An Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna Department of Education and Skills Whole-School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning REPORT Saint Joseph s Secondary School Tulla, County Clare Roll number: 62020F Date of inspection: 21 April 2015
Whole-School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning A whole-school evaluation of management, leadership and learning (WSE-MLL) was undertaken in April, 2015 in St Joseph s Secondary School. This report presents the findings of the evaluation and makes recommendations for improvement. During the evaluation, the inspection team met with the school s board of management, in-school management, and groups of teachers, parents and students. Inspectors also reviewed a range of school documentation and responses to questionnaires and examined other data in relation to the operation of the school. As part of the evaluation, a range of lessons across a number of subject areas was inspected. 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. Introduction St Joseph s Secondary school is a co-educational voluntary secondary school founded by the Sisters of Mercy and has occupied its present site since 1970. Its trusteeship was transferred to Catholic Education An Irish Schools Trust (CEIST) in 2007. The Sisters of Mercy, along with CEIST purchased a site in 2012 which enabled the construction of a new school building which is due for completion in March 2016. The school draws its students largely from a wide rural catchment area of east Clare and at the time of the evaluation enrolment stood at 454 students. The school caters for students with a wide range of academic and other needs and currently has two Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) learning centres. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT Key Findings The board of management operates efficiently, supports the school well and has played a major part in the development of the new campus, though, there is now scope to further enhance the role of the board in overseeing certain aspects of the school s functioning. Senior management has demonstrated many aspects of effective leadership and has led the school through a period of significant change. The last full review of the posts of responsibility structure was undertaken in 2007 and there have been significant staff changes since then. The teaching staff demonstrates a strong commitment to student care. The school offers a broad and balanced curriculum. The school has an open and inclusive admissions policy and a good, clearly structured code of behaviour. Overall, the structures for, and organisation of, special educational needs (SEN) are good, however there is a need for the individual resource teachers involved to adopt a more consistent approach in planning lessons for students. The quality of learning and teaching was good or very good in most of the lessons observed with some examples of exemplary practices noted; there was also scope for further developing the range of teaching and learning strategies used in some settings. 2
While some initial work has been undertaken in relation to school self-evaluation (SSE), this is limited and needs to be progressed. Recommendations for Further Development The board should take a stronger oversight role in relation to monitoring the school s progress in relation to SSE, the quality of teaching and learning, and reviewing the curriculum. Senior management should refocus its efforts on aspects of leadership that impact on teaching and learning practices, SSE & strategic planning. Policies, procedures and practices relating to communication need to be reviewed and revised in order to improve the quality of experience for all stakeholders. A review of the posts of responsibility schedule needs to be conducted so that the posts are more closely aligned to the current and future needs of the school. Resource teachers who deliver learning supports, in consultation with mainstream teachers, should agree and adopt a consistent approach to schemes of work for SEN students. In some lessons there is a need to further differentiate lesson content and to further develop questioning strategies. The SSE process needs to be progressed as a matter of priority. 1. QUALITY OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP 1.1 School ownership and management The school s board of management maintains strong links with CEIST and the Sisters of Mercy. The board, which is appropriately constituted, was appointed in October 2012 and is approaching the end of its term. The board continues to oversee a very significant phase in the school s history with the development of the new school campus currently underway on a ten acre site adjacent to the current school complex. Members have availed of training for their role and the board meets very frequently both to meet its statutory obligations and to oversee the development of the new site. Some board members have a long association with, and understanding of, the school and there is a good level of experience and expertise among members. This supports the school well. The board operates efficiently and actively supports the school in areas of school planning, school financing, policy ratification, management of student behaviour, and supporting staff in attending continuing professional development (CPD). A number of policies have been identified by the board as needing to be progressed to ratification stage. Key among these are the school s anti-bullying policy and special educational needs policy. It is important that these policies be ratified without delay. A number of developmental priorities have been discussed by the board. Once the transfer to the new school campus is complete, it will be timely for the new board to oversee the development of a strategic plan with targets and actions identified to address agreed priorities over defined timeframes. As part of SSE it will be important to include the whole school community in this process. Various aspects of the day-to-day management of the school are discussed at board meetings. It is recommended that the school s engagement with SSE along with some matters concerning learning and teaching and curriculum review also be included as agenda items of all board meetings. It is good that an agreed written report to staff issues from each meeting. A similar written report, rather than an oral report, should be shared with the parents association. The board also produces an annual report on the operation and performance of the school and sends it to the trustees. The board should consider meeting 3
