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Below you will find information on our DEIS plan for Attainment. The Postholders with responsibility for this pillar are Danielle O'Leary and Sinead O' Sullivan
Rationale for our Attainment Targets:
As a DEIS school in Dublin 8 we strive to support families to overcome the socio economic barriers that face our students and ensure they can achieve big in their assessments at Mercy Inchicore. This mission is evident in our progression to third level education which is currently at 90%, significantly above the Dublin 8 average of 30%.
For the Attainment pillar, we rely on National statistics for comparisons, however this is not always a reliable comparator for DEIS schools. No DEIS data is released nationally so we are unable to compare like with like. Our data shows that uptake of Higher Level English and Maths at Mercy Inchicore is below national averages. We want to change this through early, targeted intervention, starting with our current First Year group who will benefit most from a full three-year cycle of support.
We also have a growing cohort of EAL students, many of whom arrive with little or no English and face immediate barriers in accessing the curriculum. As EAL becomes a more prominent feature of Irish schooling, it is essential that we provide strong, consistent support from day one.
In addition, parent–teacher meetings, exam analysis and staff feedback highlighted concerns about the academic achievement of the 2024/25 First Year group, with a high proportion receiving “Partially Achieved” across core subjects. We believe these students can perform at a much higher level with structured intervention and clear expectations.
Together, these insights form the basis of our attainment targets, which aim to raise performance, broaden opportunity and strengthen outcomes for current and future cohorts.
Targets
Targets
For the current First year Cohort, we aim to increase the Higher Level English and Maths uptake at Junior Cycle from a baseline of 55% and 43% respectively to 72% and 55% respectively by the end of the three year programme. We aim to close the gap towards national levels and use the learnings from this group to improve outcomes for future cohorts.
We aim to improve the English proficiency of our EAL students by reducing the percentage achieving A1 level in at least one discipline from 24% of the target group to 15% by May 2026, 10% by May 2027 and 8% by May 2028.
26.67% of our 24/25 First years were graded "Partially Achieved" in 3 or more of the 7 core subjects during house exams. We aim to decrease this to 15% by the 2026 2nd Year Summer exams, 11% by the 2027 Mocks and to 8% by the 2028 TY Summer exams.
Timeline
Timeline
May 2025/26 (Year One)
First year students: grade tracker awareness and reflection once per term
EAL students: At the end of this year the number in the target group will drop from 24% A1 proficiency to only 15% at A1 Proficiency with a corresponding increase in A2 and B1 Threshold scores.
2nd years: No more than 15% of 2nd years will fail 3 exams or more in their summer assessments.
May 2026/27 (Year Two)
2nd year students: grade tracker awareness and reflection twice per term
EAL students: At the end of this year the number in the target group will drop from 15% A1 proficiency to only 10% at A1 Proficiency with a corresponding increase in A2 and B1 Threshold scores.
2nd years: No more than 11% of 3rd years will fail 3 exams or more in their summer assessments.
May 2027/28 (Year Three)
Exam year students: grade tracker awareness and reflection three times per term
EAL students: At the end of this year the number in the target group will drop from 10% A1 proficiency to only 3% at A1 Proficiency with a corresponding increase in A2 and B1 Threshold scores.
2nd years: No more than 8% of the group will fail 3 exams or more in their summer assessments.
Monitoring and Review
Monitoring and Review
Inset targets here
Evaluation
Evaluation
Inset targets here
Data
Data
Actions
Actions
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