COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION

OFFICIAL REPORT
(Hansard)

Inquiry into Successful Post-primary Schools Serving Disadvantaged Communities

16 February 2011

Members present for all or part of the proceedings:

Mr Mervyn Storey (Chairperson)
Mr David Hilditch (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr Trevor Lunn
Mr Basil McCrea
Mr John O’Dowd

Witnesses:

Mr Eric Bullick	)	Drumragh Integrated College
Mr Nigel Frith	)
Ms Nicola Gormley	)
Ms Geraldine McKenna	)

Mrs Sandra Cashel	)	Castlederg High School
Mrs Anne Moore	)
Mr Simon Mowbray	)
Mrs Daphne Watt	)

Mr Adrian McGuckin	)	Dean Maguirc College
Mrs Máire Quinn	)
Mr Seamus Shields	)
Mr James Warnock	)

The Chairperson (Mr Storey):

The Committee for Education decided to conduct an inquiry into successful post-primary schools serving disadvantaged communities. The Committee has been exercised on a variety of issues in its time, particularly in this mandate, and an issue that was of considerable concern to it, and that was repeatedly brought to the fore, was underachievement, or underperformance, as we have also had it identified as during the inquiry.

We endeavoured to look at positive elements, because we too often dwell on the negatives in our education system. We felt that it would be useful to have an inquiry into what is and what constitutes a successful post-primary school. By using a method of assessment, we came up with a list of schools that we felt covered Northern Ireland’s geography and its education system’s different sectors. Therefore, we have taken evidence at — the Committee Clerk will keep me right here — the Belfast Model School for Girls and St Pius X College in Magherafelt, and we brought a number of other schools to those visits.

We are here in Drumragh in Omagh, and we are delighted that Nigel will give the first presentation to us. We should each stay within our allotted time, and I will try to lead by example on that. We want to try to ensure that we each have as much time as possible.

Mr Nigel Frith (Drumragh Integrated College):

You are all very welcome to Drumragh Integrated College. That includes the visitors: those from Castlederg High School, Dean Maguirc College and many others represented this morning.

I will introduce those sitting with me. Eric Bullick, a member of the board of governors, was until a year and a half ago principal of the integrated primary school in Omagh. I doubt that there is anyone in Omagh who knows more about integrated education and its history. Geraldine McKenna is the college’s special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCo). She is the best special needs co-ordinator that I have worked with in 25 years. She loves it when I say that publicly. She deals with a wide range of special needs within her remit. Some 10% of students at this college are statemented — 60 in total — and that leads on to the students on other levels of the special needs register. Geraldine works very hard to cater for their needs. Nicola Gormley is the college learning mentor. Committee members may or may not find this an unusual role. It is one that we crafted very carefully. Her remit is to work with individual children who are in danger of falling through the net, if I can put it that way. They may have a range of social and emotional difficulties — what we call collectively “barriers to learning”. Nicola’s role includes liaising with parents and external agencies in the interests of those children. It is a very busy life.

I accept Mervyn’s invitation to stay within time. I intend to run through some key components of the provision that we offer children from disadvantaged communities. I hope that we can tease out some of the issues through questions afterwards.

Before I begin to make the points that I want to make, I find it refreshing and welcome that the Committee is conducting this study. It seems to me that it is engaging with a very real issue and one that is very live. Members will be aware, as we are, that a fair body of research has been conducted in Northern Ireland and beyond into why students from disadvantaged communities do not always perform as highly as those from other backgrounds and what the many different factors involved are.

I am aware, for example, that in the PricewaterhouseCoopers study of 2008 some of the factors identified for the long tail of underachievement included:

“A lack of parental involvement in their children’s education”

and

“A perceived lack of value placed on education”.

One of the outcomes of the research — as I am sure members are very aware of — is that Protestant working-class males are the key group identified. Another factor identified is a “shortage of positive role models” and the “impact of ‘The Troubles’”, which continues to ripple through Northern Ireland even today.

In the research conducted by the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister in 2001, we find the factors for Protestant working-class males identified as:

“Feeling alienated in terms of ability and getting on with others; Not taking part in school activities and not seeing education as important in his life …; Unlikely to have access to the internet; Doing less than one hour of homework per night and believing his teachers would not expect more”

and wanting to get out of school as soon as possible.

In that kind of context, I will run through eight factors that we deliver here that are crucial in the framework of needs. The first element is for children to feel safe and secure. That is perhaps the reason that I provided members with a copy of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, with which you are probably familiar. We believe in its importance as a model to identify the fact that if children do not have their basic needs for food, drink, warmth and space met, they are unlikely to be able achieve at the higher levels identified in the hierarchy. Therefore, the first need that we strive to meet here is for children to feel safe and secure.

The second element is a system of behaviour management that includes high standards of discipline, which we unashamedly maintain. At the same time, we complement that with a reward system and structure that is very much live and active. Our younger students in particular buy into a system of reward merits, which are extremely popular. There are rewards for good work and particularly outstanding effort. The students love to get those merits, because they gives them a sense of achievement, and they are a way for us to say that we appreciate who they are and what they have achieved.

When speaking to the students, particularly those who have got themselves into a bit of a tight spot, we often use the image of our behaviour management approach being like a train on a railway track. Therefore, if you do not mind, I will talk you through that image, which, although simplistic, actually says a lot. For a train to run efficiently, two tracks have to be firmly in place. If one of the tracks becomes derailed, the train will leave the track and cause a train wreck. We identify one of those tracks as being the discipline policy of the school. Students at Drumragh Integrated College know, for example, that violence equals suspension. That is a very hard value to which we hold firm. The students and parents understand it, and we stick to it. The students understand the clear and transparent boundaries that are set for them. The other rail on which the train runs is that of support. That is where the reward system and the particularly important work of folks such as Nicola, our learning mentor, Geraldine or, indeed, any of the staff come in.

The third element is quality teaching. I worked with a principal some years ago who was very fond of saying that if surgeons used surgical methods in their work that were 50 years old and clearly outdated, there would be such an outcry. Why should schools get away with it? We pride ourselves on taking on board the fact that more has been learnt about the working of the human brain in the past 20 years than at any other time in history. We know a lot now about how youngsters learn and about where their barriers to learning arise from. We seek to build on that understanding in order to help our youngsters to achieve the very best that they are capable of. That includes the concept as set out in the briefing paper of promoting a belief among children and parents that there is no single type of intelligence and that intelligence is, in fact, multiple. There are many ways of learning and many different preferred learning styles. We seek to encourage our students to understand how they learn best and to use learning methods that are most appropriate for them.

