Literacy SSE Summary 2013 - 2016

St. Patrick’s N.S.

Ballinagore

16340N

School Improvement Plan

Evaluation period: September 2012 – June 2013

Plan issue date: 1-9-2013

Summary school improvement plan

1. Introduction

1.1 The focus of the evaluation

As part of our ongoing work in the school, we conducted a school self-evaluation of teaching and learning this year. We evaluated Literacy. For more information on how the evaluation took place, please see our School Self-Evaluation Report which is available on our website under School Improvement Plans.

This school improvement plan sets out the actions that we will undertake in the school over the next three years in Literacy. The main purpose of these actions is to improve our pupils’ learning.

2. Summary of school self-evaluation findings

2.1 Our school has strengths in the following areas:

Strengths

70% of our students achieve a STEN 5 or above.

The majority of our students enjoy reading and read aloud well.

Students demonstrate the comprehension skills of predicting, visualising and making connections very well.

The teachers are interested in Continuous Professional Development and are willing to implement new programmes and methodologies.

We know this because we consulted with pupils and teachers, via questionnaires and focus groups and examined test results in the school.

2.2 Our school has decided to prioritise the following areas of development:

Areas for development

1. Direct teaching of higher order comprehension skills and the use of these skills while reading.

2. Increasing vocabulary and use of same.

3. Reading aloud to an audience.

2.3 Our school has set the following targets for improvement which are related to pupils’ achievement and has identified the following actions which will help in achieving those targets over the next three years.

As a parent you can help us by listening to your child read at home, modelling good reading practice, highlighting new vocabulary and fostering a positive attitude to reading for pleasure.

2.4 We know we will have achieved our targets when the afore-mentioned improvements in the standardised test results are achieved, when children demonstrate an improvement in reading aloud, using comprehension skills and display increased vocabulary orally and in written work.