CONTENTS
SectionPage
STATISTICAL INFORMATION
1.INTRODUCTION1
2.THE QUALITY OF THE CHILDREN’S WORK1
3.CONCLUSION5
4.THE NURSERY UNIT7
STATISTICAL INFORMATION (NURSERY UNIT)9
APPENDIX10
BASIC INFORMATION SHEET (BIS) - PRIMARY SCHOOLS
A. i. School: Comber Primary iii. Date of Inspection: W/B 06.02.06
ii.School Reference Number: 401-1588 iv. Nature of Inspection: Focused/Maths
and ICT
B.
School Year / 2001/02 / 2002/03 / 2003/04 / 2004/05 / 2005/06Year 1 Intake / 50 / 54 / 45 / 51 / 24
Enrolments
Primary / 340 / 350 / 344 / 346 / 311
Reception / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Nursery Class/Classes / 52 / 52 / 52 / 53 / 52
Special Unit / 0 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0
The enrolment for the current year is the figure on the day of notification of inspection.
For previous years it is the figure in the annual return to the Department of Education.
The calculations at C and D should be based on the total of the primary and reception enrolments only.
C.Average Attendance for the Previous School Year
(expressed as a percentage):95.2%
Primary &NurserySpecial Reception Unit Unit
D. i.Number of Teachers
(including the principal and part-time teachers):15.810
(Full-time equivalent = 25 teaching hours)
ii.PTR (Pupil/Teacher Ratio):19.68 NI PTR: 20.0
iii.Average Class Size:23.92
iv.Class Size (Range):22 to 26
v.Ancillary Support:
Number of Hours Per Week: i.Clerical support:35
ii. Official Making A Good
Start Support: 15
iii. Additional hours of other
classroom assistant support:20
vi.Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs:0.6
vii.Number of children who are not of statutory school age:0
viii. Percentage of children entitled to free school meals:14%
1.INTRODUCTION
1.1Comber Primary School is located on an elevated site close to the centre of Comber. The children come mainly from within the town and represent a wide range of backgrounds and abilities; approximately 14% of them are entitled to free school meals. Apart from a slight decline in admissions for the current year, the enrolment for the four previous years was fairly stable.
1.2Prior to the inspection, a sample of the parents received a confidential questionnaire seeking their views about the life and work of the school; 50% of the questionnaires were completed and returned to the Department of Education (DE); in addition, 23 parents submitted written comments. Almost all of the written responses were highly positive about the work of the school. The governors expressed their confidence in the school and they referred particularly to the links with parents and the quality of the relationships throughout the school. The group of year 6 children who met with the inspection team reported that they felt happy and secure, and knew where to seek help if they had a concern. The very few concerns raised by the parents have been discussed with the governors and with the Principal and are addressed in the body of the report.
1.3The inspection focused on the work in mathematics, information and communication technology (ICT) and the school’s arrangements for pastoral care, including child protection.
2.THE QUALITY OF THE CHILDREN’S WORK
2.1The school provides a caring, supportive and welcoming environment. The children are friendly and polite to visitors, and are keen to talk about their learning. Relationships and behaviour are very good, there are well-established work routines and the children settle readily to their work. When given the opportunity to work in pairs or in small groups, the children co-operate well with one another. Good use is made of corridors and classrooms to celebrate the children’s work and achievements. There are many bright and colourful displays depicting aspects of school life. The children enjoy a varied programme of extra-curricular activities.
2.2The school places a strong emphasis on pastoral care and there is a range of policies in place and others being updated currently which inform and guide the work of the school in relation to the pastoral care programme and child protection procedures. The school has consulted with children, parents and staff in the development of positive behaviour and anti-bullying policies. A reward system acknowledges positive behaviour as well as the children’s efforts and attainments. The well-organised ‘buddy’ system contributes significantly to the personal and social development of the older children. A healthy-eating programme is in place in years 1-3 and the staff have identified appropriately the need to develop this across the school. The designated teacher is aware of her responsibilities in relation to pastoral care and child protection and has carried out relevant training with the teaching and support staff. The school has produced a useful summary of the procedures for reporting a complaint or query in conjunction with the child protection matters. While information is sent to the parents regularly, the school is aware of the need to communicate this information more effectively and ensure that all parents receive the relevant procedures for child protection. The school has procedures in place whichenable the staff to implement the guidance outlined in DE Circular 1999/10, ‘Pastoral Care in Schools: Child Protection’ and in DE Circular 2003/13, ‘Welfare and Protection of Pupils Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order’and has identifiedappropriate areas for further development within its pastoral programme.