The fourth factor is engagement with parents. We promote the triangle of student, parent and member of staff — teacher or not — and we seek to develop that partnership in the interests of the child. That is worked out in many different ways, one of which is the support provided by Nicola and Geraldine. They will readily lift the telephone to invite parents to come in to discuss their children’s progress. In Nicola’s case, if parents do not want to come into the school, she will jump in the car and go to see them in their home. Let us just pause and reflect on the reason for that: sometimes students who have barriers to learning come from homes that also have barriers to learning, and sometimes we are looking at parents who themselves had a very negative experience of school and do not like coming into school. They feel intimidated the minute that they walk through the door, and that creates a barrier to our communication with them. Nicola, therefore, begins to build links with them in their living room. She earns their trust there before they come into school to meet us. We also reach out to parents through consultation days, as an alternative to traditional parents’ evenings. In fact, we are holding one here today. Parents come in with children from two year groups to meet staff in the main hall behind me while the rest of our students are on a home study day on work that has been set specifically for them to complete at home. We have revision skills workshops, to which we invite parents and students to come and learn together about how to revise effectively and what is involved in preparing for exams in the best way possible. There are other examples, but I am conscious of time, so perhaps we can talk about those later.

The fifth factor is high exam grades. Whatever else we do, we are acutely conscious of the fact that students need to leave here with the best exam grades possible. We are in the middle of a recession. The odds are stacked against our young people as they enter the employment market, so the least that we can do is to fulfil our responsibility to give them the best exam grades that we can. To that end, some of the activities that we engage in include mentoring all our year 12 students. All children in year 12 have a member of staff working alongside them through that critical GCSE year. That member of staff meets them regularly, listens to their needs and helps them to overcome any barriers to learning that they may have.

We have abandoned the traditional notion of study leave. Members will be aware that, traditionally, schools say farewell to students in the middle of May and almost abandon them at the time when they need us most. Instead, our staff put on a full programme of revision lessons and compile registers of who attends. We are convinced that that programme is instrumental in the GCSE results that we achieve, which were that 81% of pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C. That is a delight to us, and we think that the mentoring, coaching and revision skills that we deliver to our students is part of the reason for it.

The sixth factor is a sense of acceptance. Learning is a very emotional business, and, too often in the past, schools have assumed that it is purely an intellectual exercise, leading perhaps to the idea in Pink Floyd’s song about children being seen as another brick in the wall. To learn effectively, students need to feel comfortable and engaged. We know from research into the brain that the ideal learning state is called “relaxed alertness”, and, if a child can be encouraged to work in that mental frame, it produces optimum learning. To achieve relaxed alertness, youngsters need to feel that they are given time when they have a problem, and they and their parents need to know that, when a problem is reported to us, we will deal with it and that that will be done efficiently. Students need to know that they can trust us, and they also need to know that, regardless of their potential or their learning needs, they are welcome here and that they are accepted.

That applies regardless of whether they have learning difficulties, such as the type that Geraldine deals with, or whether it is an emotional barrier of some sort, with which Nicola deals. It also applies to the students who are gifted and talented, and we have a discrete programme for gifted and talented students. It identifies them, because we need to know who they are, and we have a programme in the classroom and beyond to ensure that their learning needs are met.

The seventh factor is the sense of values that we seek to develop in our students. That includes tolerance and respect, as well as the values that underpin integrated education, which are about inclusion, accepting difference and seeing difference as a positive. One of the latest initiatives in which we have involved ourselves is called restorative justice, through which youngsters learn to resolve differences for themselves, not at a high level but at a lower level. They engage face to face, ask questions such as how a person felt when he or she was involved in a situation, and they listen to each other. Often, the outcome of that is a new sense of tolerance and understanding. Sometimes there are tears, and often there is handshake over the table and the issue is resolved. That is a part of the programme of value development that we are rolling out and seeking to improve for the good of the youngsters who attend here.

That brings me to my eighth and final point. I have deliberately saved it until last. It is riddled through the briefing that I sent the Committee. It is on the quality of relationships between staff and students. Children from disadvantaged communities in particular will sometimes come to school with barriers ready to go up. They often do not want to be here. They come from homes where parents do not particularly value what we do, and they themselves are suspicious of the whole world of school and education.

I would be surprised if it were only two.

The Chairperson:

The merit system is important, and I see value in that approach. Something else that came out over the past number of weeks as the Committee has visited schools was the issue of the right teachers doing a valuable job. One school clearly indicated that it would not have made the progress that it had made had there not been a change in the staff profile.

When you are selecting or interviewing candidates for teaching vacancies, how do you assess whether they have the right attitudes towards pupils, because that is a core element of the ethos of this school. When you are going through that process, how do you determine that that teacher has the right attitude to fit in exactly with the success that you want to maintain and build on?

Mr Frith:

First, any recruitment process for any member of staff at Drumragh is a full-day affair at the very least. If the vacancy is for a teaching post, one of the first things that we insist on doing in the morning is to watch them teach. We sit at the back and watch not only how they deliver their subject but how they engage with students. You learn so much from a simple classroom observation. You see how they treat children and respond to the unexpected little tweaks and occurrences that inevitably come up.

The second thing that we like to do is invite them to meet students during the day, and we watch how they engage with them. Traditionally, we have engaged in student interview panels during the morning, at which we have a formally trained panel of students who interview candidates in the same way as the adult panel will in the afternoon. The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) and the national Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) tell me that I should not be doing that, and it is currently under review. However, I will replace it only if there is a viable alternative. We have found that to be an excellent way of gauging student responses and candidates’ ability to interact with staff.

Let me give you an example: we were interviewing a few years ago for a classroom assistant and the student interview panel fed back afterwards that it had found one candidate condescending. Immediately, that candidate was out of the running and there was no hope of that candidate getting the job. It is essential to see how staff interact with youngsters, and if they do not have the, if you like, Drumragh Integrated College ethos in the way in which they approach children, they are not the ones for us, and we let them go. Does that answer your question?

The Chairperson:

It does. That is something that I was keen to visit. I note that in your response to the inquiry, you stated:

“As part of a drive to self-evaluate, I believe principals and senior leaders should be able to observe classroom practice more easily, to monitor what is happening in the classroom; the Department is not doing enough to resolve the dispute with the NASUWT who are threatening industrial action against schools that attempt this.”

