BASIC INFORMATION SHEET (BIS) - PRIMARY SCHOOLS

A. i. School: King’s Park Primary iii.Date of Inspection: 21 February 2000
Newtownabbey (Week beginning)

ii. School Reference Number: 301-0880iv.Nature of Inspection: GENERAL

B.

School Year / 1995/96 / 1996/97 / 1997/98 / 1998/99 / 1999/2000
Year 1 Intake / 62 / 61 / 51 / 62 / 52
Enrolments
Primary / 415 / 406 / 397 / 402 / 400
Reception / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
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):93.58%

Primary &NurserySpecial

Reception Unit Unit

D. i.Number of Teachers
(including the principal and part-time teachers):16.8--
(Full-time equivalent = 25 teaching hours)

ii.PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio):23.8 NI PTR: 19.9

iii.Average Class Size:28.6

iv.Class Size (Range):24 to 31

v.Ancillary Support:
Number of Hours Per Week: i.Clerical support:30

ii. Official Making A Good40

Start Support:
iii. Making A Good Start funding12

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:0

viii. Number of families in school:284

ix.Percentage of children entitled to free school meals:15.5%

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1King’s Park Primary School is situated off the Doagh Road in Newtownabbey. It draws almost all of its pupils from the nearby estates of public and private housing; a small number of pupils travel to the school from near Ballyclare and Carrickfergus. In recent years, there has been a stable enrolment of around 400. Approximately 16% of the children are entitled to free school meals. The school identifies about 14% of the children as requiring special help with their learning.

1.2As part of the inspection process, the parents’ views on aspects of the life and work of the school were sought by means of a questionnaire. Members of the inspection team also met with governors, parents and groups of children to hear their views at first-hand. The children indicated that they feel happy and secure in the school. The governors were strongly supportive of the work of the school; the vast majority of the parents’ responses indicated a positive view of the school. Particular mention was made of the caring ethos, a view endorsed by the inspection team.

1.3Recently, there has been an unsettled period in staffing. At the time of the inspection, five teachers were on long-term absence from the school; one teacher had been re-deployed and five temporary teachers were in post.

2.SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

2.1The school has a caring atmosphere and enjoys the interest and support of its community. The staff are hard-working and concerned for the children’s welfare and development; they have good relationships with the children. A wide range of extra-curricular activities extends the children’s experiences.

2.2The children are pleasant and friendly; most are interested in learning and are willing to co-operate with their teachers and classmates. Where their learning is well managed they respond with enthusiasm and sustained attention; on other occasions many of the children become unsettled in class or unduly dependent on their teachers.

2.3Planning at whole school level is under developed. There is a need to ensure that the children’s work is sufficiently in line with the requirements of the Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC), and that there is consistent progression and coherence in the children’s experiences and their learning across the seven years. The teachers have made progress in developing aspects of their shorter-term planning which now focuses helpfully on the intended learning outcomes for the children. In other important respects these planners are insufficiently detailed.

2.4The teachers prepare conscientiously for individual lessons. The quality of teaching varies from fair to excellent; it is generally satisfactory and, on occasions, is good. Some teaching is well focused, structured and paced, uses a good range of teaching strategies, has appropriately high expectations of the children, and stimulates and sustains the children’s interest. These features are not sufficiently consistent across the school, and the extent to which the children engage in their learning varies widely.

2.5The teachers mark the children’s written work regularly, and, in the best practice observed, annotated it with personalised comments indicating how the work had or could be improved. In some instances, however, the marking lacks rigour or does not deal adequately with the children’s errors.

2.6By the end of year 7, most of the children reach satisfactory standards in the basic skills of literacy and numberwork. However, they have insufficient opportunities to develop other key skills, such as, investigating, applying their knowledge, and tackling problems.

2.7The principal has initiated a number of useful changes to support the school’s work; curriculum development, however, needs to proceed with greater pace and effect. The school is aware that the teachers’ co-ordinating and management roles need to be clarified and developed further to give stronger curriculum leadership and that a more comprehensive strategy for monitoring and evaluating the children’s work needs to be implemented.

