/ 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 Focused Inspection
St John the Baptist Primary School
Carranbeg, Roscor
Inspected: June 2004
CONTENTS
Section Page
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE QUALITY OF THE CHILDREN’S WORK 1
3. CONCLUSION 4
APPENDIX 5
BASIC INFORMATION SHEET (BIS) - PRIMARY SCHOOLS
A. i. School: St John the Baptist Primary iii. Date of Inspection: W/B 1.06.04
Carranbeg, Roscor
ii. School Reference Number: 203-1887 iv. Nature of Inspection: Focused/
Mathematics/ICT and Pastoral Care
B.
School Year / 1999/00 / 2000/01 / 2001/02 / 2002/03 / 2003/04Year 1 Intake / 7 / 12 / 9 / 12 / 10
Enrolments
Primary / 46 / 53 / 57 / 64 / 67
Reception / 4 / 2 / 3 / 0 / 2
Nursery Class/Classes / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Special Unit / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
The enrolment for the current year is the figure on the day of notification of inspection.
For previous years it is the figure in the annual return to the Department of Education.
The calculations at C and D should be based on the total of the primary and reception enrolments only.
C. Average Attendance for the Previous School Year
(expressed as a percentage): 95%
Primary & Nursery Special Reception Unit Unit
D. i. Number of Teachers
(including the principal and part-time teachers): 4 - -
(Full-time equivalent = 25 teaching hours)
ii. PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio): 17.25 NI PTR: 19.9
iii. Average Class Size: 9.8
iv. Class Size (Range): 7 to 12
v. Ancillary Support:
Number of Hours Per Week: i. Clerical support: 10
ii. Official Making A Good 10
Start Support:
iii. Making A Good Start funding 12.5
additional hours and other
classroom assistant support:
vi. Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs: 1
vii. Number of children who are not of statutory school age: 2
viii. Percentage of children entitled to free school meals: 7.25%
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 St John the Baptist Primary School is a small, rural school situated in the parish of Inis Muigh Samh, three miles from Belleek in County Fermanagh. The majority of the children travel to the school by bus or car from a radius of three miles. The enrolment has increased steadily over the past five years to its current figure of 69. Some 7% of the children are entitled to free school meals.
1.2 The arrangements for the inspection of pastoral care and child protection included the completion of questionnaires by the parents, as well as meetings with the governors and with a group of the children in year 6. Prior to the inspection, 45 confidential questionnaires were sent to the parents; 29 parents responded, with eleven providing additional comments. All of the responses from the parents and the governors highlighted in particular, the high regard for the school in the community and the children’s caring and respectful attitudes. The inspection findings concur with these views.
1.3 The inspection focused on mathematics, information and communication technology (ICT) and pastoral care, including child protection.
2. THE QUALITY OF THE CHILDREN’S WORK
2.1 The school has a very friendly and welcoming ethos. Relationships at all levels are excellent; the staff provide a secure and supportive environment in which the children are valued and feel safe. A strong family and community atmosphere pervades the school highlighted through the spoken expressions of appreciation for the work of the teachers by the year 6 children. Colourful displays incorporating the children’s work, instructional posters and photographs enhance the classrooms and other communal areas; they record the children’s attainments and promote the children’s knowledge, health and well-being.
2.2 The behaviour of the children is excellent; they are courteous and engage readily in conversation with visitors. The children are responsive to their teachers; they settle willingly to work, and display a spirit of co-operation with one another and respect for their environment.
2.3 The parents are very supportive of the school. Good communications have been established with the parents through regular meetings with the Principal and teachers and a school policy which encourages them to express their views and opinions.
2.4 The school’s policy for child protection is in line with the Department of Education (DE) Circular 1999/10. It outlines clearly the procedures to be followed by staff when addressing child protection concerns. The Principal has attended in-service training (INSET) courses on child protection matters and has disseminated information to the teaching and ancillary staff. The pastoral care provision in the school is good.
2.5 The teachers plan conscientiously for their work. They use a monthly, medium-term planning format and a variety of other short-term approaches which are focused appropriately on the intended learning outcomes for the year groups. The staff are beginning to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and its impact on the children’s learning. As a result they are reviewing and developing their planning to meet individual children’s learning needs. In view of the wide range of differentiated learning needs within the year groups, this is timely in particular, to provide appropriate challenge for the more able children.
2.6 The teachers are hard-working and committed to the well-being and education of the children. The classroom assistant is deployed effectively and provides valuable support for the children. The quality of the teaching observed during the inspection was often good and at times it was excellent. In the best practice observed, the work was matched to the range of abilities of the children, the lessons had appropriate pace and challenge and the children had sufficient time to think, to respond and to take responsibility for aspects of their own learning. The teachers use questioning skilfully and practical activities to consolidate the children’s learning. It would be beneficial if the excellent practice which exists within the school was disseminated to all of the staff.
2.7 The children are well-motivated and work conscientiously to complete tasks accurately and carefully; a feature of their work is the high standard of presentation and neatness. The children listen well and are developing effectively independence and responsibility for themselves, for others and for their learning environment.
2.8 The school’s policy for mathematics provides clear guidance to the teachers. Within the context of the three-year School Development Plan (SDP) mathematics is identified as a major area for improvement. A new commercially-produced mathematics programme is being implemented across the school. The whole-school scheme of work is in the process of being reviewed and updated to take account of the mathematical lines of progression and links with other curricular areas. The school has benefited significantly from its involvement in the Northern Ireland Numeracy Strategy (NINS) training programme. This is reflected clearly in the teaching and learning approaches adopted and in the emphasis given to the development of the children’s mental processes. The teachers have created a stimulating, mathematical learning environment through the display of number lines and grids, key words, definitions and relevant samples of the children’s investigations using ICT to represent and analyse information.