That is something that Committee members should bear in mind and try to tease out a little. It is a different way of approaching things. Much of what we have focused on concerns pupils, but if we are looking for leadership, we need the correct process to appoint that leadership. I think that that is a key issue, and I found it very useful.

Mr Frith:

If the Committee does not mind, I will elaborate on that point for 60 seconds. My colleagues will know that you have just touched on a very important issue for me. As the principal of this school, I am charged with guaranteeing that the quality of teaching and learning is the very highest that it can be. The fact that I am effectively prevented by one teachers’ union from entering the classroom when I like to observe what is happening makes my blood boil. It is entirely wrong. In fact, it is ridiculous.

Several years ago, I proposed conducting a learning walk, and I went head to head with the NASUWT over it. I proposed that, whenever I had spare time during the week, I would hit the corridors, enter a classroom, stay for 15 minutes to half an hour and watch what was going on. I would talk to some of the students and take an interest in the work that they were doing that day, and the staff would be given the choice of whether to make me an invisible presence or to involve me in the learning experience. I proposed that, when leaving the room, I would simply place a postcard on the teacher’s desk that would tell the teacher what I most enjoyed about what I had just seen, and I would leave one piece of positive feedback. If there was anything else to be followed up on, I would do that later and separately from the classroom environment.

The NASUWT told me that I could not do that unless it was within a performance review and staff development (PRSD) remit, which allows me to conduct either one or two classroom observations each year. The union continues to block any other attempt by principals to monitor what is going on in the classroom, and I think that that is ridiculous.

The debate continues. Last month, I was told by my union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) that the issue was resolved and that there was to be a new beginning. However, the NASUWT sent out a briefing paper to its members within the same month that told them that if any principal attempted to enter their classroom for any type of observations that are not PRSD that they should report them immediately to the union. Therefore, the NASUWT withdrew from the agreement that it had made.

I am not sure how to take that. Thank you very much for the presentation, Nigel. I am not sure who you were talking to before, but there are certain phrases that we come across. Andy McMorran — I do not know whether you know Andy — was lecturing us about the importance of the relationship between staff and pupils, so we do pick up certain themes.

The Chairperson:

We will just check. There are a couple of things that we want to get from you.

Mr Frith:

I will give you these copies.

Mr B McCrea:

Mr O’Dowd:

I see that one of the key factors is the relationship with the family unit, which can take many different shapes. There is no traditional family. I note that you engage with parents, and so on. How do you engage with that group of hard-to-reach guardians?

Mr Frith:

In a range of ways, and I have already referred to Nicola Gormley’s work. In more extreme examples in her caseload, she goes out in the car to meet parents who will not come into the school. That also links into something that I said to Basil a moment ago. If parents come to us with problems such as their child is not getting on or is being bullied, they must be able to see that we have a 100% record of dealing with such problems. A level of trust then begins to grow. Although these things take time, those parents will begin to see that, actually, we really do care about their kid. They then begin to engage, and trust slowly begins to embed.

The process includes bringing them in to take part in, for example, the mentoring programme with our GCSE students. Parents, too, take part in that. We also involve them in the consultation day model that is taking place in the school hall today as an alternative to the traditional tired, sweaty parents’ evening, which we find to be a highly pressurised environment that leaves everyone shattered at the end of the day. Parents, who often come swinging in without any tea, just wish to get out and go home again. Those evenings become a kind of a tip of the hat towards consultation, whereas the model that we are introducing here states that this is important: we are taking a day out of our schedule to talk to you, and, unashamedly, we ask parents to book a day off work to come and talk to us. We request that, in the interests of their child, we really engage. Through a range of such networks, we find that trust begins to grow.

There are a couple of issues there. First, Nicola referred to emotional intelligence. Essentially, that means that a child is extremely able academically but, emotionally, is immature. Some of the outcomes of that will include an inability to deal with conflict and a complete inability to handle uncertainty or challenge, and the child’s relationships are often ineffective. Therefore, taking strategies forward to help children to develop their emotional intelligence is vital to their academic achievement. People have to be high in academic and emotional intelligence to be successful, never mind the fact that, when they go into the workplace, they have to have teamworking skills and be able to challenge pressure.

One of the most famous tests on emotional intelligence ever conducted was the marshmallow test, where small children were given the choice of accepting a marshmallow immediately or, if they waited 10 minutes, they could have two. Those children were tracked right into their adult working lives. Those who waited for two marshmallows were more successful in their working lives and achieved higher exam results, which was an unexpected outcome of the study. However, even at the age of four, those children had intrinsically grasped the concept of delayed gratification and waiting in order to achieve something more important down the line. That is just a tiny indicator of this whole world of emotional intelligence.

The multiple intelligence theory simply says that there is no single type of intelligence. David Beckham is a kinesthetic genius, whatever he was like in the classroom. The man who fixes my car is a genius in his field. Some people are smiling because my car has been off the road for six weeks, but that is another matter.

Mr B McCrea:

That is a Barry McElduff statistic.

Mr Frith:

I came dangerously close to it. The multiple intelligence theory is liberating, because it promotes the view that every child is good at something. There will be areas of expertise and strength for them, and, instead of asking whether someone is intelligent or not, the question is: where are your strengths? What are your key intelligences, and how shall we play to those?

I will give one final example and then I will stop talking, because you are in danger of getting me going here. One type of intelligence is interpersonal and another is intrapersonal. The revision methods or teaching methods that are employed for children who are high in either of those areas are completely different. A child who is high in interpersonal intelligence will love it when the teacher tells the class that, as a treat, they are going to work in small groups. The interpersonal learner will say, “Brilliant, I learn well this way”, but the intrapersonal learner will curl up and say, “Oh, not again. Please do not do this.” In fact, the intrapersonal learner will be thinking, “What I would love you to do is tell me what I need to do and how I can succeed.” Then he or she will say “Please, give me space, and I will do it myself.” We are learning to balance the teaching and learning strategies brought into the classroom in order to play to individuals’ strengths.

We have taken that to the point that we have a database in our computer system of which are the highest intelligences of each child in the school, and that can be turned into a class profile, whereby a teacher can draw up a pie chart of the class and see which intelligences are the highest, then plan teaching and learning strategies accordingly.

Mr B McCrea:

That is interesting.

Mr Frith:

It is powerful.

The Chairperson:

We would be very keen to receive a paper or some more information on that. Nigel, Nicola, Geraldine and Eric, thank you very much. That was very useful and helpful, and we look forward to having a further discussion over lunch.

I welcome the acting principal of Castlederg High School, Anne Moore, and her team. You are very welcome. Thank you for making the journey to Omagh this morning. I invite you to make a presentation.

