Whole School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning REPORT

An Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna Department of Education and Skills Whole School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning REPORT School name Ballinrobe Community School Convent Road School address Roll number Ballinrobe Co Mayo 91462E Date of Evaluation: 18 November 2016

WHAT IS A WHOLE-SCHOOL EVALUATION MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING? Whole-School Evaluations Management, Leadership and Learning report on the quality of teaching and learning and on the quality of management and leadership in a school. They affirm good practice and make recommendations, where appropriate, to aid the further development of educational provision in the school. HOW TO READ THIS REPORT During this inspection, the inspectors evaluated and reported under the following headings or areas of enquiry: 1. Quality of school leadership and management 2. Quality of teaching and learning 3. Implementation of recommendations from previous evaluations 4. The school s self-evaluation process and capacity for school improvement Inspectors describe the quality of each of these areas using the Inspectorate s quality continuum which is shown on the final page of this report. The quality continuum provides examples of the language used by inspectors when evaluating and describing the quality of the school s provision in each area. The board of management of the school was given an opportunity to comment in writing on the findings and recommendations of the report, and the response of the board will be found in the appendix of this report.

Whole-School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning INSPECTION ACTIVITIES DURING THIS INSPECTION Dates of inspection 15 18 November 2016 Inspection activities undertaken Meeting with Board of Management Meetings with principal and deputy principal Meetings with key staff Review of relevant documents Student focus-group interview Meeting with parents Analysis of parent, student and teacher questionnaires Observation of teaching and learning Examination of students work Interaction with students Feedback to senior management team, board of management and teachers SCHOOL CONTEXT Ballinrobe Community School is a co-educational post-primary school, with a current enrolment of 629 students. Trusteeship of the school is shared by Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim Education and Training Board (MSLETB) and the Sisters of Mercy (Western Province). The school plays a central role in the life of the community and students are drawn from a wide geographical area surrounding the town. The school has experienced significant changes in staffing in recent years due to increased enrolment and retirements. A success of the school is the cohesion with which the staff members work together in light of these changes. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: FINDINGS The school is well run and the staff and management display high commitment to the school. Staff cohesion in a time of change has been well managed and the staff show a high level of volunteerism across all areas of school activity. The structures in place to support students are of exceptionally high quality, in particular the links between the tutor, year head and student support team, though there is scope to review the operation of the student council. The school provides a broad range of subject options for students, and good progress has been made in moving from streaming all junior cycle classes to mostly mixed-ability classes, with setting in a small number of subjects. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the lessons observed was good or very good in most lessons. The school has prioritised the development of assessment for learning (AfL) as part of school self-evaluation (SSE) and this has been effective in encouraging staff to reflect on current good practice in developing new approaches to teaching and learning. RECOMMENDATIONS The management system for the oversight of the range of planning initiatives including SSE, subject and whole-school planning should be further developed. The current arrangements for assigning students to set class groups in a number of subjects at junior cycle should be reviewed.

The functions and structures of the student council should be revised. A number of whole-school and subject-specific teaching and learning strategies should be identified, agreed and implemented to support more widespread use of AfL. DETAILED FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. QUALITY OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP 1.1. School ownership and management The board of management functions well. It was recently constituted, and while there is some continuity in its membership, it includes new members who bring useful experience and approaches to the work of the board. In the principal s role as secretary to the board, the members have received very good guidance on their role and functions. The board is currently undertaking training provided by the management body, and the involvement of the principal with that organisation provides a great networking opportunity for the school. The board is aware that during its tenure it will need to review a number of key policies, and that it should work closely with the school s planning co-ordinator when undertaking this task. Already, the board has taken steps to strengthen engagement with the parents association and student council and is seeking to formalise the approaches used. The school is a focal point of the community and the board and senior management are anxious to reflect a strong sense of community in how the school operates. The development of well-being across the school community has been identified as a priority of the board during its term. Links are well established between the principal and the parents association. The association is active in the school and involved in initiatives in school. In developing its role, the association could coordinate some of its activities with whole-school priorities. For example, in relation to well-being it could link with a healthy eating project. 1.2. Effectiveness of leadership for learning The effectiveness of leadership for learning is good with many strengths, and leadership capacity is being developed among the staff. The principal and deputy principal have been in position, as a team, for four years. Led by the principal, they are developing a culture of distributing leadership opportunities among the staff. In addition, they demonstrate a willingness to manage complex and challenging situations. Staff meetings are collaborative and staff are encouraged to identify and work on areas for school improvement through their involvement in task groups. Discussion is open, facilitated and inclusive. School priorities for development have been identified and task groups to explore options to support their achievement are in place. To ensure that the planned outcomes are achieved, the role of these task groups should evolve to include more formal action planning and reporting in relation to the agreed priorities. Team building and collaboration are features of the way in which the principal and deputy work. Administrative aspects of their roles are clearly delineated. There are also key areas of school activities in which their roles and functions overlap, for example in the area of student support, and the allocation of the school s resources. At this point in the school s development it would be beneficial, in building capacity, if the deputy principal was to lead a specific teaching and learning focused

initiative co-ordinating the various strands of development planning including for subject planning and school self-evaluation (SSE). A key challenge the senior management team has faced is the management of a significant level of staff turnover. In doing so, they have endeavoured to maintain strong cohesion, morale and the spirit of volunteerism among staff. This has been very successfully achieved and is evident in the exceptionally high level of volunteerism among staff in both the curricular and extra-curricular programmes in the school. A shared staff understanding of the educational and social benefits of additional learning experiences for students is well embedded in school culture. A review of the posts of responsibility was undertaken at school level in recent years and there is a very high level of commitment by the staff to meeting the needs of the school regardless of the number of remunerated posts available. In line with best practice, the school should continue to review these posts to ensure that they are aligned to the evolving needs of the school. The school s curriculum is broad and staff are seeking to expand subject provision at senior cycle from within their existing resources by, for example, the introduction of Economics and Applied Mathematics. The profile of students at senior cycle is that a significant majority are LCVP-compliant and provision for the programme is well structured. A school-wide initiative to promote Transition Year (TY) has been very successful and in school s current planning for the development of the curriculum at junior cycle, the impact of any prospective changes on TY and subject selection at senior cycle should be considered in the analysis. Within the last ten years the management of the school has moved from full streaming of junior cycle class groups to a combination of banding and setting. The impact of these changes is apparent in the increased numbers of students taking higher level in certificate examinations at Junior Certificate and the consequential increased uptake of higher level at Leaving Certificate. Setting continues in the core subjects of Irish, English, Mathematics and Science. Given curricular changes there is a need to review this approach in some instances. This review should focus specifically on the range of subjects in which setting applies, the timing of the establishment of the set class groups and the basis on which students are allocated so that the groups reflect the capacity of students to perform across a range of key skills. The quality of the leadership of students is very good with some outstanding aspects. In line with the school s mission statement, the student l perspective guides all decisions and the principle of mutual respect characterises student/staff relations in a learning environment where care is key. The transition of first-year students, which was redesigned in recent years, is exceptionally well managed. The first-year transition programme promotes the role of the class tutor as a first point of contact for students and that relationship is continued through junior cycle with all tutors working in a voluntary capacity. The role of the year head as part of the care system is also well established. Each year head has contact with the students during the weekly pastoral care period. This system, in addition to the services provided by the school s chaplain, act as early interventions in dealing with the pastoral needs of students. The student support team meets weekly. The meeting centres on student care and also includes discussion on disciplinary issues and the appropriateness of sanctions that might be applied. The student behaviour management system in the school has been improved and is regularly reviewed to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of both the students and the school. Students reported that they were familiar with its operation; for example they indicated awareness of the awarding of both bonus and penalty points and of how points can be eradicated by completing certain actions. As

attendance is a current whole-school priority, it might be useful to include occasional inputs from the behavioural support teacher at this weekly meeting, in terms of tracking and follow-up on attendance. The guidance team has recently expanded and there are now three qualified guidance counsellors, who meet weekly with the principal. An initial review of the guidance plan has been completed and as practice evolves to reflect the new staffing, a more detailed review of the plan should be undertaken. The principal guidance counsellor is a member of the student support team and a lot of supports are in place for careers education and supporting students subject choices. The role of the chaplain is clearly defined. She has a prominent role in the supports provided to incoming first-year students and is involved in interventions, where required, with other class groups. The wide-reaching role of the chaplain is highly valued within the school community. There is very good collaboration between the deputy principal and the special educational needs (SEN) co-ordinator in managing the allocation of resources to individual students and the SEN systems and processes are very good. The school is currently revising the systems to support students with SEN and a new model of in-class learning support is being piloted in first-year. It is due to be reviewed at the end of the current school year and it is recommended that, notwithstanding any changes, it should be regularly reviewed to seek the views of teachers and students as to its effectiveness. The school s management is working towards developing capacity at school level to support the development of SEN provision, including upskilling a number additional teacher in the area of SEN. Defining the role of the teacher in in-class support will be a key feature in these developments, as will identifying a core team of specialist teachers for the delivery of SEN. A student council is in place and a liaison teacher assigned to support its work. Meetings are held very regularly and the officers discuss issues with the school s senior management after each meeting. The board of management has also met with the council since the start of the school year. Some revisions to the structure of the council are required to ensure that it is fully representative of all the year groups and consistent with the structure as outlined in its constitution. Currently, there are no first-year and only one second-year student represented on the council. One option to consider in increasing the profile of the student council would be to create a link through the class tutor where members can report back or gather views on identified priorities. Other options could include training for student council representatives or using the students emails for mailing updates on the work of the council. Confirmation was provided that the board of management has formally adopted the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools without modification and that the school is compliant with the requirements of the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools. 1.3. Management of facilities The school s management of its facilities is good. It has made a considerable investment in information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and administration software in the past twelve months. The commitment of a staff member over many years to supporting infrastructural development is acknowledged and a small number of staff are also trialling the use of tablet devices as supports to teaching. The development of an elearning plan would support the school as it advances its ICT priorities. The school has many different initiatives in place as part of the Green Schools Programme including recycling and water conservation. The structure of the building is challenging and there was significant condensation observed in a number of rooms. This is an area that the board has prioritised.

The school has a detailed, commercially produced health and safety statement which should be updated and incorporate staff-led risk assessments into the future. 2. QUALITY OF LEARNING AND TEACHING 2.1. The quality of learning and teaching Subject plans are consistent in their overall presentation as all follow a common template for the overall plan. Whole-school priorities of literacy and numeracy are included, as are schemes of work, though the schemes varied in terms of depth and quality. There was a small number of very good schemes. However, overall the schemes were overly focused on content with insufficient exploration of teaching methodologies appropriate to the subject or outcomes. The best example of subject department discussion was one focused on teaching approaches to specific topics, reflecting on progress to date and on how things could improve. The reflection on analysis of examination results evident in some subject departments should be prepared by all subject departments and provided to the board, to inform its review of attainment in the certificate examinations. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment in most lessons was good or very good. In a very small number of lessons, the quality was fair. In lessons where teaching and learning was of an exceptionally high standard the lessons were framed by learning intentions. Those intentions were then used by the teacher to assess the learning at the end of the lesson in order to better plan for the next lesson. Students in these lessons were provided with well-structured opportunities to work with other students. They were also provided with both oral and written feedback on the quality of their work and given direction as to how to improve the work. While the teacher led these lessons initially, the main part of the lesson focused on students practising or exploring the topic further, through the completion of either a written or practical task. Students engagement and enjoyment was evident in their interactions with each other and with the teacher. This engagement was also evident in the questions they asked of their teachers, demonstrating their grasp of the topic being studied. Another notable feature of these lessons was the variety of differentiated supports teachers used to support individual students across the range of abilities. In the small number of lessons where the teaching and learning approaches were fair, the lessons were characterised by weaknesses in planning and an over-emphasis on teacher talk. For example, in such lessons, the teacher imparted facts or concepts without the opportunity for students to engage with the material in a way which would help them develop their skills and knowledge. In these lessons, students were not provided with adequate feedback on their progress or how it might be improved. Also, these lessons generally lacked continuity as tasks set were not built upon each other. Most lessons were planned to provide for continuity from previous lessons. This was evident as many teachers opened lessons with a question and answer session that reviewed key points learned from the previous lesson. Only in a very small number of lessons were the lesson intentions explicitly shared with the students; this can be a very beneficial approach in providing students with a pathway through the lesson and in allowing them to assess and review the extent to which their learning has progressed during the lesson. It also allows the teacher to assess the learning at the end by asking students to reflect which can feed into planning for subsequent lessons. This approach should be more widely adopted as part of the school s development of AfL.

Whole-class teaching strategies were well used. Teachers demonstrated good classroom management skills and subject knowledge was evident. Teacher-led questioning featured in almost all lessons. In line with good practice the approaches varied using a mix of open questions and those directed at named students. In lessons where questioning was very good the teachers matched the questions closely to the abilities of individual students by, for example, challenging the more able learners with questions requiring application, analysis or evaluation of information. This approach, if more widely used, would develop the existing good practice, and support more effective learning. Though opportunities were provided in many lessons for students to work in pairs there was very little use of structured group work. The pair work was effective when the task was bound by time, focused and there was a whole-class feedback that strengthened all learning by combining the work of all the pairs. Providing opportunities for group work will be a key component of the successful progression of the whole-school priority of AfL. It will encourage students to peer teach, assess and share their learning, while developing the skills of working with each other and communication. In line with the school s priorities for literacy development, many teachers placed emphasis on key words as part of the literacy approaches in lessons. Most often they were pre-taught as a whole-class activity and in some lessons were used as the trigger for recall of the lesson s learning points. Homework was generally assigned late in the lesson as a consolidation of the learning. In a very small number of lessons it was set early so that students were able to assess their own capacity to complete it and seek additional support from the teacher if necessary before the lesson ended. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PREVIOUS EVALUATIONS 3.1. Management Very few whole-school recommendations were made in previous subject inspection reports. Those included in the whole-school evaluation conducted in 2007 have informed, and continue to inform, the development of whole-school systems and supports. 3.2. Learning and teaching A number of recommendations concerning teaching and learning were selected for specific follow-up in this evaluation. The best progress was made in the effective use of differentiation strategies, especially in oral questioning approaches. Collaboration was evident mainly through the use of pair work. Progress in whole-school literacy priorities was noted in the development of the school's print environment. An ongoing area for development is the provision of written developmental feedback on students work and the incorporation of a range of assessment strategies. 4. THE SCHOOL S SELF-EVALUATION PROCESS AND CAPACITY SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT Work to date on the development of school self-evaluation has been satisfactory. Literacy and numeracy committees are in place and teachers are working on a number of initiatives. Targets should be reviewed and the involvement of parents increased as the initiatives progress, especially in relation to reporting to the wider school community. Student views have been incorporated and attitudinal data used to identify priorities in relation to reading. Numeracy targets have been informed by data gathered in Mathematics. The most successful aspect to date has been the development, as part of a TY project, of school-specific key word posters.

