An Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna

Department of Education and Skills

Whole School Evaluation Management, Leadership and Learning

REPORT

Ainm na scoile / School name

St Joseph's College

Seoladh na scoile / School address

Nun's Island Galway

Uimhir rolla / Roll number

62960H

Date of Evaluation: 09 November 2017

What is whole-school evaluation – management, leadership and learning?

Whole-School Evaluation – Management, Leadership and Learning reports on the quality of teaching

and learning and on the quality of management and leadership in a school. It affirms good practice

and makes recommendations, where appropriate, to aid the further development of educational

provision in the school. 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.

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.

WHOLE-SCHOOL EVALUATION – MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING

Dates of inspection 09 November 2017

Inspection activities undertaken

Meeting with board of management

Meetings with principal and deputy principals

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

St Joseph’s Patrician College is an all-boys’ post-primary school more commonly known as ‘The Bish’. It is one of three Galway city schools which operate under the auspices of Le Chéile Schools Trust and has a current enrolment of 756. As well as the junior cycle and established Leaving Certificate programmes, the school offers the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP). The school does not currently offer a Transition Year (TY) programme. Summary of main findings and recommendations:

Findings

Enrolment is constant and demand for places is consistently high.

Overall, the quality of management and leadership was satisfactory; there is a need for cohesive strategic planning to improve management structures and formalise aspects of student care.

The quality of teaching and learning ranged from very good to fair; assessment strategies used to support learning need to be improved.

A wide range of extra-curricular activities is available to students; however, the curriculum is limited in terms of breadth and subject choice and a board of studies has been re-established to address this area of development.

The school self-evaluation process has been managed efficiently with good procedures established to support whole-school engagement and implementation for the new SSE cycle.

Overall, the progress made on implementing recommendations from previous inspections was satisfactory.

Recommendations

The board of management should oversee and facilitate a whole-school review of the roles and responsibilities of senior and middle management, ensure that duties are clearly delineated and that they meet the current and future needs of the school.

The principal and deputy principals should strengthen their roles as leaders of strategic planning with the aim of improving the curriculum offered and to ensure effective student support systems are put in place.

The good practices of teaching, learning and assessment, observed during the inspection in some lessons, need to be extended to all lessons.

There is an immediate need to review the use of resources provided and the systems in place to support students with SEN.

DETAILED FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. QUALITY OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leading learning and teaching

The school is inclusive in terms of intake and timetabling. It welcomes students from all socio-economic backgrounds, communities of faith and cultures. Commendably, students in junior cycle are predominantly taught in mixed-ability settings, as setting only applies in Mathematics. There is one main feeder school and demand for places is always higher than the available number of places.

The principal and deputy principals are heavily involved in the day to day running of the school. They have a visible presence on the corridors throughout the day. Many of the responsibilities relating to teaching, learning and assessment have been delegated to the special duties teachers. There is scope to develop and strengthen senior management’s role in setting expectations for the quality of teaching and learning, the level and standards of how students’ work is monitored and the range of assessment tools in use to support learning.

The school’s curriculum is limited as, for example, only one language option is provided for students and only one technology subject is offered. Art or music are not curriculum options and at the time of the inspection, TY was not offered. However, one of the deputy principals, with the support of a number of teachers, was working towards introducing TY as an option. The demand for LCVP has increased with two class groups in each year undertaking the programme. Students who opt for LCVP do not have physical education classes due to timetabling constraints. The LCVP co-ordinator works with the students to secure work placement opportunities and utilises links with business and sporting organisations to help provide a range of options. This is good practice.

There is significant scope to improve curriculum provision and choice. While the recently re-established board of studies may be instrumental in advancing provision of a broader curriculum and variety of learning opportunities, the responsibility to ensure improvement happens within a reasonable timeframe ultimately lies with the board of management and principal. Among the areas that the board of studies should address are the development of the school’s curriculum provision and the further development of teaching, learning and assessment approaches.

The implications of the junior cycle framework were not fully appreciated by management or the majority of the staff. For example, CSPE provision had remained unchanged but there was a lack of awareness by some that the first year students being taught would not sit a certificate examination in CSPE. The introduction of Wellbeing had been considered by the board of studies but no formal whole-school approach had been taken as per circular 0015/2017. Since the introduction of the new junior cycle framework, the structures and changes that are needed to support it have not progressed adequately in the school. This indicates a need for further engagement by the management and staff with the requirements of the framework. Learning experiences from initiatives led by teachers of English, Business Studies and Science should be pooled to assist in developing whole-school learning. It was reported a number of times during the inspection that industrial relation issues had impacted on teachers’ engagement with progress and overall staff morale.

