Fui - St Therese's Ps, Lenamore, Londonderry

Father Bryan McCanny

Chairperson of Board of Governors

St Therese’s Primary School

Heather Road East

Lenamore

Galliagh

LONDONDERRY

BT48 8NXJune 2000

Dear Father McCanny

FOLLOW-UP TO THE FOCUSED INSPECTION OF

StTherese’s Primary School, Lenamore, Londonderry

The focused inspection of St Therese’s Primary School highlighted strengths in:

• the positive ethos of the school;

• the friendly and caring relationships which existed at all levels;

• the well-behaved children; the extent to which they co-operated willingly with their teacher;

• the stimulating and supportive learning environment created for the children;

• the strong sense of team work amongst the staff; the extent to which the teachers were conscientious and committed to their work;

• the sound links which had been developed with the parents;

• the principal’s strong commitment to the care and support of the children;

• the effective support for the principal provided by the school’s two vice principal’s and the other members of the senior management team;

• the librarian’s significant contribution to the quality of teaching and learning in all year groups.

and identified the need for improvement in the following key areas:

• the need to review the deployment of staff in order to address the large size of some of the classes and to give additional support to the children; and

• the need to develop further the arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the curricular provision, the effectiveness of the teaching and the standards the children attain.

In the period since the inspection, the following changes which affect the work of the school have taken place:

• The school has had an unprecedented number of teachers absent on long term illness this year, including the absence of the co-ordinators for English, information and communication technology (ICT) and geography; the principal was also absent for almost all of the autumn term. The co-ordinator for art and design has taken early retirement.

• One teacher obtained a training place on the Reading Recovery programme.

The Education and Training Inspectorate carried out a follow-up inspection on May 15th and 16th2000.

The following are the most important improvements which have been implemented since the focused inspection:

• The quality of the teaching has improved;

• Class sizes have been reduced, notably in years 1 and 2 and year 7;

• ICT is integrated more effectively into the teaching and learning;

• Staff development, notably in the promotion of the children’s independent writing skills and in ICT has contributed to children’s learning;

• The quality of the work in history and geography, as evidenced by the classroom displays and the content of children’s books, is improved;

• The mathematics co-ordinator has worked closely with her key stage2 colleagues to develop further mathematical investigations and opportunities for the children to record and interrogate data in contexts which are relevant to their experiences;

• The children have developed further their writing skills through personal writing in aspects of the curriculum such as geography, history and religious education;

• There is greater consistency in the marking of the children’s written work;

• The role of subject co-ordinator has been developed more effectively;

• The continued effective management of the school in the absence (through illness) of the principal and several key members of staff during the current academic year;

• The more rigorous procedures for monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching and learning.

The school has made good progress in addressing the key areas for action. The parents and broader community can have confidence in the school’s commitment to improvement.

Yours sincerely

T J Shaw CBE

Chief InspectorccMr J Friel

Principal

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