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ST PATRICK'S NATIONAL SCHOOL
Curtlestown Enniskerry
Roll no; 18357R
School self-evaluation summary report for school community
Evaluation period: September 2013 to June 2015
Report issue update: June 2015
Summary School Self-Evaluation Report
1. Introduction
Our school has its own context. There are 3(4) class teachers, 3 shared Resource/Learning Support teachers and 68 pupils in the school. We had a number of programmes operating in the school this year including the E.U., Blue Flag, The National Children's Choir, Greenschools, and Primary Science and Mathematics. Our attendance levels are good for most of the school year, dipping as the summer holidays approach. Our pupils' behaviour is good. For more information on how we intend to improve our pupils' learning, please see our School Improvement Plan which is available with this report and on our website.
1.1 The focus of the evaluation
We have undertaken a school self-evaluation of teaching and learning during the past 3 years. We have evaluated teaching and learning in Literacy this year. We have chosen to focus on Oral literacy as our next area for improvement.
Content and skills in Mathematics have been evaluated previously. Monitoring and work in this area is ongoing. We chose to focus on learner outcomes in content (Measurement) and processes (Connecting).
This report summarises the strengths that were identified and the areas that have been prioritised for improvement in Literacy.
2. Summary of school self-evaluation findings
Information was collected from pupils and teachers in preparing this report.
" We looked at how well our pupils were doing in Standardised reading tests. 74% of our pupils scored above the national average in reading
" The teachers carried out a S.C.O.T. analysis. This is used to gather a broad range of evidence on subjects or teaching methodology. SCOT stands for: Strengths, Concerns, Opportunities and Threats. Reading scores throughout the school are above average, we have decided to look at oral language for our chosen area. We feel that standards in this area are fundamental to performance in written work. Teachers prepare long and short plans for English. A wider range of spoken genres needs to be covered. A variety of methodologies are employed and success criteria are stated, but not always share with the pupils.
" The children completed a questionnaire about oral Literacy. Their answers indicated that that 62% of our pupils from 3rd to 6th class felt confident delivering a report on a project or book. 76% were happy to ask questions to find more information. 70% approx found it easy to give directions or instructions. News and listening to stories were the favourite oral lessons.
" We looked at data from teacher observations of speaking and listening skills in a sample of pupils from each class whose performance was tracked over 5 months. Pupils have good vocabulary in general, but need to develop greater fluency. Active listening could be improved.
2.1 We found that our school has strengths in the following areas of Literacy:
Strengths
74% of our pupils scored above the national average in reading.
We felt that our pupils had good vocabulary in general and could speak for a sustained time on a given topic when required.
The majority of the children were confident to deliver reports, give directions and instructions.
2.2 We have decided to prioritise the following areas for development:
Areas for development
" While pupils generally have a good vocabulary, teachers felt they didn't have the opportunity to speak across a range of genres.
" There was also limited use of connectives which impacted on fluency.
" Actively listening skills needed to be developed further.
Previous targets in Numeracy are ongoing;
" Measures
" Connecting as part of overall Problem solving