Downshire Primary School Hillsborough

Overview

This report details a Sustaining Improvement Inspection conducted in January 2017, following a previous evaluation of the school as “good”. Due to industrial action involving “non-co-operation” by teaching staff, the Education and Training Inspectorate was unable to fully evaluate the quality of education. Consequently, the inspectorate states it is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of the education being provided for the children.”

Strengths

• The principal reported evidence of progress in addressing the area for improvement identified in the original 2014 inspection.
• The school demonstrated a “sharper, more collegial approach to self-evaluation.”
• The school provided evidence that arrangements for safeguarding continue to “reflect the guidance issued by the relevant Departments.”

Areas to improve

• The report states the ETI was unable to evaluate whether the school had addressed the need to “monitor and evaluate rigorously the quality of learning and teaching” to ensure consistency and raise standards.
• The inspectorate could not assess the quality of work in children’s books, the quality of learning and teaching within the classroom, or the effectiveness of coordinators.

Safeguarding

The school provided evidence that arrangements for safeguarding continue to “reflect the guidance issued by the relevant Departments.”