with representatives of the student council annually so as to address appropriate issues formally. The parents association is active, well-informed, supports the school through fundraising and other activities and works well in partnership with senior management. The parents who were met during the course of the evaluation were appreciative of the good standards of teaching and learning and care for their children. The parents association and the student council could meet formally from time to time so that these stakeholders can address appropriate issues in a collaborative manner. 1.2 Effectiveness of leadership for learning As a senior management team, the principal and deputy principal have a good professional relationship and are mutually supportive of each other. They share between them an extensive range of duties, including teaching. A number of these duties have fallen to them due to recent changes in personnel. They have demonstrated many aspects of effective leadership and have led the school through a period of significant change. It is now timely, as the development of the new school campus draws to a conclusion in early 2016, that senior management should refocus its efforts on aspects of leadership that impact on teaching and learning practices, SSE and strategic planning. While a range of communication channels is in place, policies, procedures and practices relating to communication need to be reviewed and revised. All staff need to partake in professional, open and transparent dialogue to ensure that these policies and procedures are agreed and acted upon in order to improve the quality of experience for all stakeholders including parents and students. Leadership roles are distributed throughout the middle management team and they provide good support to senior management in some key areas. However, there is a need for support in the area of school planning. The post holders carry out their duties diligently and they reported that they felt empowered in their roles as part of the management structure. Senior management meets weekly with year heads and the care team, and has regular contact with staff working in key areas of school life. The work carried out by non-post holders, especially in the area of SEN, is significant and highly commended. The last full review of the post structure was in 2007, and there is now a need for a root and branch review to be undertaken so that the posts are more closely aligned to the current and future needs of the school. This review should ensure there is equity between the posts. In addition, all post holders should formally report annually to staff and management on the progress and challenges in their duties. When the next full review of the duties assigned to the posts of responsibilities takes place, senior management members should also review their own roles and responsibilities with a view to distributing some of their current duties to middlemanagement staff members. The teaching staff presents as a professional team whose members shows a high level of commitment to the care and management of the students. Staff members have shown high levels of volunteerism in taking on additional responsibilities outside of the post of responsibility structure. Staff members also facilitate a number of co-curricular and extracurricular activities which enhance the education provided to the students. The school has developed a good quality staff handbook and while some procedures are in place for the induction of teachers new to the school, management should consider formalising a mentor system as part of this induction process. The board and senior management facilitate CPD for teachers. In order to disseminate good practice, it is recommended that a system be put in place so that feedback on return from CPD events can be shared with colleagues in a more structured manner. The secretarial, caretaking, cleaning and ancillary staff all make highly-valued and important contributions to the smooth running of the school. 4
The school offers a broad and balanced curriculum including an optional Transition Year (TY) programme, the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP), and the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) programme. The timetabling provision is generally good and it includes full access to Physical Education (PE) for students of all year groups which management put in place following previous recommendations. While there is a need for an ongoing review in some areas of timetabling it is hoped that the extra space and facilities of the new campus will enable any remaining issues to be addressed. The board, in consultation with stakeholders, should begin a curriculum review in preparation for the Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA) and should explore subject options for first-year students prior to entry as part of this review. There is a fully open, subject choice menu in senior cycle, where option bands are created based on the majority of students preferences. The TY programme is broad and offers a range of learning experiences for students. Senior management should consider the provision of a specialised journal for TY in order to reflect the programme s different aims and objectives. The LCVP programme is timetabled appropriately and is well established within the school. Currently the LCA programme is only available for students from the ASD learning centres, but management and staff have been exploring the expansion of the LCA provision to cater for a wider student cohort. This proposed expansion promises to be a positive development and should be expedited. An open and inclusive admissions policy which supports the school s ethos is in place. It is recommended that the policy also include information on the admission criteria for the optional curricular programmes that the school provides. There are good processes in place to support new students and their parents in the transition from primary to post primary. Students and parents indicated in their responses to the questionnaires that the school makes them feel welcome. The staggered start to the school year, however, means that some year groups are not provided with the minimum number of days tuition required by Circular M29/95, Time in School. This compliance issue which is a shortfall in the entitlement of some year groups needs to be addressed by the school. The school s code of behaviour is good and is clearly structured. Student feedback indicates that there are some inconsistencies in the application of the code. This should be investigated further by management and staff. Student leadership is promoted in the school through the student council, Gaisce awards, and TY students mentoring of incoming firstyear students. Student success is celebrated through an annual awards ceremony. However, a significant number of students indicated that they did not have a say in how things are done in the school. In this regard, the school should consider how more and better opportunities can be provided to students to become involved, such as broadening the student mentoring system, reviewing the structure of the student council and the recommencement of Green Flag initiatives. All future strategic planning should also ensure that student feedback is gathered and analysed. A care team, with a priority on student welfare, is in place and the care of students is a strength of the school. While key members of the care team meet regularly, management should strive to include a member of the SEN team in the dedicated weekly time set aside for student support in line with the Well-Being in Post-Primary Schools guidelines. Students reported that they get on well with other students in the school and feel safe. Parents indicated a high level of satisfaction with regard to the school s provision for the welfare of their children. However, questionnaire responses indicated that greater clarity on anti-bullying procedures is required. This should be explored further by school management. A whole-school guidance plan is to be ratified by the board shortly. The guidance counsellor provides information sessions with regard to subject choice at times of transition to both parents and students. Students also benefit from timetabled provision of Guidance and Social, Personal and Health Education throughout the year. The board also provides for 5
additional counselling services through external agencies when needed. While Guidance and personal counselling are currently provided for students, senior management should plan to increase its capacity, similar to the approach undertaken in PE, to deliver in this area into the future when resources become available. Overall the organisation of SEN is good and there are appropriate structures in place to facilitate the delivery of learning supports to students. The co-ordination of the department is shared among a small group of staff and the school has a number of special needs assistants. Senior management has allocated the additional hours for SEN and learning support appropriately and flexible models of provision for the delivery of support are in place. The SEN team identifies individual requirements for students and information in relation to these requirements is made available to staff. The school also caters very well for a number of ASD students in the two learning centres on the premises. Individual teachers who are delivering learning supports, in consultation with mainstream teachers, should agree and adopt a consistent approach to the prior planning of schemes of work in order to improve the overall quality of SEN support. 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 building and facilities are clean, well-managed and maintained to a high standard. Classrooms are primarily teacher-based. The current site of the school is small and consists of a number of pre-fabricated buildings, and as a result some deficiencies relating to access to specialist rooms and accommodation exist. However these will be addressed by the new school building once it is completed. The information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure has been well integrated into the school and some first year students have begun using tablet devices in classes. In planning for ICT integration into teaching and learning, an e-learning team should be established. This team should be tasked with creating an e-learning plan. The aim of this plan should be to create a shared vision with a focus on curriculum integration, CPD and the creation of an e-learning culture within the school. A health and safety statement is in place. This should be reviewed and ratified annually and all teachers and management should conduct risk assessments in their areas in line with Health and Safety Authority (HSA) guidelines. 2. QUALITY OF LEARNING AND TEACHING 2.1 The quality of learning and teaching Twenty-two lessons across a range of subjects and programmes were observed by the evaluation team. Good or very good teaching and learning was evident in most of the lessons observed, with some examples of exemplary practices noted. In a small number of lessons there was significant scope to improve student engagement through the use of a broader range of teaching strategies. In some lessons, learning would have been enhanced by the inclusion of more active learning strategies and by the creation of better structures around co-operative learning, pair and group work. There was a very good standard of preparation for most lessons with effective use and choice of resources. Learning outcomes were shared with students at the start of some lessons to provide them with a focus on what they were expected to learn. This good practice should be extended to all lessons. Teachers should also include opportunities for recapitulation at the end of lessons and should encourage the use of these outcomes for selfevaluation. ICT was used in the majority of lessons although mostly for presentation 6
purposes. Student use of ICT was limited. The tablet devices, in use by some first-year students, were mostly used as digital books. The range of ICT usage should be expanded and developed through the recommended e-learning plan. Subject department plans are in place and some examples of good subject-planning practices were evident. Such practices included the appointment of subject co-ordinators with duties assigned, minutes of meetings maintained and the use of common schemes of work where feasible. Each subject department should become more involved in analysing its own certificate examination results and from this devise strategies for improvement annually through time-bound action plans. This analysis should be formally reported periodically to management and minutes of meetings should reflect greater discussion in relation to teaching and learning strategies, the dissemination of good practice and any targets set. A more consistent approach to developing schemes of work is needed across subject departments. Where not already the case, schemes should have a focus on learning outcomes linked to specific methodologies, resources and assessment modes and should include a review section to inform future planning to strengthen their use as working documents. Classroom management was very good and an atmosphere of mutual respect and positive student-teacher rapport prevailed in all of the lessons observed. Student behaviour was exemplary throughout the evaluation. Almost all classrooms featured subject-specific displays of content, including students work. However, a small number of classrooms need to develop an environment which is richer in print. Questioning was good or very good in most of the lessons observed. There was a good mix of higher and lower-order questioning in most lessons. In the best examples, questions were distributed around the class through directed and differentiated questions. Where practice was not as good, questions were addressed