Annual Report of the Board of Governors
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS 2017/18
ST MALACHY’S P.S. BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Chairman: Secretary:
Mr Aengus Hannaway Miss B Frame
22 Milltown Road 13 Mill Meadowns
Lislea Millvale Road
Newry Newry
Trustee Representatives
Rev R McKenna
Mrs M Crilly
Mr S Murphy
DENI Representative
Mrs J McElhaw
E.A. Representatives
Mr S McElvanna
Mrs S Mathers
Teacher Representative
Miss B Frame
Parent Representative
Mr D McCann
SCHOOL HOURS AND HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS
The school hours are as follows:
Nursery 09.00 – 11.30
12.00 – 14.30
P1 – P3 09.15 – 10.30
10.30 – 10.45 (Break)
10.45 – 12.00
12.50 – 14.10
P4 – P7 09.15 – 10.30
10.30 – 10.45 (Break)
10.45 – 12.30
13.10 – 15.10
School closures
31 Oct – 2 Nov
24 Dec – 4 Jan (2-4 Jan SDD)
18 Feb – 19 Feb
15 March – 18 March (15 March SDD)
19 April – 26 April
6 May
24 May – 31 May (24 May SDD)
SCHOOL STAFF
TEACHERS
Mr J Kearns, Principal Miss K McManus
Miss B Frame, Vice Principal Mrs C Mulholland
Mr G Barry Mrs King
Mrs Dickson Miss E Nugent
Mrs D Dooley Miss N Sloan
Mrs K Magee, Head of Nursery Mrs O Woods
SCHOOL SECRETARY
Mrs C McManus
CLASSROOM/DOMESTIC ASSISTANTS
Mrs M Byrne Miss B McQuade
Miss C Devlin Miss L McQuade
Mrs B Flynn Miss M Murphy
Miss E Hannaway Miss E Nugent
Mrs C Kearney Miss N O’Callaghan
Miss C Kinney Mrs N Reel
Mrs M McEneaney Mrs E Woods
CARETAKER
Mr M McKeown
CLEANERS
Mrs M Mooney
Mrs E Hillen
Miss C Devlin
SUPERVISORY ASSISTANTS
Mrs B Flynn
Mrs U Jenkins
Mrs M McEeaney
Miss B McQuade
MISSION STATEMENT
St. Malachy’s promotes the Catholic ethos in all aspects of the school community while educating the whole child in a caring atmosphere. Great value is placed on the individuality of each child as we nurture and develop his or her needs. This school offers a broad and balanced curriculum within a stimulating learning environment and encourages all pupils to strive towards excellence. We foster good relationships within the school and extend them to develop strong links with the wider community.
GENERAL AIMS OF THE SCHOOL
The Board of Governors considers it important to state clearly:
(a) what the school believes in;
(b) what it aims to do for your children;
(c) what are the values we want to give them.
We have attempted to do so in the following short statement of our aims:
i to impart an education which is Catholic, leading the children
towards a mature development of their spiritual, intellectual,
physical, aesthetic and emotional selves;
ii to help the pupils by example, encouragement and direction so that
they may develop into citizens with sound Christian principles;
iii to provide a secure and happy atmosphere in which the children can
learn effectively, and where the teacher is seen as someone who
has their best interests at heart;
iv to provide an education, which while fitting a child for its future
life – leisure and work – would satisfy the criterion of being
intrinsically valuable;
v to help the child develop self esteem and an awareness of personal
value, by giving every assistance and encouragement to make use
of God given talents;
vi to help children appreciate and enter into the rich heritage of
language, religion and culture that has been our legacy from
generation to generation.
RELIGIOUS MATTERS
In promoting the aims of our school, and in particular our first aim, which commits us to the statement of aims of a Catholic school – the core Religious programme we offer to all pupils is that of the Grow in Love series.
The teaching of this formal Religion programme is supplemented by class assemblies, prayer services and frequent pastoral visits by the local clergy. The children in year 4 were enrolled in the Adoration programme in the parish and the Governors are indebted to the parish team who support the school in preparing the children for the sacrament of the Eucharist. P7 pupils attended a retreat in Dromintine Centre, in preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Once again, the school year 2017-18 was a very busy year for the school with St. Malachy’s being involved in a number of educational, sporting and musical activities
and achieving great success in all three! I would like to congratulate and thank both
staff and pupils for their hard work and dedication. Also, a special word of thanks and congratulations to Mr Barry and his P6 pupils who were the winners of the Junior Innovators ‘Renewable Technology Award’, which was held in the University of Ulster! In the last four years we have won the competition three times and finished second the other time – well done to all involved!