2.8The school is characterised by its caring atmosphere, committed and hard-working staff, pleasant children who are willing to learn and to co-operate, some good teaching and the range of extra-curricular provision. This report has identified issues which the school needs to address, if the school is to meet, more consistently, the needs of all the children. Theseissues include the need for more detailed whole-school and individual planning for consistent progression in learning, a broadening of teaching strategies to improve the range and quality of the children’s learning, more vigorous and effective management of curriculum development, and more effective strategies to monitor and evaluate the children’s work.

3.ETHOS

3.1The teachers, who are committed and hard-working, know the children and their families well. They are concerned for the children’s welfare and development and create a happy and caring atmosphere in the school; relationships between the teachers and the children are generally very good.

3.2The children are pleasant and friendly; most are keen to learn and to talk about their work. They are willing to co-operate with their teachers and with each other. Where their learning was observed to be well managed they responded with interest and enthusiasm; in a significant minority of classes, many of the children were unsettled. A number of the older children have been given responsibilities, for example, during lunch-time in the dining and play areas.

3.3There is a wide variation in the quality of display in the classrooms and public areas, ranging from those which provide a stimulating and attractive learning environment to those which do not reflect or celebrate the children’s achievements sufficiently.

3.4The school broadens the children’s experiences through a good range of extra curricular activities including day and residential visits, both locally and further afield. The children have various contacts with other schools; the school reports considerable success in competitions. In addition, the children are made aware of the needs of others, through, for example, their support for charitable causes and involvement in events in the local community.

3.5The school provides regular information to parents about school events and arrangements which affect their children through, for example, the monthly news-sheet. The parents are welcome in the school; the school reports that they are supportive of special events such as school performances and the carol service. The Parents’ Support Group organises other social and fund-raising events and a small number of parents help in the school library.

3.6The school is working appropriately towards a position which is in line with the guidance in the Department of Education Circular 1999/10, "Pastoral Care in Schools: Child Protection". The procedures for dealing with child protection and related issues are set out clearly in the school’s policy document. The teaching staff and the majority of ancillary staff have received appropriate training in this area. The school is aware that not all of the ancillary staff have received training in child protection matters and that procedures for vetting need to be developed and implemented.

4.QUALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

4.1There is insufficient whole school planning to guide the teachers in implementing progressively and coherently the respective programmes of study across the seven years and to support the systematic development of the children’s various skills; appropriate schemes of work need to be developed urgently. The teachers have worked together well, within year groups, to develop their half-termly planning which now places a helpful focus on the identification of intended learning outcomes for the children. In general, these planners do not provide sufficient detail on the teaching strategies, learning experiences and assessment methods to be used or how the teachers are to take appropriate account of the children’s differing needs and abilities.

4.2The teachers prepare conscientiously for individual lessons. The quality of teaching varies from fair to excellent; it is generally satisfactory and on occasions good. In the best practice observed the teaching was well focused, structured and paced, used a good range of teaching strategies, had appropriately high expectations of the children, and stimulated and sustained the children’s interest. By contrast, too often the teaching lacked flair and appropriate challenge, employed a narrow range of teaching approaches, and lessons were either insufficiently well managed or overly directed. As a consequence, the children were not sufficiently engaged in their learning, and many became unsettled, inattentive or unduly dependent on their teachers.

4.3By the end of year 7, most of the children reach satisfactory standards in the basic skills of literacy and numberwork. However, they have insufficient opportunities to develop other key skills, such as, investigating, applying their knowledge, and tackling problems.

4.4The teachers mark the children’s written work regularly, and, in the best practice observed, annotated it with personalised comments indicating how the work had or could be improved further. In some instances, the marking lacks rigour or does not deal adequately with the children’s errors.

4.5The school has identified information and communication technology (ICT) as a priority for development and a teacher has been trained to lead this work. The school has yet to carry out a systematic audit of its provision and training needs, and should move more quickly towards drawing up an action plan. There is some evidence that the children use computers in various ways, such as for word-processing, developing early mathematical concepts, drawing graphs and carrying out research. Nevertheless, the use of ICT to enhance the children’s learning is under developed. A useful range of social, sporting and curricular links has been established with a number of schools, some of which relate to the themes of education for mutual understanding and cultural heritage. The school has begun to use morning assembly to celebrate the diverse nature of the children’s cultural backgrounds.