to the entire class and chorus answering predominated. Teachers should allow students a suitable amount of time to formulate a response and should encourage the use of full sentences in students responses. In two-thirds of the lessons observed, some differentiation strategies were evident. However, in most cases, the primary methods of differentiation were targeted questioning and the provision of individual assistance to students. There is scope for greater content differentiation in the majority of lessons through the incorporation of tasks that allow students to work at their own level while still meeting the basic learning objectives of the lesson. This can be achieved through group tasks that assign particular roles to each group member or through worksheets that contain an incremental level of challenge that will allow all students to achieve while providing a sufficient challenge for the more able students. Homework was set in almost all lessons. In most of the lessons observed, teachers checked homework for completion while the homework content was addressed at whole-class level. The assessment for learning strategy of providing students with written formative feedback was a feature of some lessons. In order to ensure consistency of standards in homework completion, all teachers should ensure that substantial pieces of students work are collected on a cyclical basis and that formative feedback is given in relation to accuracy, presentation and effort. Well-chosen methodologies to engage students were observed in most lessons. In a small number of lessons, active learning methodologies could have been used more widely, particularly at key points during lessons in order to provide a greater variety of instruction and thus to maintain student engagement. A variety of literacy strategies was observed in some lessons including the use of keywords. There was limited evidence in lessons of attempts to explore opportunities for numeracy development. It is recommended that 7
management and staff review the literacy and numeracy strategies currently in use and that a whole-school approach be adopted and implemented in lessons. Teachers should also ensure that students project their voices so that they are audible to the entire class in order to improve their oracy skills. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PREVIOUS EVALUATIONS 3.1 Management The senior management has made good progress in implementing the whole-school recommendations from previous evaluations relating to whole-school support and provision. School management is commended for increasing the capacity for PE and expanding its provision. Good progress has been made in all other key areas including SEN structures, timetabling and resources. Further work is still needed in the area of school priorities and action planning. Senior management should also ensure that any CPD undertaken by staff be shared with all staff where relevant. 3.2 Learning and teaching Progress was noted in relation to recommendations from previous reports concerning subject planning. However, there is still a need for greater consistency across the school in relation to schemes of work in particular. Progress was noted in relation to all recommendations from previous evaluations regarding learning and teaching. There is some scope for improvement in relation to the implementation of planning for differentiation to cater for the range of abilities of students, greater use of learning outcomes and the provision of more written formative feedback to students. 4. THE SCHOOL S SELF-EVALUATION PROCESS AND CAPACITY FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT The school has initiated the process of self-evaluation through some initial surveys of students and staff. This is a good, but limited, start and the process now needs to be progressed as a matter of priority. Link teachers should be put in place for literacy and numeracy, support material should be accessed, further training should be availed of, and all stakeholders should be included. Procedures should then be put in place to systematically monitor the impact and effectiveness of any strategies for literacy and numeracy improvement that are implemented. The opening of the new school campus should act as a catalyst for change. Once policies and procedures around communication have been streamlined and addressed, staff should be enabled to further focus on elements of their practice that will lead to a positive change for the benefit of all students. The positive relationships that were evident between management, students, teachers and the wider community throughout the evaluation provide a solid basis from which to progress. Published October 2015 8
Appendix SCHOOL RESPONSE TO THE REPORT Submitted by the Board of Management 9
Area 1 Observations on the content of the inspection report The Board warmly welcomes the positive WSE-MLL Report. In particular, the Report highlights the teaching staff s strong commitment to student care while also acknowledging the high quality of teaching and learning. We celebrate the recognition of the high levels of volunteerism of the staff which enhances the education provided to the students. The Report commends the diligence of the Post Holders which contributes greatly to the overall management of the school. It is heartening that senior management s effective leadership through a period of significant change has been acknowledged. It is affirming that the inspectorate highlighted the respectful rapport which hallmarks the relationship between management, staff and students. The Board concurs with the Report s appreciation of the parents support of the school. As we prepare to move into a new school campus the Board of Management determines to operate effectively and to support the school into the future. Area 2 Follow-up actions planned or undertaken since the completion of the inspection activity to implement the findings and recommendations of the inspection The Board will continue to support curriculum development together with teaching and learning strategies. On-going support is being provided for a whole school approach to the development of literacy and numeracy with the inclusion of link-persons in these areas. The school community appreciates the relevance of school self-evaluation and the initial work in this area is being further progressed. The following policies have been up-dated and ratified by the Board: The Special Needs Policy, the Anti-Bullying Policy and Guidance Policy with the on-going review of other policies. A Health & Safety Audit was conducted in May 2015 and the Health & Safety Committee is reviewing the Health & Safety Policy in the current academic year to ensure that it straddles the old and new buildings. A policy committee has been set up to review the current Post of Responsibility structure. 10