
GCE
A-C / History of Art and Design / Music
Religious Studies
Spanish / Art and Design
Biology
Business Studies
Chemistry
English Literature
Geography
History
Home Economics
Information Technology
Mathematics
Politics / French / Design and Technology (New Code)
German
Physics
GCE
A-E / Art and Design
Biology
Business Studies
Chemistry
English Literature
Geography
German
History
History of Art and Design
Home Economics
Mathematics
Music
Politics
Religious Studies
Spanish / Information Technology / Design and Technology (New Code)
French
Physics

Within this report when commenting on examination results of individual subjects, the respective Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment average is used as a proxy for the corresponding average for all pupils in Northern Ireland taking that subject.

WatsonL/9 - 23.1.06 Bloomfield Collegiate

Table showing the spread of the NI subject averages which have been used in the determination of Table 1.

Table 2

100% - 96% / 95% - 86% / 85% - 76% / 75% - 66% / 65% - 0%
GCSE
A* - C / Art & Design
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Studies/Computing
English
English Literature
History
Home Economics
Mathematics
Music / Design & Technology
French
Geography
German
Home Economics Child Devt
Mathematics Additional
Physics
Religious Studies
Science Double Award
1st Subject
Spanish
Sport/PE Studies

GCE
A-C / Art and Design
Mathematics Further / Business Studies
English Literature
French
Geography
German
History
History of Art and Design
Information Technology
Mathematics
Music
Politics
Religious Studies
Spanish / Biology
Chemistry
Economics
Home Economics
Physics / Design and Technology (New Code)

Table 2 (Contd)

100% - 96% / 95% - 86% / 85% - 76% / 75% - 66% / 65% - 0%
GCSE
A* - E
/ Art and Design
Biology
Business Studies
Chemistry
Design and Technology (New Code)
Economics
English Literature
French
Geography
German
History
History of Art and Design
Home Economics
Information Technology
Mathematics
Mathematics Further
Music
Physics
Politics
Religious Studies
Spanish

 CROWN COPYRIGHT 2006

This report may be reproduced in whole or in part, except for commercial purposes or in connection with a prospectus or advertisement, provided that the source and date thereof are stated.

Copies of this report may be obtained from the Inspection Services Branch, Department of Education, Rathgael House, 43 Balloo Road, Bangor, Co Down BT19 7PR. A copy is also available on the DE website: