Inspection Summary Report - Carryduff Primary School

Carryduff Primary School

DE Ref No 401-3044

Inspection Summary Report - September 2025

Carryduff Primary School’s vision to nurture confident, curious, kind and resilient individuals, underpinned by the values of respect, kindness, honesty, diligence and happiness, is lived out effectively by the whole school community.
The hard work, dedication, unwavering tenacity and ‘hands-on’ approach of the leader is exemplary. A strong role model who leads by example, encourages and empowers staff and welcomes the engagement of all who contribute successfully to the creation of a community of learners within the school.
The detailed three-year school development plan (SDP) has been informed by extensive consultation with staff, parents and children. The leadership has identified the need to ensure the full range of self-evaluation approaches contained within their monitoring timetable are re-established to track the impact of actions to support school improvement.
Excellent, supportive relationships exist between the staff and children. The consistent pastoral approach adopted by the staff has created a nurturing environment where the children feel safe, happy and settle easily to their learning. Praise is used regularly by the staff to encourage and affirm the children's learning and positive behaviour. The children’s behaviour is exemplary.
All of the children are enthusiastic and enjoy their learning. They share resources readily, take turns and are very respectful with each other and the adults with whom they work. The children, including those with additional needs, are making very good progress in their learning and by the end of key stage 2 most achieve their expected outcomes, or above, in literacy and numeracy.
The whole school community is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. The staff have a clear understanding of the additional needs faced by the children, engage in appropriate professional learning and employ a range of effective strategies to help the children develop their confidence and overcome any barriers to learning.
The highly inclusive, nurturing environment in the social and communication classes impacts positively on all of the children and fosters their growth and learning. The staff work collaboratively and understand well the complexity of the children’s needs and address them very effectively.
A key priority for the school is the children’s health and wellbeing. An extensive range of emotional health strategies have been embedded throughout the school which support the children to manage their emotional wellbeing.
The school cultivates a strong community spirit through effective partnerships with parents, the active parent-teacher association, local schools and the wider community. These opportunities provide the children with valuable learning opportunities, broaden their experiences and deepen the children’s connections beyond the classroom.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child protection align to the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

Carryduff Primary School is successfully living out its vision to nurture confident, curious, kind and resilient individuals through their highly effective child-focused approach to learning and teaching. The staff identify and work relentlessly to meet effectively the needs of each child and ensure they experience success in their learning.

Carryduff Primary School is well placed to take forward the area for action noted in the report, namely:

to re-establish the practice of gathering first-hand evidence to further inform the school’s self-evaluation processes.

ETI will continue to work with Carryduff Primary School, including to share the example of highly effective practice from which others may learn, namely:

the highly effective approaches and strategies delivered sensitively within the long-established specialist provision which meet the complex needs of the children.