Mrs Anne Moore (Castlederg High School):

I will let the members of my team — our team, I should say, or Castlederg High School’s team —introduce themselves. They are all experts in their field and can speak a lot better about their roles than I can. I will start over here with Simon.

Mr Simon Mowbray (Castlederg High School):

I am acting vice-principal in Castlederg High School, and I have responsibility for curriculum provision and curriculum development in the school. I am also a head of department and a former year head, and I have responsibility for extended schools provision. I also look into avenues of external funding that may be available to the school.

Mrs Daphne Watt (Castlederg High School):

I am the pastoral co-ordinator for the school and the designated teacher for child protection. I am also responsible for the induction of the new year 8 students into the school. I am also a teacher governor.

Mrs Sandra Cashel (Castlederg High School):

I am the special educational needs co-ordinator and the teacher tutor responsible for teachers who are new to the school and those teachers in early professional development. I am also the teacher librarian and a year head.

Mrs Moore:

I have been acting principal only since September, but, before that, I was vice-principal in charge of behaviour management and leading the school development plan team. Ten years ago, I was also part of the major change that took part in the school, with the introduction of the ethos under our former principal, Dessie Williamson.

We will focus on what we think makes Castlederg High School one of the most successful schools in its sector in the Western Board area. The school makes it a policy to exploit our students’ disadvantage. We do that by ensuring that our mission statement is not just a collection of platitudes but a shared vision to motivate our young people beyond their perceived disadvantage. It states:

“The ideal to which we aspire is to develop the confidence and self esteem of the pupils so that they are motivated to achieve their highest potential within a safe and caring environment.”

The mission statement was agreed five years ago by all staff — teaching, learning support, technical, catering and caretaking — and the board of governors. It is revisited at the start of each new academic year. The mission statement, along with a set of core values, established a learning environment with high expectations that is delivered through positive encouragement and mutual respect. In the implementation of the ethos, all parties have worked together to set up structures and policies to promote quality teaching and learning to be delivered in a secure and supportive environment.

The school development plan (SDP) has been in operation since the 1999-2000 school year. Over the past 11 years, its focus has been on improving teaching and learning. Initially, it identified a group of underachieving year 11 boys. Staff training centred on combining shared strategies that they, as professionals, knew had a positive impact on motivating boys, with techniques that were researched by educational bodies. Since then, boys’ learning, differentiation, thinking skills, assessment for learning, effective questioning strategies, literacy and numeracy have been the ongoing focus of our development plan.

The school development plan is one of the key issues on the agenda for staff training. It is effective because it is tailored to achieve our targets and is delivered by a highly committed and motivated team. The SDP’s teaching and learning targets are monitored through the PRSD process, which is effective in ensuring that it is actively pursued as a whole-school issue. The profile of teaching and learning is kept at the forefront of departmental meetings, during which staff are directed by the SDP team to undertake an evaluation of individual pupil attainment in their subject. Heads of department are required to give feedback of progress to the SDP group at termly meetings. A combination of teachers’ professional judgement, use of data and support from the Western Education and Library Board’s advisory team ensures the implementation of those targets. Evaluation is ongoing throughout the academic year, as Simon will explain later.

Mrs Watt:

I will talk about the pastoral element of the school. Teaching and learning can take place only in an environment in which pupils feel secure, have a sense of worth and dignity and assume a sense of responsibility, and in which success and achievement are celebrated. Those are the aims of the pastoral dimension of our school. Our links with primary schools, coupled with our induction programme, ensure that, on transfer, year 8 pupils settle in quickly. Detailed information from primary schools ensures that individual pupil needs are understood and catered for. Ongoing support from senior pupils acting as guardian angels provides another safety net.

In our pastoral system, each class remains with the same form teacher and year head from year 8 until year 12, which is a structure that fosters a sense of trust and identity. Extra support is available from the school counsellor or outside agencies. The school’s pastoral provision is underpinned by mixed-ability, timetabled lessons in personal development education.

In all aspects of school life, our emphasis is on the positive. Our merit mark and other reward systems promote good behaviour and encourage positive contributions to the school. However, effective structures are in place for dealing with the challenges with which our pupils inevitably present us. Pupils are encouraged to develop confidence, interpersonal skills and a sense of responsibility through the prefect system, our active student council and various other projects, such as the unity team. Pupils in our school know that their voice will be heard and heeded.

A crucial element in the success of our pastoral provision is communication, be it through staff training, where aspects of the pastoral dimension feature prominently; through monthly meetings of numerous pastoral teams at all levels or management; or through daily morning briefings, the minutes of which are e-mailed to both teaching and support staff. The relaying of decisions to all parties, including pupils and parents, ensures that all members of the school community understand our system and have the confidence to use it. In short, in the pastoral dimension, as in all other areas of our school, dedicated leaders head a team of committed staff with a common vision that has the pupil at its centre. That is the way in work we work.

Mrs Cashel:

I will take a moment to outline how learning support supplements the pastoral and curricular dimensions. It ensures that our core values are accessible for pupils who experience learning difficulties and who might otherwise be marginalised. Its high profile is exploited as a key strength on open night, is tangible in the day-to-day running of the school and is credited by the community as ensuring that young people really do get the help that they need. Here, too, the emphasis is on the positive, and there is a culture of high expectation for all pupils to achieve. That aspiration is mirrored by the onus of shared responsibility on all staff. That collaborative approach is driven by ongoing in-service education and training (INSET) and informal teacher support, the provision of up-to-date information and data, communication during scheduled meetings and accountability monitored through pupil progress reviews and PRSD observations.

Success is possible for our less academic pupils or those with a special educational need only when they have been supported in overcoming the barriers to learning. To that end, we seek early identification of difficulties and prompt planning and provision from a wide range of support mechanisms. Our staff of 13 highly motivated learning support assistants is our greatest resource to that end, with in-class support being the primary means of intervention.

Raising standards of literacy and numeracy is a central preoccupation for us. Learning support works in partnership with the co-ordinators of those two key skill areas to manage a programme of both cross-curricular and discrete initiatives. As I am sure the Committee is aware, reading is potentially the greatest barrier to learning, so our reading partnership programme offers one-to-one support as an integral part of the English curriculum for the lowest ability classes in both Key Stages 3 and 4. The value added is so significant that it can only impact positively on pupils’ performance across the curriculum and help to limit underachievement.