Students with special educational needs (SEN) received support mainly in small group settings with a focus on providing additional tuition for particular subject areas, often identified by themselves or their parents. It was reported that the large number of teachers providing additional support was to facilitate timetabling and it was also noted that not all teachers relevantly qualified were part of this cohort. The student support files (SSF) examined during the inspection included relevant information about and diagnoses of each student. In some instances, suggested supports were recommended.

However, there was no record of targets being set for each student, no records of progress and no indication of how each individual’s additional need would be supported. There is an immediate need to put in place a robust system to ensure that the special educational needs of each individual are being met and monitored, that each teacher providing support has a clear plan for the student and that support is modified as students make progress.

Management is supportive of teachers’ engagement with CPD, particularly in terms of management and leadership training. A number of teachers have undertaken further study or are currently involved in furthering their management and leadership qualifications. Staff members are also supported in their personal endeavours and many avail of the opportunity to job share. The commitment is commendable and provides considerable scope to management for channelling the additional skills acquired to benefit the development of the school. Overall, however, the principal and deputy principals should strengthen their roles as leaders of strategic planning with the aim of improving the curriculum offered and to ensure effective student support systems are put in place. Managing the organisation

Senior management plays an active role in keeping the school’s profile high and positive. All opportunities to promote and celebrate successes, academic and otherwise, are utilised. The school’s and students’ achievements are regularly reported on in the local media. Hallways are decorated with team photographs, trophies are displayed in communal areas and the school website is regularly updated with achievements.

The board of management members are well informed and supportive of all school business. A number of activities which occur during the school year to raise funds, support charities and maintain the school’s positive profile are organised and supported by the board. The board regularly reviews and ratifies policies and members are kept informed of school business through the principal’s report. The board is commended for the significant role it plays, in collaboration with the parents’ association, in organising the annual careers fair which endeavours to provide information on all areas of students’ interests and with representation from a wide range of career and training paths.

At the time of the inspection, requests made to see up-to-date risk assessments were not met and the health and safety document, produced by an outside agency, was in need of modification and ratification. The oversight role of the safety officer needs to be strengthened; responsibility had been devolved to the newly appointed deputy principal. The board is advised to take a more pro-active role in ensuring that the school is fully compliant with its health and safety requirements as well as a more pro-active oversight role regarding curriculum development and teaching and learning provision.

The parents’ association works closely with the school and the board on a number of high profile and important occasions throughout the year. The members are committed and work hard to support the school. The parents’ association communicate with the wider parent body through the school’s text system and a separate social media platform.

The senior management team has grown due to the recent appointment of a second deputy principal and it is evident that there is a good working relationship among senior management members. This recent expansion of the senior management team provides an opportunity to re-assess all management duties and responsibilities to ensure that the current and future needs of the school are met. It is recommended that, along with the recommendations of this report, a whole-school approach be taken to identify and prioritise the needs of the school. This should result in clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each member of the management team. Commendably, senior management places a high level of trust on those with additional managerial responsibilities.

However, the oversight and supportive role of the board and senior management to ensure the roles and responsibilities are carried out adequately must also be maintained.

The physical environments varied from well-decorated and tidy to unkempt. During the inspection, some classrooms were left littered after breaks, some of the chairs and tables were in need of repair and communal areas were often untidy. It is recommended that there should be a re-focus on providing and maintaining a clean and orderly learning environment.

Leading school development

Work to acquire a new school building is ongoing. It has been an agenda item for over a decade and the board is optimistic that progress towards this vision is being made.

For the present cohort of students, facilities for information and communications technology (ICT) have been developed to a high standard. During the inspection, there were some good examples of how ICT was used to support teaching and, in a few lessons, ICT was also used well to support learning. There is further scope to explore and utilise the opportunities which ICT can provide to support learning and teaching. While a new school building will provide more space and better facilities, pre-planning should ensure that the move is supported through the development of high-quality whole-school practices of teaching and learning

A lot of work has been done by the school self-evaluation (SSE) co-ordinator. Baseline data have been gathered and analysed and details have been recorded in comprehensive annual reports. For the new cycle of SSE, senior management will need to increase its role in the SSE process to ensure that there is whole-school engagement and implementation.

Management creates an environment where parents have good accessibility to the school. Senior management strives to meet individual parents’ requests in relation to their child’s education. A number of annual occasions provide parents the opportunity to engage with the school. It is recommended that the opportunities which may arise from the work of the board of studies and engagement with the new cycle of SSE be used to include parents more proactively.

The school fosters and maintains strong relationships with local businesses and past students to provide sponsorship, work placement opportunities and guest speakers. It also utilises the networks available such as Le Chéile and the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) to provide training and advice for staff members.

Developing leadership capacity

There are separate systems for senior cycle and junior cycle student representation. The junior-cycle student council works with a link teacher who liaises with management on its behalf. Meetings are informal and students can opt in and out voluntarily. A more formal system is in place for senior-cycle students where representatives are elected from a list of candidates chosen by teachers. Those elected are called prefects and duties include representing the school at various events and linking with first-year class groups. Students should be allowed to choose their own representation and all students should be represented equally. There is scope to further develop students’ leadership capacity by including students more purposefully in areas of school development such as the work of the board of studies and in policy review and development.