2.3There is a strong sense of community within the school and the parents are encouraged to become involved in school events and in supporting their children’s learning. The school values the work of the Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA); the recent addition of a plasma screen to the school foyer and the purchase of mathematics materials and equipment are examples of the very considerable, additional resources made available through fund-raising.
2.4The quality of teaching observed during the inspection was always satisfactory, frequently good and on occasions excellent. In the best practice, there was effective planning for learning which was matched to the children’s ability; the learning objectives were clearly shared with the children at the beginning and consolidated at the end. These lessons were well-paced with appropriate use of language and questions that challenged the children to develop their learning.
2.5A strong culture of team-work has been established; the teachers have worked together effectively to prepare comprehensive, whole-school schemes of work for mathematics and ICT. These schemes have provided valuable guidance to inform the teachers’ long- and medium-term planning. Some teachers develop these general topics from the overall scheme of work into short-term planning for lessons. The staff should consider how the medium-term planning might be developed further so that it informs and guides more effectively the day-to-day work of each class and helps the management and staff of the school to monitor and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the learning and teaching.
2.6The children are motivated, and responsive; they show good levels of perseverance with the activities they are set. Their oral skills are well developed and they are confident and willing to offer information, opinions and solutions to problems in contexts across the curriculum.
2.7The children’s work is marked regularly and supportively. In the best practice, the teachers mark and annotate the children’s work, indicating the standards achieved and how, if necessary, the work could be improved.
2.8The school compiles and maintains comprehensive central records on all of the children which include the data gained from standardised tests, the results from end of key stage assessments and copies of end of year reports. Increasingly, the analysis of this information is helping the school to track the children’s progress and improved standards of attainment.
2.9Information and communication technology is, identified appropriately, in the school development plan (SDP) as a whole-school priority to promote and support learning and teaching throughout the school. In addition to the computers in each classroom, the school has made good use of the computer suite to enable the children to access and use the computer during timetabled sessions for individual classes. Almost all of the teachers have successfully completed their New Opportunities Funding (NOF) ICT training. The teachers are becoming more confident and competent in evaluating the new Curriculum 2000 (C2k) software and integrating it into aspects of their six-week planning. Over the past three years the school has benefited from funding provided through the South-Eastern Education and Library Board’s (SEELB) Dissemination of Good Practice initiative. This has facilitated the release of the ICT co-ordinator to provide support for the teachers, to teach full-time in the computer suite, create an informative website and to develop a number of successful e-learning projects. These have been used to promote citizenship, literacy and numeracy throughout the school. As part of the current e-learning citizenship project, “Generations Together” the school has facilitated an enjoyable and informative basic computer course for older members of the community, which is supported by the year 6 children.
2.10The teachers make good use of the data projector to enhance whole-class teaching. The digital camera is used to record and reinforce important aspects of the children’s learning activities and the electronic whiteboard is a valuable teaching resource which engages the children in interactive learning.
2.11In key stage (KS) 1, the children have opportunities for word-processing and they apply suitable software programs to analyse and display their results from investigations, projects and class surveys. The children can create two-dimensional (2D) and 3D pictures with suitable drawing software and they use educational games to consolidate aspects of their learning in literacy, numeracy and science. The work at this level includes good opportunities for the children to communicate through email, to use suitable Internet sites to complete guided research topics and to use desktop publishing software. By the end of KS2 the majority of children have acquired a useful range of ICT skills. The school is making good use of the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) KS2 Scheme of Information Technology Accreditation as an appropriate means of external assessment.
2.12The ICT co-ordinator provides effective leadership. Through the process of self-evaluation she has identified priority areas for development which the inspection endorses.
2.13The children in years 1-3 benefit from some opportunities to learn through play. At times the skilful intervention of the teacher and support staff helps to develop and extend the children’s language. The school is aware already of the need to develop a progressive programme of learning through play which will ensure that the children have access to a range of broad experiences and resources throughout the key stage which reflects all areas of the curriculum. This area for development has been identified in the SDP.