4.6The teachers of special educational needs (SEN) have compiled a register of those children identified to be in need of additional help with aspects of language and mathematics. In addition, they have drawn up education plans in consultation with the class teachers and involved the children’s parents in reviewing their progress. Within the plans, some of the diagnoses and evaluations of the children’s difficulties and their associated learning targets are particularly detailed; others, especially in mathematics, lack consistent precision and need to be matched more specifically to the children’s needs. The teachers provide regular withdrawal learning support for 54 children in group sessions, including one child whose first language is not English. The language support sessions take place in a stimulating learning environment, and are well-prepared and resourced; the children respond positively to and progress well in a suitable and integrated range of activities. Sessions observed in mathematics were conducted sensitively, and games and practical activities were used appropriately. The school has no special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) at present. The review of this key aspect of the school’s provision will need to include cohesion in planning for SEN learning, ongoing recording of progress, and the size of certain withdrawal groups.

4.7Structured play is part of the curriculum in years 1-3. The provision and planning for play lack coherence and need to be reviewed and co-ordinated more effectively. In the sessions observed, the teachers provided a range of activities, making good use of the space available; the younger children were able to exercise some choice in their play. Most of the children engaged in their activities with interest, sustained their concentration and subsequently helped to tidy up effectively. The adults generally provided good oral support for the children, and in one lesson, some children had the opportunity to talk to their peers about what they had done. Clearer systems need to be developed to ensure that the children have sufficient breadth in their experiences and appropriate progression in their learning.

5.AREAS OF STUDY

5.1CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE

5.1.1Many of the activities in art and design are well integrated to work in other subjects, for example, year 3 children produced good quality representational drawings of artefacts to support work carried out in history lessons, and year 7 children applied principles of measurement and proportion in a suitably ambitious lesson on figure drawing. In contrast, there are too many instances of the children being confined to completing discrete tasks which do not build on previous learning or contribute to their progression. In general, the teachers’ expectations of the children were too low and the work set is insufficiently challenging. In the best practice seen the children were encouraged to study the work of artists in order to develop their appreciation of technical skill and to stimulate discussion about their own work. Too often the children undertake tasks which do not provide sufficient opportunity to make choices regarding, for example, the selection of media or scale. There are too few opportunities for the children to view at first hand the work of artists or designers or to work with practising artists.

5.1.2In music the teachers make good use of the available resources. Across the year groups the children sing together and from year 4 onwards all children have the opportunity to learn to play the recorder. Effective use is made of percussion to explore sound and to develop a sense of rhythm. There are too few opportunities for the children to create and record their own compositions and to become involved in creative music making. The choir and the orchestra make a valuable contribution to the life of the school and to the wider community; they perform regularly at school assemblies and also in public venues. A number of the children receive instrumental tuition from the North Eastern Education and Library Board’s (NEELB) peripatetic music service.

5.1.3 In physical education (PE), the children respond enthusiastically to a range of activities which includes athletics, gymnastics, dance, games and swimming. In the best lessons observed, the children changed for PE, listened attentively and carried out the teacher’s instructions carefully and with a clear sense of enjoyment. In the majority of lessons there are insufficient opportunities for the children to plan, perform and evaluate their own and each others work or to work creatively in groups. The children work towards awards in swimming and athletics and have been successful in various local sporting competitions.

5.2ENGLISH

5.2.1The children are keen to contribute to discussions with their teachers and, when given the opportunity, interact well with one another. The most effective oral activities observed during the inspection included structured whole-class questioning which extended the children’s understanding, and the use of visual aids to stimulate imaginative discussion in small groups; the quality of oral participation and interaction on such occasions was very good. Too often, however, there is insufficient focus on the promotion of effective oral communication across the curriculum; the teachers need to develop strategies to extend the range and quality of the children’s participative language skills.

5.2.2The school has made good progress this year in extending the range of the children’s reading activities; the structured reading scheme is now complemented by the introduction of group novels at the end of key stage 1 (KS1); the children are beginning to take an interest in and benefit from a greater range of reading experiences and challenges, including opportunities to research information. Some of the teachers have begun to produce differentiated activities to accompany group novels and to promote the children’s writing skills; this approach should be extended to all classes. In the majority of lessons seen, the teachers organised and taught reading efficiently; they should also focus on developing greater expression in the children’s reading.