Our learning support policy aims to enable pupils, parents and staff. It is a partnership approach that is accessible through many channels of communication, both formal and informal. We actively encourage input from pupils and parents, as well as staff, as we work together to create a positive school experience for each young person.

Mr Mowbray:

I have responsibility in the school for the implementation of the Northern Ireland curriculum and the entitlement framework. That is an obvious overlap with the school development planning team, of which I am also a member. As far as the Northern Ireland curriculum is concerned, as a development team, we decided to focus initially on thinking skills, personal capabilities and assessment for learning, and we took those forward as areas for whole-school development. We felt that thinking skills and personal capabilities were an important area to focus on, as they have a direct impact on the methodologies and strategies that our staff are using and that the pupils will benefit from.

We strive to promote an active learning environment for our pupils while aiming to maintain the academic rigour and content that is required for external examinations at Key Stage 4 and post-16. We felt that the sharing of learning outcomes, success criteria and formative assessment were examples of good assessment practice that we should develop right across the curriculum subjects in a whole-school and coherent approach. We have developed our own INSET training and deliver it through our own staff. We have built into it regular evaluation procedures through which our staff are able to give us qualitative and quantitative feedback. We have identified PRSD as one of the main vehicles to monitor and evaluate the success and implementation of thinking skills and assessment for learning techniques.

We always strive to include as much time as possible in our INSET days for our staff to focus on teaching and learning, with the heads of department then feeding progress back to the school development planning group through heads of department meetings, reports to the principal, and so on. By doing that, we ensure that the communication between senior management and departments and on to the classroom teachers moves in both directions effectively.

We encouraged our staff to choose agreed PRSD targets. For the past three years, we have agreed two targets that were set around thinking skills and assessment for learning, and, for the third target, we allow the staff to pick a particular area that they would like to develop.

After studying the recommendations of the Every School a Good School document, we modified our school development plan, and we have identified and implemented actions for pupils in years 8, 9 and 10 who are at risk of underachieving in literacy and numeracy. The pupils are identified through the pupil data, and they are mentored by the literacy and numeracy co-ordinators and by departments that have been given responsibility for the implementation of communication and using mathematics at Key Stage 3. Targets have been identified and communicated to the pupils, staff and their parents and through individual education plans (IEPs), which are reviewed twice a term. By implementing those strategies early, we hope that, in a few years, those pupils will be able to attain five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including in English and maths.

Our school is a member of the Derg Mourne Learning Community (DMLC), which consists of six post-primary schools and approximately 3,000 pupils in the Strabane District Council area. We have worked with the other schools to develop strategies for the full implementation of the entitlement framework. I acted as the part-time co-ordinator for the DMLC for two years. That has helped to raise the profile of the entitlement framework in our school, and we have been able to achieve a tangible level of success. This year, 387 pupils from across the community are involved in collaborative courses, with additional courses and elements of rationalisation included for September 2011.

Our school has introduced five BTEC courses this year, and we currently deliver 25 courses at GCSE level, 43% of which are vocational. That gives our pupils a broad and balanced curriculum. Our major challenge, as a smaller and rural school, is the post-16 level. Nonetheless, we have increased our delivery from 13 subjects in 2007 to 22 subjects this year.

A write-up of that would be helpful to the Committee. You have approached the issue in a very particular way in Castlederg and you are to be commended for it.

More or less, yes.

Mrs Moore:

Every year is different, so I could not make a broad statement about that. What is unfortunate about the grade D is that someone, somewhere has decided that the grade C has the monetary value that gets you ahead. Unfortunately, there will be youngsters, as our hosts have said, for whom a grade D is a huge achievement. Luckily, vocational avenues are very much still open to them. It just means that, academically, they will not go on to do A levels.

I will ask Sandra Cashel to comment on the learning support programme, because she is involved in that. It is about added value. When pupils come to us in year 8 with such a poor level of achievement, to come out with a grade D is a huge achievement. I honestly cannot say whether more boys got grade Ds this year. I do not particularly look at those figures. Statistics, as you all know, are there to use to your advantage. We look at children individually. We have a mentoring programme, which has been very successful over the past five or six years. We mentor children at the beginning of year 12 if we feel that they are on five or six estimated grade Ds to see whether we can pull those estimated grades up. That exercise has proved hugely successful. Any child who has been mentored has had their grades pulled up, which makes one wonder whether every child should be mentored. The problem is that we are finding it particularly difficult this year, because this year’s year 12 is completely different to any year 12 that we have had previously. That is why it is absolutely crucial to treat every year as an individual year. Every approach has to be different. We cannot set something in stone and say that it works and go with it. It has to be constantly re-evaluated.

Mrs Cashel:

It is frustrating that people fail to recognise the fact that a grade D exists as an achievement and a grade in its own right. I can think of a number of pupils in school who entered year 8 with a reading age that perhaps just tipped over seven years. Literacy presented a considerable challenge for them in their English achievement but also in their access to other subjects across the curriculum. When they went into a science or geography class, if they could not manage to read the textbooks, they were disadvantaged right from the word go. I can think of several pupils who came in at that baseline but who ultimately — through their schooling, the support that we have in place, and the strategies that teachers employed across the curriculum — came out achieving a grade D.

There was considerable value added for those pupils and for their self-esteem at having been able to go through a GCSE course and achieve what was, for them, a credible grade. That was a great achievement in itself. It requires a great level of intervention for them to be able to achieve that through the types of support programmes that I mentioned; for example, the reading partnership. That programme tries to ensure that pupils have a functional level of literacy that will impact on their ability across the curriculum.

Mr Lunn:

This is the eighth school of which I have asked that question, and I always get the same answer. The only place that I do not get the same answer is from whoever dreams up these level 1 or level 2 criteria. A level 1 is unsatisfactory, and a level 2 is basically satisfactory, but a grade D is equivalent to the top end of level 1.

I will not belabour the point, although I will ask the question of the next school as well. [Laughter.]

The Chairperson:

They can be prepared.

Mr Mowbray:

The other problem is an alternative. We had looked in some length at an alternative to GCSE English and maths, where pupils would be able to achieve a level 2. The issue there is the currency of that mark. We came to the conclusion that a grade D or a grade E in GCSE English or maths was of much more value than the available alternatives.

Mrs Cashel:

It means much more to the pupils’ sense of self-worth as learners: the fact that they are achieving GCSEs, just the same as the other pupils in higher streams in the school.

Mrs Moore:

Perhaps the public and workforce need to be educated in what a grade D is, and what that pupil can do with a grade D in English. The problem is ignorance. People think that if pupils have not achieved grade C, that is it, they are failures.