2.14Over the past three years, mathematics has been has identified as a major area for improvement in the SDP and actions plans have been drawn up to guide the improvement of work in all classes. A new whole-school mathematics scheme has been prepared and mental mathematics and ICT have been incorporated into the medium-term planning. The overall school policy for mathematics has been reviewed and updated to guide the learning and teaching across the school. The school received valuable support from SEELB through the Northern Ireland Numeracy Strategy (NINS) initiative and from school-based in-service training (INSET) sessions. There is appropriate emphasis in all classes on the development of the children’s mental mathematics skills and on the promotion of problem-solving strategies. The school is aware of the need to develop further, a more consistent evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of the learning and teaching in each class, and within and across each key stage.
2.15The co-ordinator has provided effective leadership for the development of the mathematics curriculum. Standardised tests scores are reviewed and analysed annually and the co-ordinator prepares an annual report on the work in mathematics across the school.
2.16The childrenexperience a broad and balanced mathematics curriculum, including mental mathematics sessions and problem-solving tasks which encourage them to use and apply mathematical knowledge and processes. The children enjoy mathematics and a feature of the mathematics sessions is the use of oral work to develop their understanding of important mathematical knowledge and processes. The teachers interact with the children and use a range of helpful questioning strategies to develop the children’s mathematical skills, knowledge, understanding and mathematical language. Computer software programmes and mathematical games are used increasingly to support and consolidate the children’s learning, for example in number, time, shape and working with data.
2.17In the early years and across KS1, the children’s early mathematical concepts are developed, consolidated and extended through a range of purposeful oral, practical and written activities. The children match, sort, measure and record competently; they understand basic concepts of number, shape and space and gathering and analysing data and information. In all of the classrooms there are examples of the children’s work on display, as well as information and mathematical language charts, number lines and other resources to stimulate discussion and curiosity. By the end of KS1, the children have a good understanding of important mathematical concepts, information and processes.
2.18The children in KS2 are developing good flexibility in thinking and reasoning, particularly in problem-solving contexts. They plan and co-operate effectively in small groups and they are developing good independence and maturity in their thinking and work. The children have a sound understanding of number, place value and mathematical processes; they are developing skills of estimation and measurement, they identify the attributes of 2D and 3D shapes, measure accurately and display and present information and findings in a variety of forms.
2.19The standards achieved by the children across the school have improved. By the end of each key stage, they achieve good standards in their work.
2.20The Principal has been in post for 14 years; he is committed to the school, is very supportive of the children’s education and promotes high standards in attainment across the school. He sets a very positive tone for the work of the school and has established a strong sense of school identity among the children, teachers, parents and governors. The Principal has overseen important improvements to the school premises, for example the new library and games pitch and significant curricular development, such as in mathematics, ICT and pastoral care. In addition, he has encouraged the professional development of the staff, particularly new teachers to the school. The Principal is supported well by the Vice-principal, by the staff, the parents and the governors. The teachers are very supportive of one another, for example the teacher tutor provides effective guidance for the beginning and less experienced teachers in the school.
2.21Important links have been established with the Education and Library Board (ELB), with the school Board of Governors (BoG), the community and outside agencies; these have enabled the school to set curriculum initiatives in place and to improve the facilities for the children.
2.22The Principal has allocated main curricular responsibilities to many of the teachers. The work of co-ordinating these areas needs to be developed further to ensure that the quality of the children’s learning experiences and attainments are reviewed, monitored and evaluated on a more regular basis.
2.23The school has identified 61 children who require additional support with aspects of their learning. Detailed educational plans are informed by the analysis of the diagnostic testing and by the class teachers’ assessment of the children’s difficulties. The testing is carried out by the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) who is also very effective in monitoring the children’s progress. The SENCO provides additional, literacy support in withdrawal sessions where the children learn in a caring and purposeful environment. They respond well to the good quality support which is provided by the SENCO and the ongoing support provided by the class teachers.
2.24There are procedures in place to record the children’s progress and to communicate the outcomes to the parents. Each year the parents receive a detailed written report and there are suitable arrangements during the year for parent-teacher consultations.
2.25The INSET courses attended by the co-ordinators and staff have influenced positively major areas of the curriculum, for example mathematics, ICT and pastoral care. The teachers report that they have benefited from enriched teaching strategies and a broader range of learning experiences for the children.
2.26The school buildings are maintained to a high standard. In KS1, the size of the classrooms restricts, at times, the range of experiences the children have, particularly in practical learning activities.