Round Tower Integrated Primary School

Overview

This Sustaining Improvement Inspection was conducted in February 2018, focusing on the school’s capacity for self-evaluation and improvement in mathematics. Due to industrial action involving non-cooperation by a majority of teachers, the inspectorate could not fully evaluate the quality of education or safeguarding arrangements. Consequently, the report states that the ETI is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children.”

Strengths

• The school development plan has successfully prioritised improvements in mathematics, with internal data indicating that “almost all of the children make progress as expected.”
• In the most effective practice, teachers’ planning outlines “appropriately personalised learning and teaching strategies” with differentiation implemented during lessons.
• The most able Year 7 children “apply mathematical logic to deconstruct problems” and report that they “enjoy solving problems in numeracy.”

Areas to improve

• The use of mathematical vocabulary during explanations by the most able children “requires further development.”
• The school needs to demonstrate the extent of children’s application of problem-solving skills in mathematics across all classrooms, which could not be fully evaluated during this inspection.

Safeguarding

The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education,” and Year 6 pupils reported feeling safe and knowing who to talk to, though the ETI was unable to fully evaluate the outworking of these arrangements due to the industrial action.