Inspectors give Dungiven school a glowing report

The report is based on a follow-up inspection of St Patrick's College, following a previous standard inspection just over two years ago.

The new report says the standard inspection in the school in April 2008, highlighted strengths in thecollege's provision that included the friendly and co-operative pupils, the quality of the teaching observed, the commitment and dedication of the Principal and staff to the pupils and the links made with the local community and other education providers to enhance the provision.

That inspection identified the need for improvement in the following key areas: the need to address the variation in the examination results across the subjects, raising the standards in a number; the need to review and develop the Special Educational Needs provision; and the need to implement, monitor and evaluate strategically the planned developments to ensure they lead to improvements in teaching and learning.

In the interval since the inspection, a number of actions which affect the work of the school have taken place: the staff have received support from the Western Education and Library Board's Curriculum Advisory and Support Service (CASS), the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and through the Roe Valley Learning Partnership; the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and classroom assistants have received additional training; and increased time for learning support has been secured and the learning support room has been refurbished.

Also: a systematic structure has been established for monitoring and evaluating the quality of planning, learning and teaching and assessment throughout the school, "with clearly defined roles for heads of departments/subject co-ordinators, the Curriculum Development Team and the Senior Management Team; and a mentoring programme has been introduced to support year 12 pupils who have been identified as underachieving and individual subject workshops for all pupils are provided in preparation for their General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations".

The Education and Training Inspectorate carried out two monitoring visits and finally a follow-up inspection which took place on 7 June 2010.

The follow-up report by the inspectors said: "The action plans produced by the organisation in response to the inspection findings were of a good quality. The school's development plan has been adjusted in light of the inspection findings. The development plan meets the statutory requirements as set out by Department of Education.

"The following are the most important improvements since the standard inspection: the development of a whole-school focus on raising achievement including the effective analysis of performance data to inform target setting, the tracking and mentoring of individual pupils and the well organised subject revision workshops; the improvement in the pupils' performance including the percentages of pupils attaining five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C, and five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including English and mathematics, both of which have risen to well above the Northern Ireland averages for similar non-selective schools; the good support for pupils requiring additional help with aspects of their learning and the evidence of progress being made; and the development and implementation of a rigorous programme for monitoring and evaluating the pastoral and curriculum provision which is supported by the teachers and is having a positive impact on learning and teaching."

The report concludes: "In the areas inspected, the quality of education provided by this school is now good. The school has important strengths in most of its educational and pastoral provision. The follow-up inspection has identified some aspects of the areas for improvement still to be addressed but equally the school has demonstrated the capacity to address these."