BASIC INFORMATION SHEET (BIS) - PRIMARY SCHOOLS

A. i. School: St Brigid’s Primary iii. Date of Inspection: W/B02/04/01
Carnhill, Londonderry

ii.School Reference Number: 203-6142 iv. Nature of Inspection: General

B.

School Year / 1996/97 / 1997/98 / 1998/99 / 1999/00 / 2000/01
Year 1 Intake / 43 / 54 / 44 / 34 / 42
Enrolments
Primary / 383 / 372 / 355 / 321 / 324
Reception / 24 / 24 / 23 / 28 / 0
Nursery Class/Classes / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 26
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):89.17%

Primary &NurserySpecial Reception Unit Unit

D. i.Number of Teachers
(including the principal and part-time teachers):131-
(Full-time equivalent = 25 teaching hours)

ii.PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio):24.32 NI PTR: 19.9

iii.Average Class Size:27

iv.Class Size (Range):22-30

v.Ancillary Support:
Number of Hours Per Week: i.Clerical support:36.25

ii. Official Making A Good25

Start Support:
iii. Making A Good Start funding25

additional hours and other

classroom assistant support:

vi.Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs:6

vii.Number of children who are not of statutory school age:26

viii. Number of families in school:224

ix.Percentage of children entitled to free school meals:47.53%

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1St Brigid’s Primary School is situated in a large housing estate in Carnhill, Londonderry, some three miles from the centre of the city. The area continues to experience considerable levels of unemployment and social deprivation. Most of the children come to school from the local neighbourhood; the enrolment in 1996 was 383; the trend of falling pupil numbers in recent years has stabilised over the past two years to its present level of 324. Some 48% of the children are entitled to receive free school meals.

1.2The arrangements for the inspection of pastoral care included the completion of confidential questionnaires by a sample of parents; in addition there were separate meetings with the governors and parents. The responses from the questionnaires and from comments made by the parents and governors indicated that they were satisfied with the work of the school; they praised the leadership of the principal and the care and support of the staff for the children’s welfare and education.

2.SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

2.1The teachers have created a bright and stimulating learning environment in the school. There are many attractive and stimulating displays of photographs and the children’s previous and current work across the curriculum in the corridors and classrooms.

2.2The children generally behave well and enjoy school; they are friendly and welcoming and they settle quickly to complete the tasks which they are set. The school promotes good behaviour by acknowledging the achievements of the children through its award system.

2.3The teachers are committed to the well-being and education of the children; they work hard to provide them with valuable and enjoyable learning experiences. The children benefit from a wide range of activities such as educational visits, extra-curricular events and visitors to the classrooms.

2.4The quality of the teachers’ individual planning varies. The teachers often work together to plan and review learning and teaching within year groups. The planning generally takes into account the wide range of abilities and needs within each class and much of the work is integrated effectively across the curriculum.

2.5The school is held in high esteem by the local community. The parents have contributed generously towards the purchase of additional teaching and learning resources and to particular maintenance and refurbishment projects in the school. The ancillary staff make a valuable contribution to the life and work of the school; the classroom assistants interact effectively to support and encourage the children’s learning. The standard of cleaning and caretaking is good.

2.6The school’s procedures for Pastoral Care, including Child Protection, are in line with the Department of Education Circular 1999/10.

2.7Twenty-two children from the Traveller community are integrated well and participate fully in the life of the school.

2.8Much of the teaching observed during the inspection was good. The most effective lessons were characterised by careful planning which identified clearly the intended learning for the children. The learning was managed well, there was appropriate pace in the work and the children benefited from learning activities which were enjoyable and which were matched closely to their needs and abilities.

2.9A wide range of teaching approaches is used in all of the classes; the children work effectively and collaboratively in groups and independently. The local environment is used well as a context for the children’s learning. The teachers are aware of the children’s individual strengths and needs; they are generous in their encouragement and support.

2.10The recently opened nursery unit is bright and stimulating. The children are very much at ease, they enjoy the activities and derive considerable benefit from the valuable experiences of the nursery programme.

