St Patrick's Academy

Overview

This sustaining improvement inspection was conducted while teaching unions were engaged in industrial action, meaning only the senior leadership team cooperated with inspectors. Consequently, the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) states it is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children.” The report notes that the previous inspection evaluated the school as “very good,” but current evaluations are limited by the lack of full staff cooperation.

Strengths

• The data manager has “collated and analysed a wide range of internal and external data” to track pupil progress and monitor intervention strategies.
• The proportion of pupils attaining five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English and mathematics, is “in line with the Northern Ireland (NI) average for similar schools.”
• Pupils spoke “supportively of their teachers” and the intervention strategies used to progress their learning.
• Pupils reported that they “feel safe, secure and happy in school” and know what to do if they have concerns about their well-being.

Areas to improve

• The school needs to “develop further the effective use of performance data to inform practice and to modify pedagogy.”
• The school must “raise standards at key stage 4 and post-16,” as attainment at these levels is currently below the NI average for similar schools.
• A minority of pupils indicated they would like “more individual support in class” for topics they found difficult.

Safeguarding

The report states that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education,” though the ETI was unable to fully evaluate their outworking due to the industrial action.