St Mary's High School

Overview

This Sustaining Improvement Inspection was conducted during industrial action, meaning only the senior leadership team cooperated with inspectors. Consequently, the Education and Training Inspectorate states it is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the pupils.” The report notes that full evaluation of teaching and safeguarding was not possible due to this limited cooperation.

Strengths

• The senior leadership team leads “well-focused, continuing improvement work” with a central focus on pupils’ needs.
• The school maintains an “embedded, robust culture of self-evaluation” and a “well-tailored staff development programme.”
• Pupils demonstrate a “positive attitude to learning” and spoke with “enthusiasm” about their enjoyment of subjects.
• Examination results are “outstanding,” with attainment “consistently well above the Northern Ireland average” for similar schools.
• Pupils are “very proud of and loyal to their school,” citing high expectations and extensive extra-curricular opportunities.

Areas to improve

• The report identifies no specific areas for improvement, as the inspection was unable to fully evaluate the impact of actions on learning, teaching, or safeguarding due to industrial action.

Safeguarding

The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance issued by the Department of Education,” and pupils reported feeling safe, though the ETI was “unable to evaluate fully the outworking of the arrangements.”