Mercy Primary School

Overview

This report details a Sustaining Improvement Inspection conducted in May 2018, noting that the school’s previous evaluation in 2015 rated overall effectiveness as “very good”. However, due to widespread industrial action involving “non-co-operation” by staff, the inspection was severely limited in scope. Consequently, the Education and Training Inspectorate states it is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children”.

Strengths

• A group of year 6 children reported that they “value the extensive range of enrichment activities which help them enjoy their learning in school”.
• The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education”.
• Children reported that they “feel safe and cared for in school” and know who to speak to regarding safety concerns.

Areas to improve

• The report states the ETI was “unable to evaluate fully” the quality of learning and teaching within classrooms due to staff non-cooperation.
• The inspection could not assess the school’s capacity for improvement through self-evaluation or school development planning.
• The school is designated as a “high priority for future inspection with no further notice” to ensure quality assurance.

Safeguarding

The report confirms that while arrangements broadly reflect Departmental guidance and children feel safe, the ETI was “unable to evaluate fully the outworking of the arrangements for safeguarding in the school” due to the industrial action.