2.11The quality of the teachers’ marking of the children’s written work is variable throughout the school. The whole-school marking policy needs to be implemented consistently by all of the staff; they need to encourage progress and self-confidence and indicate how the children’s work might be improved further.

2.12The school maintains detailed central records on each child’s achievement. Standardised test results and end of key stage assessment outcomes are collated and used to inform planning for learning and to identify those children who require additional support. Folders containing assessment details, samples of work and other relevant information are maintained for each child; they provide a good record of attainment and progress.

2.13The children who experience particular difficulties with aspects of their learning receive sensitive support from their class teachers. Some of the children receive individual support from the peripatetic staff of the Western Education and Library Board (WELB). Many of the children would benefit from additional support with their learning.

2.14The school has identified the raising of the children’s attainments in English and mathematics as priority issues for development. The extensive review, audit and planning for these areas of the curriculum are influencing significantly the increased breadth of the children’s experiences and the improvements of their attainments. The children generally achieve satisfactory standards across the curriculum which are in line with their abilities.

2.15The principal has been in post for just over two years. She is very hard-working, caring, committed to the school and has overseen a number of very significant curricular and organisational changes which have improved the quality of the school provision. The principal has provided dynamic leadership in identifying, with the staff, priorities for development. The staff are aware of the areas of the curriculum which need to be reviewed and developed further; these have been included in the school development plan.

2.16The teachers would benefit from more opportunities to discuss and share the considerable good practice which exists within the school. It will be important to sustain the improvement which has taken place in the school provision in recent years and to develop further, a collegial approach to curriculum development and to the promotion of improved attainments for the children. The teachers give generously of their time, interests and expertise to organise a range of school activities and sports.

2.17The school has many strengths including the caring ethos, the generally well-behaved and friendly children, the commitment of the teachers to the children’s well-being and education, the support of the parents, the broad curriculum, the extra curricular activities and the leadership of the principal. The report has identified a number of issues which need to be addressed if the school is to meet, more consistently, the needs of all of the children. These issues include the review and development of some important areas of the curriculum, further development of the teachers’ planning across the primary years which identifies, consistently, the intended learning outcomes for the children, more sharply focused education plans of support for children with learning difficulties and greater rigour in some of the teaching and in the marking of the children’s work.

3.THE QUALITY OF THE CHILDREN’S WORK

3.1ETHOS

3.1.1The teachers have created a bright and stimulating learning environment in the school. There are many attractive and stimulating displays of photographs and the children’s previous and current work across the curriculum in the corridors and classrooms.

3.1.2The teachers are committed to the well-being and education of the children; they work hard to provide them with valuable and enjoyable learning experiences. The children benefit from a wide range of activities such as educational visits, extra curricular events and visitors to the classrooms.

3.1.3The children generally behave well and enjoy school; they are friendly and welcoming and they settle quickly to complete the tasks which they are set. A small minority of the children are restless and display, on occasions, emotional and behavioural difficulties; the staff are sympathetic to their needs. The school promotes good behaviour by acknowledging the achievements of the children through its award system. The homework and holiday clubs have been valuable in supporting the children’s learning and self-esteem.

3.1.4The school is held in high esteem by the local community. The principal and staff appreciate the good levels of support and involvement of the parents in fund-raising and in assisting the children with aspects of their learning. The parents receive an annual written report and they have formal and informal opportunities throughout the year to meet the teachers to discuss their children’s progress. The school prepares a termly newsletter to inform the parents and the wider community about the life and work of the school. The parents have contributed generously towards the purchase of additional teaching and learning resources and to particular maintenance and refurbishment projects in the school. The school has taken part in fund-raising for local and national charities and the children have opportunities to visit a residential home for the elderly. The standard of cleaning and caretaking is good.

3.1.5The school’s procedures for Pastoral Care, including Child Protection, are in line with the Department of Education Circular 1999/10.

4.THE QUALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

4.1The teachers have prepared helpful written overviews and comprehensive guidance for English and mathematics which support the teachers’ individual planning for lessons. The school is aware already of the need to review and update its existing whole-school guidance for important areas of the curriculum such as science, art and design, geography and history.