Six assistant principals and six special duty post holders, as well as a voluntary programme co-ordinator, make up the middle management team. Year head duties are assigned to five of the assistant principals. Their duties include monitoring the attendance, behaviour and academic

progress of students as well as having responsibility for the pastoral care of the students in their assigned year group. Year heads remain with the group from first year until they leave school. This provides continuity for the students and parents and allows for year heads to experience the full life cycle of a student group. The sixth assistant principal co-ordinates the school plan and is responsible for ensuring school policies are up-to-date and relevant with input from all relevant stakeholders. Management have delegated a number of responsibilities to the special duties post holders.

The vast range of extra-curricular activities on offer in the college would not be possible without the teachers’ commitment and generosity of their time. As well as providing valuable opportunities for students to develop holistically, the students’ engagement in these activities, supported by their teachers, helps foster respectful and co-operative working relationships. The successes at various activities and sporting events help maintain the high, positive profile of the school. The commitment from teachers, parents and management to maintaining the broad extra-curricular programme on offer is highly commendable.

2. QUALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Learner outcomes and experiences

The overall quality of learning was good. Learning was best where students were actively involved in the learning processes. In the best lessons, tasks set were suitably differentiated and the interactions among teachers and students helped create positive and affirming learning environments. Students responded enthusiastically, enjoyed the learning experiences and there was a good balance between student and teacher voice. Where the practice was more didactic, students’ engagement was predominantly passive and in some instances, there was an over-reliance on transcribing notes from the whiteboard. It is recommended that tasks be created to ensure students engage meaningfully with the lesson content and that the potential of ICT be explored to provide them with the required material. Purposeful active engagement should be a regular feature of lessons in all subject areas.

A range of assessment practices was in use in some lessons including regular monitoring of students’ work, effective questioning to check for understanding, good-quality formative written comments to guide for improvement and affirm specifics, and use of constructive oral feedback. In a few lessons, students also had opportunities to self-assess and assess each other’s work in a productive manner. However, in many lessons, there was little evidence of work being regularly monitored or of students receiving constructive feedback to support their learning. It is recommended that there should be a whole-school focus on improving the quality and range of assessment tools used by teachers.

Teachers’ individual and collective practice

The quality of teaching ranged from very good to fair. Where practice was best, clear student-centred learning intentions framed the lesson and students were actively engaged in the learning processes. In the best lessons, suitably pitched expectations were set by the teacher and questioning was used effectively to elicit prior knowledge, check for understanding, prompt students’ thinking and include students’ inputs. All students in these lessons experienced elements of success and challenge.

The quality of collective and collaborative planning varied. Where best, plans clearly outlined the course content for each group and described how the student-centred learning intentions would be achieved using a variety of methodologies, relevant resources and assessment practices. The best

plans had clear timelines and were used to inform individual planning. Analysis of certificate examination results is done annually by each subject department and action planning for improvement mostly focuses on attainment. It is recommended that the agenda for every subject department meeting includes learning, teaching and assessment and that opportunities to share good practice across departments be facilitated by management.

Effective use of ICT to support learning was seen in some lessons. As a teaching tool, it was used to

display pre-prepared slide presentations. In some instances, clips and diagrams supported learning.

One of the departmental plans examined was a very good example of how ICT can support

collaborative planning. It comprised hyperlinks to relevant folders, many of which have already been

populated. Collaboration and commitment from all department members will result in the online

plan being an invaluable bank of relevant information and resources to ensure good quality

provision is consistent and cohesive. It would be good practice for all departments to adopt this

approach and embrace the possibilities of ICT to improve subject department planning. Overall, the

use of ICT to support both learning and teaching needs to be further developed.

There was little evidence of whole-school implementation of numeracy and literacy strategies during the inspection. While the literacy strategy of using keywords featured in a number of lessons, the level of effectiveness varied and subject departments were free to decide on how they were to be used. Very few examples of targeted numeracy development were noted. At the time of the inspection, literacy and numeracy were largely confined to the mathematics and English departments. It is recommended there is whole-school engagement with regular incorporation and implementation of agreed strategies into lessons.

The teaching staff demonstrated high levels of subject knowledge and is commended for its commitment to professional development. As well as availing of the opportunities to upskill in their subject areas, a large cohort of the teaching staff have undertaken further study to develop other skills such as management, leadership and other areas of personal and professional interest.

3. IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PREVIOUS EVALUATIONS

Leadership and Management

Recommendations from previous evaluations relating to the profile of LCVP and appointing a planning co-ordinator have been achieved as were recommendations relating to formally reviewing in-school management systems and the new Junior Cycle. The parents’ association investigated the value of becoming affiliated with the national body, based on a previous recommendation, and made an informed decision to remain unaffiliated. There is still a need to address previous recommendations relating to the principal’s role as safety officer and the profile of the students’ council.

Teaching and Learning

The use of learning outcomes to frame lessons was good. Best practice was observed when the focus was on what the students would learn as opposed to what element of the course would be covered. Implementation of other areas evaluated was satisfactory. There remains scope to expand the use of ICT to support teaching although a few very good examples were observed in some lessons. There is significant scope to exploit the benefits of ICT to support learning. Assessment of and for learning are areas in need of improvement as well as increasing the levels of students’ active engagement in their learning.

4. THE SCHOOL’S SELF-EVALUATION PROCESS AND CAPACITY FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

The School’s Self-Evaluation Process

A comprehensive range of baseline data relating to classroom practice and levels of literacy and numeracy have been gathered, analysed and reviewed. Whole-school targets and strategies for improving literacy, numeracy, classroom practice and assessment for learning (AfL) have been agreed. Some subject departments have taken greater ownership of the targets and have customised them to their own subject needs. It is recommended that for the coming cycle of school self-evaluation (SSE) the focus would extend across all subject areas and use of certificate examination results as a means of measuring success be lessened. Management needs to support the process and ensure that strategies agreed and formulated from data gathered from all relevant stakeholders are implemented.

The School’s Capacity for Improvement

The school’s capacity for improvement is good. Many staff members demonstrate commitment to the school through supporting extra-curricular events and activities as well as maintaining a focus on providing quality learning experiences for the students. The high level of teachers’ engagement with professional support networks and willingness to avail of professional development opportunities is evidence of a wide skill set available to the school as well as high levels of commitment. Management’s role in harnessing the good will and capacity of staff needs to be more proactive.

5. CHILD PROTECTION

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.

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 St. Joseph’s Patrician College welcomes the WSE-MLL Report following the inspection which affirms the work of all school partners. The board believes that the school provides a caring and supportive environment which allows the boys to prosper. It is our view that the motto of the school “Love God, work hard and take care of one another” is lived out on a day to day basis. These values underpin an atmosphere which facilitates the attainment of high educational outcomes, excellence in non-educational activities and a strong concern for the wellbeing of the student. The board welcomes the acknowledgement of teachers’ engagement with continuing professional development (CPD), supported and encouraged by management, and the willingness of teachers to give freely of their time to provide the range of extra-curricular activities for the benefit of the school. 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 acknowledges the recommendations made by the inspectors and is committed to acting on them and to the ongoing continual improvement of St Joseph’s Patrician College. Work has already commenced in a number of areas:

A whole school review of the roles and responsibilities of the in school management team has been completed and ratified by the BOM.

A New Principal and Deputy Principal have been appointed for September 2018 and a review of the roles and responsibilities for Senior Management will take place before the start of 2018-2019 school year.

The school Board of Studies, under the direction of the BOM, has commenced consultations with all stake-holders with a view to broadening the choices available to students, particularly at Junior Cycle.

A new, optional Transition year has been established and will start in Sept 2018 with 44 pupils.

A new POR for the promotion of Teaching & Learning has been established. Teaching and Learning will be a standard item on all staff and subject meeting agendas. Following cessation of industrial action whole school and subject specific training on the New Junior Cycle has been completed by all staff. A whole staff planning day facilitated by the JCT in the area of Wellbeing is scheduled for November 2018.

Under the guidance of SESS, a new SEN policy had been drafted and circulated to all stakeholders and will be considered for BOM ratification, as a matter of priority. A new SEN core team who are SEN qualified has been established; this team will meet monthly, review provision and report to senior management. Senior management have undertaken in-service provided by SESS in SEN provision.

While an informal student referral procedure was in place, a formalised student referral process has now been established.

An ASD unit has been opened.

Published August 2018 / Foilsithe Lúnasa 2018

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 of 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 and provides an example for other schools of exceptionally high standards of provision.

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; outstanding; exceptionally high standard, with very significant strengths; exemplary

Good

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.

Good; good quality; valuable; effective practice; competent; useful; commendable; good standard; some areas for improvement

Satisfactory

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.

Satisfactory; adequate; appropriate provision although some possibilities for improvement exist; acceptable level of quality; improvement needed in some areas

Fair

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.

Fair; evident weaknesses that are impacting on pupils’ learning; less than satisfactory; experiencing difficulty; must improve in specified areas; action required to improve

Weak

Weak applies where there are serious deficiencies in the areas evaluated. Immediate and coordinated whole-school action is required to address the areas of concern. In some cases, the intervention of other agencies may be required to support improvements.

Weak; unsatisfactory; insufficient; ineffective; poor; requiring significant change, development or improvement; experiencing significant difficulties;