CONTENTS
SectionPage
1.INTRODUCTION1
2.MAIN FINDINGS2
3.CONCLUSION3
APPENDICES
1.INTRODUCTION
1.1CONTEXT
St Malachy’s High School, a maintained, 11-18 co-educational, non-selective post-primary school is situated in Castlewellan. The enrolment has increased over the last five years and is currently 996 pupils, which includes 55 pupils enrolled in the unit for pupils who have been identified as having moderate learning difficulties. The pupils come from Castlewellan and a wide rural catchment area. Approximately 26% of the pupils are entitled to free school meals and the school has identified that 22% of the pupils in years 8-12 are on the Special Educational Needs Register. Only 11% of the pupils in year 8 achieved grades A to C in the transfer procedure; most of the pupils enrolling choose not to sit the transfer test.
1.2FOCUS
The inspection focused on leadership and management throughout the school, the subjects of geography and careers education and in addition, information and communication technology (ICT) across the curriculum. The school’s provision for pastoral care and the arrangements for child protection were also evaluated.
1.3THE VIEWS OF PARENTS, BOARD OF GOVERNORS (BoG), TEACHERS AND PUPILS
The arrangements for the inspection of pastoral care and child protection included the completion of questionnaires by a sample of the parents, as well as meetings with the Board of Governors (BoG), and with groups of pupils from years 8, 12, 13 and 14. Prior to the inspection, confidential questionnaires were sent to 188 parents and 34% of them returned completed questionnaires; in addition, 16.5% of the parents took the opportunity to write additional comments. Twenty teachers also completed confidential questionnaires. The responses from the questionnaires, and the comments from the parents, governors and teachers, indicated, in almost all cases, strong satisfaction with the work of the school. In particular, they mentioned the high esteem in which the school is held in the local community. The pupils reported that they felt happy and secure in the school. The inspection findings confirm that the confidence expressed in these aspects of the school’s work is well placed. The very few matters raised through the questionnaires were discussed with the Principal and the Governors. The school has procedures in place which implement the guidance outlined in the Department of Education (DE) Circular 1999/10, ‘Pastoral Care in Schools: Child Protection’ and in 2003/13, ‘The Welfare and Protection of Pupils Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order’, and has identified appropriately further areas for development within its pastoral programme.
1.4EXAMINATION RESULTS
St Malachy’s High School enters pupils for a range of vocational and academic courses at key stage 4 (KS4) and post-16. Almost all pupils are entered for five or more subjects at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level. There is a wide variation in the results achieved in public examinations. Over the previous three years, the proportion of pupils achieving at least five subjects at grade C at GCSE level is below the corresponding Northern Ireland (NI) average for similar schools. In 2005, there was a significant improvement in examination results at GCSE level; 43% of the pupils achieved Grades A* to C in at least five GCSE subjects. At post-16 stage, the school offers a variety of vocational and academic curricular pathways. The pupils have a wide choice of subjects at General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced (A) level. Over the last three years, the GCE results are below the NI average. In 2005, there was a significant improvement in the results at GCE A level; 46% of the pupils achieved grades A to C in at least three GCE subjects, and over half of the subjects achieved results above the respective NI averages for all schools.
More details about the examination results are provided in Appendices 3 and 4.
2.MAIN FINDINGS
2.1The strengths of the school include:
- the orderly and friendly atmosphere and the behaviour of the pupils;
- the quality of the working relationships between the teachers and the pupils;
- the hard-working staff;
- the commitment of the staff and the non-teaching staff to the welfare of the pupils;
- the good quality of the pastoral care provided for the pupils;
- the quality of most of the teaching which was satisfactory or better; a significant minority of the lessons observed were good, and on occasions excellent;
- the excellent provision for careers education;
- the effective integration of ICT into teaching and learning across a variety of curricular areas and the very good achievements in ICT shown by the pupils;
- the good quality of leadership provided by the ICT department to supporting the development of ICT across the school and the commitment shown by senior management to supporting and resourcing this area;
- the good quality of the provision in geography and the increasingly effective use of ICT in supporting learning and teaching in this specialist area;
- the leadership of the Principal, who values the pupils as individuals, has high expectations of herself, her staff and pupils and is committed to raising standards across the school; and
- the developing role of the newly formed senior management team (SMT) which has identified appropriately the key areas for improvement and is effectively supporting the Principal in setting targets for the school and raising the quality of the standards achieved by the pupils.
2.2Areas for improvement include the need to:
- continue to improve the standards achieved by the pupils, including standards in public examinations;
- review the school development plan to focus more sharply on learning and teaching, and to ensure the dissemination of the existing good practice within the school; and
- continue to promote a culture of self-evaluation across the school.
3.CONCLUSION
3.1The school has many strengths in the areas under focus. The other areas for improvement need to be addressed if the school is to meet as fully as possible the needs of all the pupils.
