St Mary's-on-the-Hill Primary School

Overview

This report details a sustaining improvement inspection conducted in October 2019, which was significantly limited by industrial action. Because teaching staff did not co-operate with the inspection team, the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) was unable to evaluate key aspects of the school’s performance. Consequently, the ETI states it is “unable to assure parents/carers, the wider school community and stakeholders of the quality of education being provided for the children.”

Strengths

• Senior leadership co-operated with the inspection team regarding their safeguarding responsibilities.
• The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education.”
• Children report that they “feel safe in the school” and are aware of procedures if they have safety concerns.

Areas to improve

• The school needs to “continue to update and rationalise the suite of safeguarding policies to reflect the Department of Education’s guidance and current school practice.”
• The ETI was unable to evaluate the quality of learning and teaching or the school’s capacity for improvement due to non-co-operation.

Safeguarding

The report states 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” owing to the industrial action.