The Chairperson:

That point is coming out more and more, and I think that we will be very conscious of it when we are writing our report on this inquiry. Hopefully, we can contribute to getting out to the public what is a key element.

Mr Lunn:

I noticed in your submission that you mention some pupils who passed a transfer test but chose to come to you. I am always glad to see that. Is there a grammar school in Castlederg? I do not know this place very well.

Mrs Moore:

We have two grammar schools on our doorstep, as well as the integrated school in Drumragh. Omagh Academy is another of our competitors, as is Strabane Grammar School, which is currently being amalgamated. Unfortunately, as Daphne, who is the link teacher, will tell you, the abilities of primary schools are assessed on how many children they can they can get through to a grammar school. That is how they are assessed by parents. We have the unfortunate situation of primary schools encouraging as many as possible of their year 7 pupils to go on to grammar schools, as well there being two grammar schools that will take quite low-ability children. We have a lot of competition in that field.

Mr Hilditch:

Thank you for your presentation. It never ceases to amaze me the number of talented young footballers who come from Castlederg. [Laughter.]

The Chairperson:

Tom Buchanan was not one of them.

Mr Hilditch:

I am quite jealous of Harry McConkey at Dergview; he seems to have a wealth of talent at times. There are others who went to the school who have gone further afield. That is very positive.

Engagement with parents and community links seem to tie in with each other in such a rural sense and probably complement each other. That is very important. Will you tell me a wee bit more about your parental engagement?

Mrs Moore:

There is a variety of links with parents. Our first link with primary schools is when parents come through on open night. We also have strong links with extended schools funding, which is an important facility for us as such an isolated rural area. Simon Mowbray has more facts on that.

Mr Mowbray:

We are in an area of social deprivation, which allows us access to the extended schools funding. We receive approximately £28,900 a year. We run a variety of after-school clubs for our pupils. A lot of that funding is spent on transport, as you can imagine. We pull in pupils from a huge diaspora that stretches 14 miles, as far as Gortin. We offer a range of activities for pupils, from sports to after-school revision classes and booster classes for GCSE. We have an ICT group, a chess club, a science club, and our literacy and numeracy club for pupils identified as underachieving in those areas.

We specifically use the extended schools money for our pupils in school. We are also part of a cluster of 12 primary schools. One of the great facilities that we have at the school is our synthetic pitch, with floodlighting, a pavilion, and so on, for which we applied to the Big Lottery Fund eight or nine years ago. Around 100 pupils from primary schools come every Thursday afternoon to access our sports, arts and crafts, drama, music and one other provision that I cannot recall off the top of my head.

That access is also cross-sectoral, with pupils coming from the maintained and the controlled sectors. It is funded not through extended schools funding but through Peace III. The school applied two years ago for Peace III funding to promote shared spaces in the local community, for which we offer a range of activities after school for primary-school children. Cross-sectoral primary schools come together to go swimming. As part of that, 50 pupils are about to go on a cross-community trip to Edinburgh. We run evening activities for parents in dancing, ICT, Spanish, guitar and arts and crafts.

That was before they put the ball in the net.

Mrs Moore:

Young people do have a view of life that they can go on ‘The X Factor’ and be an instant success, or they watch David Beckham playing and think that that will be them and therefore should put all their energies into that. We have to make them aware of the real world. At the moment, the Derg Mourne Learning Community is focusing on careers, and it has a careers subgroup, which has changed the whole way in which we deliver careers.

Mr Mowbray:

I do not think that we can put pupils into boxes or hatches any longer. One cannot look at them and say that they are going to be a plumber or an electrician. For a start, the jobs are not there any longer. I actually chaired the careers subgroup, despite knowing very little about careers. The subgroup developed a wealth of resources right from year 8 up through key stage 3, and a lot of that was done through asking the pupils to look at their personal strengths.

It gets to the stage now where the pupils are beginning to make their own decisions. If someone wants to be a vet but is never going to get the qualifications to be a vet, we cannot say to them that they are never going to be a vet. What we have to try to do is get them to evaluate their skills, abilities and potential for academic achievement, and then allow the pupils to make their own informed decision. In tandem with that, we give them as much guidance as we possibly can.

The careers subgroup in particular has really identified a procedure that seems to work quite well. In our own school, when making their choices, pupils go to the assembly hall and speak to pupils who are studying the subjects that they may be interested in. Quite often, teachers can tell pupils to study, for example, GCSE history because they are quite keen to get a history class, but the pupils are now speaking to other pupils about subjects.

Just to clarify, are you accompanied by Seamus Shields?

Mr Seamus Shields (Dean Maguirc College):

Yes, I am a member of the board of governors.

The Chairperson:

Are you also a councillor?

Mr Shields:

Yes.

The Chairperson:

Thank you, it was just so that we could get your full title.

Mr Warnock:

With me today are our newly appointed vice-principal, Mrs Máire Quinn; our curriculum co-ordinator, Adrian McGuckin; and, as you already know, Seamus Shields, who is a local councillor and a member of the board of governors. We are very aware of the time restrictions, so we will deliver an abridged version of our presentation. Before we talk about our school being a successful school, I want to give the Committee a little bit of background on the type of school that we are.

The mission statement of Dean Maguirc College is:

“We commit ourselves to the growth and development of people.”

That is what we are all about. Dean Maguirc College is situated in Carrickmore, in rural Co Tyrone, and, believe it or not, it is the home town of Barry McElduff, who continues to live there.

The Chairperson:

After his performance yesterday —

Mr Warnock:

I am sure that he would come back to me if I did not mention that.

Mr B McCrea:

We all know Carrickmore.

Mr Warnock:

The school opened its doors in 1966, and it has catered for all abilities for 30 years. It is a co-educational maintained secondary school with 472 pupils with an age range of 11 to 18 years of age. Like Castlederg High School, the number of pupils at the school is just under the 500.

As a rural school, 90% of our pupils travel by bus, and 14% of our pupils come from the Southern Education and Library Board area. The ratio of boys to girls is 50:50, and 24 of our pupils have a statement of special educational needs. We have a teaching staff of 36, eight classroom assistants and our head of mathematics and numeracy co-ordinator, Mrs Máire McGinn, is a member of the Northern Ireland Literacy and Numeracy Task Force.

As a school, we are very proud of our academic success and the achievement of our pupils who pursue vocational courses. The school has also been very successful in extracurricular activities. It has achieved national and provincial titles in sport, has represented Northern Ireland in the UK final of the Formula 1 in Schools: the Formula One Technology Challenge and has won numerous awards, particularly in the areas of the arts. We come together as a school community twice a year to celebrate the achievement of our pupils.