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APPENDIX 1
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
1.1 i.School: St Malachy’s High School v.Date of Inspection: W/C 23.01.06
ii. School Reference Number: 423-0211 vi.Area of Study: Standard Inspection
iii.Age Range: 11-18
iv.Status: Secondary Catholic Maintained
1.2Intake/Enrolment
Year 8 Intake / 155 / 181 / 181 / 181 / 173 / 142
Total enrolment / 848 / 914 / 932 / 969 / 994 / 996
1.3Attendance
2004/05 / NI Average
2003/04
% Attendance / 94.5 / 92.2 / 91.9 / 90.7 / 88.7 / 93.4 / 89.6 / 92 / 91
1.4 / i. / Total Number of Teachers: / 73.6 / iii. / Contact ratio (percentage of
timetabled time in direct
class contact): / 81.02
ii. / PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio): / 13.66 / iv. / Numbers of Teachers
involved in Area of Study: / -
Year 2005/06 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / TOTAL
Enrolment: Boys / 80 / 98 / 100 / 98 / 98 / 37 / 15 / 526
Enrolment: Girls / 62 / 75 / 83 / 83 / 83 / 58 / 26 / 470
Enrolment: Total / 142 / 173 / 183 / 181 / 181 / 95 / 41 / 996
PTR / 17.01 / 17.72 / 19 / 16.64 / 18.1 / 15.95 / 9.14
1.5Staying On Rate (2004/05) (Current year 13/14 as proportion of year 12 from 1/2 years previously)
Year 14 / 30.7 / NI Av Year 14 / 21.7
1.6 Leavers Destinations
2004/05 / Year 12 / NI % / Yr 13/14 / NI%
Total Number of Leavers / 94 / 80
Another School / 5% / 8.6 / 0% / 1.4
Employment / 10% / 13.3 / 15% / 21.3
Full-time Further Education / 23% / 33.6 / 21% / 21.3
Full-time Higher Education / N/A / N/A / 45% / 40.5
Full-time Training / 50% / 35.6 / 6% / 5.5
Seeking Employment/Unemployed / 11% / 5.4 / 8% / 6.4
Unknown/Long Term Sick/Pregnant / 1% / 3.5 / 5% / 3.6
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1.7NAME OF SCHOOL: / St Malachy’s High School, Castlewellan / SCHOOL YEAR: / 2005/2006GCSE / 2003 / 2004 / 2005
Percentage of Year 12 taking GCSE in at least 5 subjects / 89 / 97 / 93
Percentage of Year 12 obtaining Grades C or above in at least 5 subjects / 33 / 34 / 43
Percentage of Year 12 obtaining Grades E or above in at least 5 subjects / 61 / 73 / 79
GCE A2 Level or equivalent / 2003 / 2004 / 2005
Percentage of Year 14 obtaining Grades C or above in at least 3 A2 levels / 26 / 29 / 46
Percentage of Year 14 obtaining Grades E or above in at least 2 A2 levels / 81 / 88 / 95
Within this report, when commenting on examination results of individual subjects, the respective CCEA average is used as a proxy for the corresponding average for all pupils in NI taking that subject.
APPENDIX 2
EXAMINATION RESULTS
Table 1 showing the GCE and GGSE subject results over the previous three years ending in June 2005, in comparison with the respective Northern Ireland (NI) averages for selective schools.
More than 10 percentage points above / Between 5 and 10 percentage points above /Within 5 percentage points
/ Between 5 and 10 percentage points below / More than 10 percentage points belowGCSE
A*-E
/ Motor Vehicle Studies* / English, English Literature, History,
Information Technology, Mathematics,
Double Award Science, Sport/PE Studies / Design and Technology, Irish, Music, Spanish / Art and Design,
Business Studies, Drama*, French, Geography,
Home Economics Child Development,
Religious Studies,
Single Award Science
GCE
A Level
A-E / Art and Design, Biology, Design and Technology (New Code),
English Literature, Geography, History, Physics, Politics,
Sport/PE Studies / Religious Studies / Chemistry, Mathematics
*Denotes subjects where the total entry over three years was less then 30.
Table showing the spread of the NI subject averages which have been used in the determination of Table 1.
Table 2
100% - 96% / 95% - 86% / 85% - 76% / 75% - 66% / 65% - 0%GCSE
A*-E / English Literature, Double Award Science 1st Subject, Spanish / Art and Design, Information Technology, Drama, English, History, Home Economics Child Development, Irish, Music,
Single Award Science, Sport/PE Studies / Business Studies,
Design and Technology, French, Geography, Mathematics,
Religious Studies / Motor Vehicle Studies*
GCE
A Level A-E / Art and Design,
Biology, Chemistry, Design and Technology,
English Literature, French, Geography, History, Mathematics, Physics, Politics, Religious Studies, Sport/PE Studies
GNVQ and VCE Results 2003-2005
Intermediate General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) – Percentages of annual entry
2003 / 2004 / 2005Distinction / Merit / Pass / Distinction / Merit / Pass / Distinction / Merit / Pass / Total entry over 3 yrs
Business Studies / 0 / 13 / 75 / 70 / 90 / 90 / 0 / 86 / 100 / 25
Health & Social Care / NE / NE / NE / NE / NE / NE / 29 / 86 / 100 / 7
Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) – Percentages of annual entry
2003 / 2003 / 2004 / 2004 / 2005 / 2005%A-C / %A-E / %A-C / %A-E / %A-C / %A-E / Total entry over 3 yrs
Business (Voc)SA / 18 / 73 / 57 / 100 / 75 / 100 / 26
Business (Voc) DA1 / 75 / 83 / 100 / 100 / 50 / 50 / 20
Business (Voc) DA2 / 50 / 83 / 50 / 100 / 50 / 50 / 20
Health & Social Care SA / 88 / 100 / 90 / 90 / 85 / 100 / 38
Health & Social Care DA1 / NE / NE / 100 / 100 / NE / NE / 7
Health & Social Care DA2 / NE / NE / 86 / 100 / NE / NE / 7
Construction SA / 50 / 50 / 50 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 8
Construction DA / 75 / 100 / NE / NE / NE / NE / 4
Construction DA / 75 / 75 / NE / NE / NE / NE / 4
Leisure & Recreation SA / 56 / 100 / 56 / 100 / 100 / 100 / 24
Information Technology (Voc) SA / 64 / 95 / 100 / 100 / 40 / 75 / 59
NE = no entries
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