As part of our self-evaluation processes, we analyse our standardised test results to determine how well our pupils are achieving. Results showed that despite
approximately 33% of our children being entitled to free school meals (FSME) and 22%
of pupils registered for special needs (SEN), 76% of pupils are performing at or above target in Literacy and 83% are performing at or above target in Numeracy (P4-P7). Five out of seven classes achieved 60% on or above the EA’s Band 5 target in Literacy and four out of seven classes achieved 23% on or above Band 7. In Numeracy six out of seven classes achieved 60% on or above Band 5 and five out of seven classes achieved 23% on
or above Band 7.
Due to industrial action by the Teaching Unions, our school did not participate in End of Key Stage Assessment. However, each teacher did set targets for their own classes,
based on the children’s stanine bands in Literacy and Numeracy. Five out of seven
classes (P4-P7) achieved their targets in Literacy while six classes achieved their
targets in Numeracy. P1-P3 classes set their targets using Book Banding. The results are as follows – P3/P4 achieved 41%, P3 achieved 100%, P2 achieved 61%, P1/P2 achieved 91% and P1 achieved 97%.
The school’s Special Educational Needs policy is in line with the Education (NI) Order. This enables the staff to fully implement the requirements of the Code of Practice on
the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs published by DENI. Pupils with barriers to learning are identified as early as possible and following
discussion with the parent the child may be placed on the Special Needs Register. An appropriate programme of work will be discussed with the parent and guidance given on how to support their child at home.
During the year, parents of children on the school’s Special Needs Register were invited
to attend interviews with the teacher, so that they became familiar with the provision
being offered for their child. Individual Educational Plans were drawn up, in consultation with parents, and a review process initiated. In addition, the parents of children who have
a Statement of Special Need were invited to attend a Transfer Review Meeting and/or an Annual Reivew meeting.
Parents can be assured that St. Malachy’s is committed to providing an effective
education service – one that is set up to meet the individual needs of all children.
Our Special Educational Needs’ Co-ordinators, Mrs Magee and Miss McManus have led the staff during the year ensuring that the implementation of the Special Needs Policy has been effective.
Self-evaluation 2017-18
Our focus for 2017-18 was on determining how effective our intervention programmes were on raising pupil attainment (ISEF P.3). We were very pleased with the outcomes of these programmes as were the pupils and their parents.
In the Nursery, the focus was on promoting real partnership and engagement with parents to deliver key messages about the importance of the home learning environment: Education works in pre-school. As part of this programme, we organised parent workshops and parents ‘Stay and Play’ sessions, thankfully these were well attended and well received.
We use a number of intervention strategies to help us support pupils who are underachieving (UA) or who have special needs (SEN). These include: IXL Maths, Reading Partnership, Talking Partners, Lexia, Nessy, Motor sensory skills and Maths booster classes.
Pupil attendance is a key priority in our plans to improve standards, therefore each parent/guardian received a copy of ‘School Attendance Matters: A Parent’s Guide’ and
we informed them by letter if their child’s attendance fell below 90%. Parents were
also discouraged from taking their children on holiday during term time. Any pupil
with 100% attendance at the end of June received a trophy to mark the achievement.
Our overall attendance for the year was 96.9%
Parent/Teacher consultations were held in the autumn term and parents received a verbal
report on their child’s performance. Each child received an annual report in June.
The school had an inspection in May of this year and despite the fact teachers were on industrial action the inspectors still had some very positive things to say about the school. The report is on the ETI website.
Due to industrial action by the teaching unions assistant teachers did not participate in
the PRSD process. However, Mr Kearns did and he achieved his targets.