4.2The quality of the teachers’ individual planning varies. In the best practice the planning is comprehensive, with intended learning outcomes for the children identified clearly and the work set within a context of curricular guidance which promotes continuity and progression in the children’s learning. On other occasions, the teachers’ expectations are too low, there is insufficient challenge in some of the work and the pace is too slow. The teachers often work together to plan and review learning and teaching within year groups. The planning generally takes into account the wide range of abilities and needs within each class and much of the work is integrated effectively across the curriculum.

4.3The quality of teaching observed during the inspection varied from that which had some weaknesses to much of the teaching which was good and had significant strengths. The most effective lessons observed were characterised by careful planning which identified clearly the intended learning for the children. The learning was managed well, there was appropriate pace in the work and the children benefited from learning activities which were enjoyable and which were matched closely to their needs and abilities. In a few instances the teachers’ planning did not identify clearly, the intended learning for the children, the pace of the lessons was too slow and the attainments of the children were too low.

4.4A wide range of teaching approaches is used in all of the classes; the children work effectively and collaboratively in groups and independently. The local environment is used well as a context for the children’s learning; the children in year 1, for example visited the local shopping centre to learn about facilities such as the post office. The teachers are aware of the children’s individual strengths and needs; they are generous in their encouragement and support. In many of the classes visited, the teachers used skilful questioning to help the children to organise their ideas, to reason and to offer contributions and opinions. The teachers provide good support for the children to develop their confidence and self-esteem. The ancillary staff make a valuable contribution to the life and work of the school; the classroom assistants interact effectively to support and encourage the children’s learning.

4.5The children in key stage 1 (KS1) participate in regular sessions of play. The resources which are available to promote the children learning are appropriate, and sufficient time is allocated daily to play. The children are encouraged to explore, co-operate and interact in role play activities. They have extensive opportunities to participate in a good range of play activities. In some of the work observed the children concentrated well and the interaction between the adults and the children was good. On other occasions, the children
would have benefited from a more focused approach to their experiences through purposeful activities which had clearly identified learning outcomes in terms of the development of, for example, their social, manipulative, creative and language skills. There is scope for improving the quality of some of the children’s spoken interactions with the teacher, with other adults and with their peers during sessions of structured play.

4.6The recently opened nursery unit is bright and stimulating. During the inspection the children experienced a good range of interesting and stimulating activities which are contributing to their curiosity, manipulative and physical skills and their social development. The teacher and nursery assistant are hard-working, enthusiastic and very caring and sensitive to the individual needs and development of the children. The children are very much at ease, they enjoy the activities and derive considerable benefit from the valuable experiences of the nursery programme.

4.7Twenty-two children from the Traveller community are integrated well and participate fully in the life of the school. Appropriate withdrawal and in-class support are provided as required; this support is conducted in a sensitive, well-organised manner and is of significant benefit to the children.

4.8The use of information communications technology (ICT) as a learning resource within the school is at an early stage of development. The recent purchase of modern equipment with the generous assistance of funding provided by the Parents’ Support Group, has helped to improve the children’s access to computers. In addition, the children also have opportunities to use the computers in the homework club which takes place after school. There is, however, no whole-school programme for the development of the children’s ICT skills and their experience of using the computer varies. Most of the children have opportunities to word-process some of their work and many of the older children are able to change fonts and print size and to edit text efficiently. Apart from word-processing, the computer is used for work in mathematics to consolidate table facts and to improve skill in recognising shapes and their properties. Art packages are also used to develop the children’s creativity and control of the mouse. There is limited opportunity to work with simple databases and graphical packages and too few occasions when the children use the computer for personal research to support class topics and themes. The school has recently acquired a digital camera and the staff are beginning to make good use of it to record educational visits and school events. The school co-ordinator for ICT has prepared recently, a baseline position outlining priorities for development and an audit of the in-service needs of the staff.

4.9Health education is integrated successfully into the planning for learning across the curriculum. The teachers emphasise the importance of the need for a healthy diet, exercise, personal well-being and safety, in contexts such as science and physical education. Examples of the children’s work in relation to health education are displayed in many of the classrooms.