2.9 Throughout the school the children experience a wide variety of mathematical activities. The teachers value the importance of providing opportunities for discussion and practical work. Through a variety of challenging activities the children are becoming increasingly flexible and confident in their mental reasoning and in their ability to talk about their learning. This was evident, for example, when the children engaged directly with the teachers through question and answer sessions and when they worked together on practical tasks. The teachers promote well the children’s use of appropriate mathematical language and they provide opportunities to set the activities within real life contexts. The children are making steady progress in their mathematics and by the end of year 7 most attain appropriate standards in line with their ability. They enjoy mathematics and display confidence in talking about mathematical processes.
2.10 The school has recently received six computers through the Classroom 2000 (C2k) initiative; the teachers have provided a well-planned, progressive programme for all of the year groups. The children would benefit from the provision of additional computers. The school’s documentation underpinning the ICT provision, including a comprehensive scheme of work for each year group is well-developed. Almost all of the staff completed the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) course and all, including the classroom assistant and the secretary, have successfully undertaken the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) training course.
2.11 The quality of teaching using ICT is good. The children use computers with increased confidence; they are becoming more competent in, for example, opening and saving files in their personal folders. By the end of key stage (KS) 1, they work with characters, words and phrases to enhance the presentation and quality of their written work. In KS2, the children develop further these skills to produce work which incorporates Clip-art or scanned images, and they compose and edit word-processed documents, gather and research information using the Internet, interrogate a simple database and use it to plot information. In addition, the children use and control the Roamer effectively.
2.12 The co-ordination of ICT throughout the school is managed effectively. To assist the staff to track and report on the development of the children’s skills and knowledge, a detailed record of their achievements in ICT across all strands and year groups should be maintained. The school is well-placed to develop further the integration of ICT into teaching and learning across the curriculum.
2.13 The school values the importance of learning through play and provides appropriate, daily sessions for the children in reception and KS1. The planning is undertaken conscientiously for the areas of learning and the staff identify the need for additional resources to enrich the children’s opportunities to investigate and explore. The close involvement of the teachers and the classroom assistant promotes frequently their settled and concentrated learning. The conducive environment extends effectively the children’s language and thinking skills. The staff in KS1 identify the need to develop a policy on play, to extend the planning for progression and establish methods of assessing the children’s learning and development.
2.14 The youngest children remain in school for the full school day. This is inappropriate for their age and stage of development. These arrangements place unnecessary constraints on the deployment of the class teacher; more effective use of teaching time for all of the children could be made across the year groups.
2.15 The teaching Principal is hard-working and provides dedicated service to the school and the community. She sets a positive tone for the school and promotes effectively a strong sense of team-work and commitment among the children, the staff, the parents and the governors. She combines effectively the dual responsibilities of teaching a composite class and leading the school.
2.16 The teachers have benefited from INSET courses provided by the Western Education and Library Board (WELB), to support teaching and learning. The subject co-ordinators undertake their roles conscientiously and disseminate and share information to improve the quality of the educational and pastoral provision. There is scope for the development of the work of the co-ordinators in monitoring and evaluating teaching and learning. The SDP sets out a number of appropriate priorities to be addressed over a three-year period; there is a need for the staff to prepare detailed action plans which identify clearly the prioritisation of the needs, the success criteria and the timescale for implementation.
2.17 The school has identified appropriately eleven children who experience difficulties with aspects of their learning. Education plans have been prepared which set out short-term targets for each child. The teachers monitor carefully, the children’s progress. They need, however, to analyse further the data collected from the range of assessment procedures used, so that it informs future teaching and learning. Under the combined management of the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) and the advice and guidance of support staff in the WELB the school’s provision for SEN is developing well. In addition, a small number of the children recently benefited from their involvement in the Reading Recovery programme delivered by a peripatetic teacher from the WELB.
2.18 The school maintains profiles on all the children. A folder for each child contains samples of their work, outcomes of regular assessments including standardised tests and copies of their annual reports. Reports on each child’s progress are written to a high standard and provide the parents with clear evaluative comment on their children’s strengths and areas of difficulty. The parents also have the opportunity to discuss formally, with the class teacher, their children’s progress and they receive an annual written report.
2.19 The teachers mark the children’s work regularly, correcting errors and adding positive, and at times, personalised comments which recognise the children’s efforts. In addition, some of the teachers indicate to the children how their work could be improved further.
2.20 The children benefit from a variety of curricular and sporting links with other primary schools, the local pre-school and the post-primary school. The school has established strong links with the local controlled primary school, as part of the Education for Mutual Understanding (EMU) programme. They are developing friendships, and an understanding and awareness of the different churches and cultural traditions in Northern Ireland through visits and activities funded by the WELB.
2.21 The teaching areas in the school comprise of two mobile classrooms, a small classroom in the main school building, and another in half of the dining room. The size of the small classroom and the use of the dining room restricts the teaching of practical aspects of the curriculum. The standard of the caretaking is good. Other matters relating to health and safety are included in the Appendix.
2.22 The strengths of the school include the:
· positive ethos;
· excellent behaviour and the motivation of the children;
· good start made in the implementation of C2k and the NINS initiatives;