We had a lot of in-service training (InSET) both on and off site – all linked to our SDP. Opportunities were provided for all staff to attend relevant InSET and all participants produced a course report for colleagues to avail of and/or delivered a verbal report at a staff meeting. Some of the key InSET courses included: Child Protection, Critical Incident/Bereavement and Loss, Primary Movement ICT, Numeracy, Assessment Analysis, and Down Syndrome. Staff who taught or worked with pupils who had SEN or medical conditions also attended Centralised Health Awareness Training.
The school took five staff Development Days (SDD):
• Barefoot Computing and Primary Assessment Anaylisis
• Financial capability and IZAK9
• Reading Partnership and Linguistic Phonics
• Primary Movement and Bereavement/Critical incident
• Self-evaluation using ISEF
An analysis of course evaluations showed the staff found these days both informative
and useful.
Once again parents were invited to become involved in school life through our provision of parent workshops. These included: STEM, Numeracy, Preparing your Child for
School, Healthy Life Styles, Paired Reading, Internet Safety and sacramental workshops. It was pleasing to note that these workshops were well attended this year!
Our commitment to promoting healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle continued with the school hosting a number of pupil and parent workshops/sessions delivered by external agencies. These agencies included Action Cancer (NI), Ulster Cancer Foundation, ACE Team and local dentists. We also introduced the Daily Mile (P1-P7) to increase the amount of exercise the children received daily.
The occupational therapists were extremely pleased with the progress of those pupils involved in the Sensory Motor Programme. This programme has helped to raise their confidence and boost their self-esteem.
Our nursery continues to provide an excellent Early Years’ Curriculum and Mrs Magee provided a number of courses/workshops for parents on dental hygiene and healthy
eating. We also hosted a RISE team presentation on ‘Communication and Sensory Awareness’. Our nursery continues to have close links with Sure Start, local health providers and local professionals.
We progressed well through our SDP and teachers who had a specific responsibility for
a priority area in our SDP produced an action plan and provided termly updates for Governors. Paid co-ordinators each produced a summative report which was read and signed by Governors.
Congratulations to all of our pupils who participated in Newry Feis. Well done to each child and a big thank you to the teachers for all of their hard work in preparing the children.
A special word of praise to all of our pupils who participated in football, hurling and camogie competitions. My thanks to Mr Barry, Mrs McManus and to all of our coaches for all of their hard work and commitment to the development of games in our school.
A number of guest speakers came into the school to talk to the children including Mrs Roisin O’Hare(EWO), Constables Martin McKeever and Des O’Sullivan (PSNI/CASE)), REIM Training Solutions (Internet Safety), Mr Gerard Hughes (STEM).
The school was also involved in a number of shared education projects. Our P7 pupils worked with Markethill PS (Hand of Friendship) and our P5/P6 pupils linked with St Laurence O’Toole’s, Belleeks, in a STEM pupil and parent workshop and project.
We were part of an extended schools cluster group of local schools which enabled our P5 pupils to go hill walking, and we were provided with funding to purchase IXL (P5-P7)
and to provide Irish classes (P3-P4).
We ran a number of after school activities last year: GAA, Soccer, Camogie, Hurling, Dance, ICT coding, Choir, Irish, Homework, Lexia and IXL.
Finally, I would like to thank Governors, staff, pupils, parents, CCMS, EA and the Department of Education for all their help and support throughout the school year.
Finance
For 2017/18 the allocation to the school amounted to £849,660. This included all staffing costs and other running costs.
Our main fund raiser, our Christmas Raffle, was very well supported and we thank you most sincerely for your generosity. The funds were used in a variety of ways namely:-
1. First Holy Communion reception and flowers
2. Christmas decorations
3. Little treats – Christmas, Easter and during the year
4. Medals and trophies for Sports Day and Full Attendance
5. Prizes
6. Charities
The pupils of our school are encouraged to think not only of themselves but the plight of others – particulary those less fortunate than themselves. During the year the school raised funds for the following charties:
Action Cancer
Cancer Fund For Children
Kenya
NSPCC
Carmelite Nuns
END OF KEY STAGE ASSESSMENT OUTCOMES – 2017/18
Due to industrial action by the Teaching Unions we did not participate in End of Key
Stage Assessments.
ATTENDANCE RATE OF PUPILS
We are very pleased that our attendance rate this year was a very impressive 96.9%.
CHARGING AND REMISSION POLICIES
All educational provision offered by St Malachys is free of charge.
