St Malachy's Primary School

Overview

This sustaining improvement inspection found that St Malachy’s Primary School has “not demonstrated sufficiently the high level of capacity for sustained improvement.” While the newly appointed principal has developed a compliant school development plan, the report concludes that current evaluation processes do not adequately inform future planning. Consequently, the school’s future inspection arrangements will be adjusted to reflect this finding.

Strengths

• The principal has “consulted widely with the whole school community” to create a new school development plan that is “fully compliant” and “informed by a robust analysis of data.”
• Staff have successfully implemented a new handwriting style and increased children’s awareness of correct grammar and punctuation through proofreading and independent writing.
• There are “more frequent opportunities for the children to engage in problem-solving activities in numeracy.”
• Safeguarding arrangements “continue to reflect the guidance issued by the relevant Departments.”

Areas to improve

• Learning coordinators must “monitor the impact of this school improvement work on the learning, teaching and outcomes for the children,” as current evaluations do not sufficiently inform the next planning cycle.
• Differentiation is “not clear enough in the medium-term planning for both literacy and numeracy.”
• The employing authority, governors, and staff must plan for the “sustainability of the school provision and school budget” to address current and future needs.

Safeguarding

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