School Improvement Plan May 2017

Ardscoil Mhuire

Mackney

Ballinasloe

 

Roll No: 62890m

Introduction

The process of self evaluation is now well established in the school. We have engaged in the process for the last five years and are currently focusing on the following areas:

Area                     Stage in 2016/2017

Numeracy            Consolidation

Reflection           Implementation

 

Our school has chosen to focus on the on the area of ‘Students enjoy their learning, are motivated to learn and expect to achieve as learners’ next and we plan to research this area in the school year 2017/2018.

 

Summary of Self-Evaluation findings

Our school has strengths in the following areas:

  • Staff are aware of the numeracy targets & point out where it is used in everyday life
  • 84% of students feel they use maths in everyday life
  • Progress has been made in teaching the high frequency words at the start of a topic
  • An increasing number of teachers are incorporating one language question per night
  • All books have been reviewed and a number of changes have been made in order to improve the quality of language based questions available to the teachers and students
  • 75% of students experience one session of group work on problem solving in maths per week

Our school has weaknesses in the following areas:

  • 76 % of students still do not feel confident answering language questions
  • While some teachers are using visual verbal squares, progress on their introduction has been slow
  • 59% of students don’t feel they are given time to reflect on their learning experience

 

Action Plan

Numeracy

Target 1

 

Improve the number of students who see that they will use

the maths they learn in everyday life from 84% to 90%

 

Actions:    - At the start of the year staff need to be reminded about the numeracy targets

-At the start of every topic maths teachers are to use 5 real life examples

                   -Teachers to highlight numeracy if it occurs in their subject

                   -Teachers encourage students to use the SALT teaching aid

 

Personnel responsible:                  All staff

Monitoring:        Student questionnaire

Review date:               Feb 2018

Personnel Responsible for monitoring:         SSE Team

 

Target 2

 

Improve the number of students who feel confident

answering language questions from 24% to 50%

Actions      -At the start of the year staff need to be reminded about the numeracy targets

-At the start of every topic maths teachers are to teach the high frequency words

                   -High frequency words are to be uploaded to the shared site

                   -Use visual verbal squares for every topic

                   -Aim to include one question which incorporates language every night

                   -Do one session of group work on problem solving per week

 

Personnel responsible:        All staff teaching maths

Monitoring:                  Student Survey

                                      Staff survey

Review date:               Feb 2018

Personnel Responsible for monitoring:         SSE Team

 

Reflection

Target

 

Improve the number of students who feel they are given time to reflect in class from 41% to 90%

 

Actions:    - At the start of the year staff need to be trained on the reflection strategies that can be used and how to incorporate them in to lessons

 -Encourage staff to incorporate a section for reflection when planning tests

- Teachers are to teach the language of reflection to their classes using the reflection template

- Display template in each classroom and encourage students to reflect using the template in their school Journal

 

Personnel responsible:        All staff

Monitoring:        Student questionnaire

Review date:               Feb 2018

Personnel Responsible for monitoring:         SSE Team