We are a school with a vision, which is clearly reflected in our mission statement. Our basic aim is to enable every pupil to achieve his or her full potential using the gifts that he or she has been given, and we endeavour to meet the curricular and pastoral needs of pupils across the ability range. The starting point for achieving that is our link with feeder schools, about which I shall speak later.

On entry to Dean Mcguirc College, children are set in classes containing, on average, 20 pupils. Classes are banded for English, mathematics and science, and, to enable movement between the four classes for those subjects, they are run concurrently, which, in turn, ensures that children work in a class that is appropriate to their needs.

We have a coherent plan for delivering the curriculum at the relevant Key Stages, and that plan is outlined clearly in the school development plan. We adhere to the statutory requirements of the Northern Ireland curriculum and, where possible, seek opportunities to enrich it.

In promoting a culture of high expectation and aspiration, we ensure that, on entry to Key Stage 4, all pupils follow the education pathway that best suits their needs. At Key Stage 4, we provide three education pathways, two of which entail vocational courses that are offered in collaboration with South West College in Omagh. That link existed some years before the establishment of learning communities.

Collaboration has enhanced the provision of a broad and balanced curriculum, enabling us to move towards meeting the needs of the entitlement framework. The school is a member of the Mid-Tyrone Central Partnership — one of the four pupils who is here today travels twice a week to Ballygawley for lessons. We are also a member of the Omagh Learning Community, of which I have the privilege of being chairperson. Soon, I will hand over to Nigel Frith, who spoke in an earlier evidence session. Members of staff are involved in the online learning and teaching for educators (OLTE) initiative to promote e-learning, and, last year, in order to upgrade ICT facilities in the college, we invested in 66 new workstations.

Pastoral care is very strong in Dean Mcguirc College, and we are very proud of the good relationships that exist in the school. Indeed, various external agencies and the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) have commented on those relationships. Staff play a vital role in meeting the pastoral needs of pupils, and, at all times, the pastoral care co-ordinator works closely with form teachers. Pastoral issues that arise are given immediate attention. To foster discipline in the college, we encourage in all pupils a sense of respect for themselves, others and property. Pupils are expected to adhere to a code of conduct, and a referral system is in place to address discipline problems.

Our school is built around child-centred provision, and we believe firmly that every pupil deserves the same opportunity. In addition to pursuing academic success, we focus on the personal, social and spiritual development of each pupil. We provide many programmes and workshops for pupils, including presentations, retreats and pupil participation in projects such as Spirit of Enniskillen and Youth Sport West, which is a cross-community and cross-border project.

Being a leader in Dean Mcguirc College means being empowered to be a team player, whether at whole-school level or as a member of established teams in the college. Members of the senior leadership team and middle managers have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and teams have been set up to assist further in delivering the curriculum and in meeting pupils’ needs. Continuous professional development for all staff is encouraged, and participation in Western Education and Library Board and regional training unit courses and programmes is facilitated. School development days involve members of staff leading various presentations and the presentation of capacity-building opportunities.

A culture of self-evaluation exists in the college. Part of our school development plan is to look at practices to see how we can improve pupils’ learning experiences. Staff review their work regularly and use PRSD as a link to initiatives in the Northern Ireland curriculum. We use Every School a Good School documentation to guide self-evaluation, and we continue to examine our teaching and learning practices at a personal, departmental and whole-school level. We use Together Towards Improvement to further our development. We promote a culture that encourages the sharing of good practice and expertise, through departmental and middle leadership team meetings that are held during directed time and INSET days.

Our effective use and analysis of data yielded by standardised tests, diagnostic tests and the Northern Ireland cohort data promotes improvement. The monitoring of pupils and the early identification of underachievers results in appropriate intervention and informs planning, which, for the relevant pupil, may take the form of setting short-term targets, drawing up an IEP or mentoring. The school intervenes with pupils who have been identified as underachieving in literacy. A culture of high expectation exists in numeracy, and the college uses creative approaches to the teaching of a relevant and interesting curriculum to motivate pupils. School policies reflect the fact that the development and promotion of literacy and numeracy are whole-school priorities. Strategies such as tutorials and after-school revision classes ensure maximum success in those subjects and others at GCSE.

The ongoing development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and an emphasis on career guidance are very much on the school agenda and form part of our school development plan. We promote STEM subjects and, through the use of Young Enterprise and Sentinus, get our pupils to engage in various workshops related to that area. Representatives from South West College and a careers officer from Careers Service Northern Ireland attend our information evenings for year 10 and year 12 pupils, which inform parents on subject choices and provide educational and career pathway guidance.

We take pride in our strong links with feeder schools. Our primary schools liaison officer, who is also our SENCo, visits those schools every January and June. The first such visit relates to our P7 day and P7 open night. The P7 day is one on which all P7 pupils in our feeder schools come to Dean Maguirc College to engage in various activities. That annual event is followed, on the same day, by our open night. In June, the second visit provides information to establish a profile for each pupil who will transfer to our college. That enables us to provide the most appropriate setting for the child and informs staff of any pastoral or medical problems regarding incoming pupils.

In working closely with parents, we operate an open-door policy. We see ourselves as a listening school. We encourage concerned parents to contact us, and requested meetings can take place to facilitate parents before, during or on the conclusion of a school day. Parents are involved in school initiatives, from our paired reading programme and helping with school productions and sporting activities to playing a part in school liturgies.

The extended schools programme has enabled us to provide a range of after-school activities for our pupils, as well as valuable programmes and workshops for parents and the wider community. The work of the extended schools cluster group, in which we are the lead school, has built further on relationships with our feeder schools. We work closely with various departments in the Western Education and Library Board, including with Alison Smyth and CASS, education welfare and special education, the Western Health and Social Care Trust, the PSNI and youth counselling. Our good relationships with those agencies have enabled us to support the child further, be it in achieving his or her potential, addressing behavioural difficulties or monitoring a pupil who is experiencing problems at home.

Dean Maguirc College has, over the years, developed very close links with local community organisations, and the school is used for many evening and weekend activities by those groups. As a part of our annual fund-raising programme, we donate to the local St Vincent de Paul and groups such as cancer groups. Our engagement with local groups clearly portrays a school at the heart of its community, which is, we might add, a community that empathises with us in our frustration over the setbacks that we have had in getting a much-needed and deserved new school building.