Overall, the school s capacity for improvement is good and progress will be supported by setting more challenging targets that will evolve over time.

Appendix SCHOOL RESPONSE TO THE REPORT Submitted by the Board of Management

Part A: Observations on the content of the inspection report The Board of Management of Ballinrobe Community School, on behalf of all the stakeholders, acknowledge this very positive report. The Board of Management notes that the key findings highlight the provision of excellent service this school provides to the students through its care system and the high standards of teaching provided in the school as mentioned in the following: The school is well run and the staff and management display high commitment to the school. Staff cohesion in a time of change has been well managed and the staff show a high level of volunteerism across all areas of school activity. The structures in place to support students are of exceptionally high quality, in particular the links between the tutor, year head and student support team, though there is scope to review the operation of the student council. The school provides a broad range of subject options for students, and good progress has been made in moving from streaming all junior cycle classes to mostly mixed-ability classes, with setting in a small number of subjects. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the lessons observed was good or very good in most lessons. Part B: Follow-up actions planned or undertaken since the completion of the inspection activity to implement the findings and recommendations of the inspection. The Board of Management, in consultation with the school management and staff, will reflect on the key findings and recommendations and address them in a structured manner. Since the meeting with the inspectors the school has taken some steps to address some of the recommendations: The Deputy Principal will attend meetings where planning initiatives are being developed. The assigning of students to set classes will be carried out in accordance with the guidelines for the new Junior Cert and Circular 0024/2016. The student council together with the school staff and Management will review its structure and operation in the new school year, 2017/18. The Board of Management, in consultation with the Principal, monitor the progress being made on these recommendations.

THE INSPECTORATE S QUALITY CONTINUUM Inspectors describe the quality of provision in the school using the Inspectorate s quality continuum which is shown below. The quality continuum provides examples of the language used by inspectors when evaluating and describing the quality the school s provision of each area. Level Description Example of descriptive terms Very Good Very good applies where the quality of the areas evaluated is of a very high standard. The very few areas for improvement that exist do not significantly impact on the overall quality of provision. For some schools in this category the quality of what is evaluated is outstanding Very good; of a very high quality; very effective practice; highly commendable; very successful; few areas for improvement; notable; of a very high standard. Excellent; and provides an example for other schools of outstanding; exceptionally high exceptionally high standards of provision. standard, with very significant strengths; exemplary Good Satisfactory Fair Weak Good applies where the strengths in the areas evaluated clearly outweigh the areas in need of improvement. The areas requiring improvement impact on the quality of pupils learning. The school needs to build on its strengths and take action to address the areas identified as requiring improvement in order to achieve a very good standard. Satisfactory applies where the quality of provision is adequate. The strengths in what is being evaluated just outweigh the shortcomings. While the shortcomings do not have a significant negative impact they constrain the quality of the learning experiences and should be addressed in order to achieve a better standard. Fair applies where, although there are some strengths in the areas evaluated, deficiencies or shortcomings that outweigh those strengths also exist. The school will have to address certain deficiencies without delay in order to ensure that provision is satisfactory or better. Weak applies where there are serious deficiencies in the areas evaluated. Immediate and coordinated wholeschool action is required to address the areas of concern. In some cases, the intervention of other agencies may be required to support improvements. Good; good quality; valuable; effective practice; competent; useful; commendable; good standard; some areas for improvement Satisfactory; adequate; appropriate provision although some possibilities for improvement exist; acceptable level of quality; improvement needed in some areas Fair; evident weaknesses that are impacting on pupils learning; less than satisfactory; experiencing difficulty; must improve in specified areas; action required to improve Weak; unsatisfactory; insufficient; ineffective; poor; requiring significant change, development or improvement; experiencing significant difficulties; Published May 2017 / Foilsithe Bealtaine 2017