St Mary's Primary School

Overview

This Sustaining Improvement Inspection was conducted in September 2017, following a previous evaluation of "good" in 2014. Due to industrial action involving "non-co-operation with the Education and Training Inspectorate," the inspection was limited in scope. Consequently, the report states the ETI is "unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children."

Strengths

• Curriculum leaders for literacy and numeracy demonstrate "skilful, well-informed" strategic leadership that is "impacting positively on the outcomes for the children."
• School leadership and coordinators "monitor, evaluate and analyse effectively a wide range of performance data" to identify underachievement and set individual targets.
• Data is used "rigorously" to track progress and provide "appropriate interventions," resulting in "progressive improvement in the children’s outcomes."

Areas to improve

• The report identifies no specific areas for improvement, as the inspection focused on capacity for self-evaluation rather than prescribing changes.
• The ETI was "unable to evaluate... the quality of the learning and teaching within the classrooms" due to the lack of teacher cooperation.

Safeguarding

The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements "reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education," and children reported feeling safe; however, the ETI was "unable to evaluate fully the outworking of the arrangements" due to the industrial action.