To conclude, we must continue building on what we have achieved to date. Although we are a successful school with high expectations and aspirations, we, like all other schools at the moment, have concerns about future provision being compromised in the light of the proposed Budget cuts. That matter is for another day. Thank you for listening to our presentation.

The Chairperson:

I was amazed that we got through today without two things being raised that would have taken us down a particular route: one is the Budget; and the other is transfer. We will resist debating either of those two. However, thank you very much.

I am intrigued by one issue. You establish a profile of every pupil transfer. We are not going to debate transfer. However, I have always held the view that education is a continuum. We have too much: preschool; primary school; post-primary school; further and higher education; and university. It seems as though they are all silos with little connection and that they do not all work together in the same way, yet they all have the pupil at the centre of everything that they do.

Has that been a key component, not in establishing the school to which the child will goes, although obviously from Dean Maguirc’s point of view that is very important, but of identifying the real needs and challenges for that individual child? Is that the purpose or rationale that drives it? We have heard it described in other places as a “pupil passport”. It was described to us in that way by another school. Here, it is a profile. How important is that in the individual development of the child to ensure that his or her particular needs are fully met?

Mr Warnock:

As I said, it was the starting point for us. The SENCo, the pastoral care co-ordinator and our primary schools liaison officer all meet as a result of the meeting that takes place in June. We want to have this link with the primary school to get a profile. That will tell us exactly where the child is at with regard to numeracy and literacy and how he or she is getting on in primary school. We get that information through liaising with the P7 teacher and the principal, and it enables us to set the child in an appropriate class.

In the presentation, James said that we provide three pathways for pupils. One is a choice of totally academic subjects, and pupils can choose to do that at the end of Key Stage 3 and into Key Stage 4. The other two pathways involve a vocational element. In one of those, pupils do occupational studies or a BTEC at the South West College here in Omagh. In the third, they do a reduced number of GCSEs, a placement in South West College and a work placement. In addition to that, we do an award and certificate in education, training and skills (ACET) in employability, which raises their skills in what is needed to be employable.

Mr B McCrea:

I do not want to take too long, but do you notice any particular difference between boys and girls? In the previous presentation, we talked about differential results. I stress that I do not raise this to be sectarian in any way, but a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report included data that showed that some groups of people were performing in a similar way and that one group was not performing well. Part of the issue was that boys were performing below the level of girls. In your school, is there any differential in the outcomes for boys and girls and the treatment of boys and girls?

Mr Warnock:

I will take that. We noted that there was a gap between boys and girls, and we have tried to address that gap in recent years. As Castlederg High School has done, we have looked at the year group. We had to do that, after saying that we needed to bridge the gap. We then found that boys did better than girls at GCSE. One of the boys was the top achiever, and he is over there in the Public Gallery.

Mr B McCrea:

We will embarrass him later.

The Chairperson:

No pressure there.

Mr Warnock:

The Chairperson:

Seamus, you wanted to make a comment.

Mr Shields:

It is not like a politician to sit with his lip buttoned for too long.

Mr B McCrea:

Exactly. Speak up, Seamus.

The Chairperson:

That is why we thought we would give you an opportunity to speak, Seamus.

Mr Shields:

I have been associated with this school in one way or another since it was founded in the mid-1960s although not very directly until the past 20 years or so when I joined the board of governors. Therefore, I have had the opportunity to observe the school from its very beginnings until the situation that James presented so eloquently with regard to the school’s performance today.

The school faced formidable difficulties in the early days, not least because it started life as a secondary intermediate. I taught for many years in the neighbouring primary school. When we talked about post-primary education in the classroom, the school was very often referred to as “the Intermediate down the road”. I saw the school progress from being that intermediate school until, stage by stage and step by step, it came to be where it is today: a highly esteemed local college catering for all pupils from the transfer from primary school right through until many of them progress to higher education, and many of them into the higher courses at university.

I had the opportunity to observe its transition from what might have been regarded as a struggling school to a very successful school. I have some perception of some of the landmarks that might have led to this point, but the crucial one is how the school has grown in the estimation of the local community. What brought that about? The most important factor of a successful school is the relationship that it has with the community that it serves, and the esteem in which it is held by the community that it serves. I came across a statement recently that came into my mind again a moment ago, which was that the community is a powerful ally of the local school. That has been amply demonstrated by this school, because of the relationship that it has had with the community.

In its early days, the school competed with grammar schools, because the community in Carrickmore and the surrounding area always set great store by educational achievement. The drive and the pressure in the primary schools was to get the children through the 11-plus so that they could get places in a grammar school. Gradually, however, that changed, not least through the efforts of the secondary school to demonstrate that it could bring children through the full curriculum and have them performing perhaps equally as well as many of the children in the grammar schools.

The community’s perception of the school changed gradually, until, around 10 years ago, the school introduced a sixth form, and the community saw the students progressing successfully through that. Those were important factors in raising the esteem of the school. Much more important, however, was the relationship that grew between the school and the community as a result of openness and a new attitude of welcome in the school community to the local area.

I emphasise in particular that, as the school grew and developed, the new cohort of teachers that came into the school were, very often, people who had strong roots in the community. Many of them were closely associated with Gaelic football, for example. There is a powerful association with Gaelic games in the area that the school serves. The people have a very great regard for Gaelic football success, and many of the young teachers, many of whom I know personally, were prominent Gaelic games players. That gave a new image to the school, which the children liked to be associated with, and it gave the school a lift.

OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard)

Inquiry into Successful Post-primary Schools Serving Disadvantaged Communities

16 February 2011

Members present for all or part of the proceedings:

Witnesses:

The Chairperson (Mr Storey):

Mr Nigel Frith (Drumragh Integrated College):

The Chairperson:

Mr Eric Bullick (Drumragh Integrated College):

Ms Geraldine McKenna (Drumragh Integrated College):

The Chairperson:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mr B McCrea:

The Chairperson:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

The Chairperson:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

The Chairperson:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Mr Lunn:

Mr Frith:

Ms Nicola Gormley (Drumragh Integrated College):

Mr Lunn:

The Chairperson:

Mr O’Dowd:

The Chairperson:

Mr O’Dowd:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr O’Dowd:

Ms Gormley:

Mr O’Dowd:

Mr Frith:

Mr O’Dowd:

Mr Frith:

Ms Gormley:

Mr O’Dowd:

Mr Hilditch:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Ms Gormley:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

Mr B McCrea:

Mr Frith:

The Chairperson:

Mrs Anne Moore (Castlederg High School):

OFFICIAL REPORT
(Hansard)