Inspection Summary Report - Cross and Passion College, Ballycastle

Cross and Passion College, Ballycastle

DE Ref No 323-0227

Inspection Summary Report - September 2025

The college vision creates the conditions where everyone feels safe, happy and is supported well to achieve their full potential. The college has very well-developed and highly effective processes for self-evaluation leading to improvement, which inform accurately the priorities for improvement.
Pupils demonstrate positive dispositions to learning, engage enthusiastically in lessons, and benefit from supportive relationships that encourage risk-taking and sustained progress. Nearly all the pupils told us they enjoy school to varying degrees and they told us they are well cared for and supported by staff.
Equality, inclusion and diversity are promoted effectively throughout the school and lived out well by pupils and staff. Transitions for pupils at each stage of their learning are working well and learning support for pupils with special educational needs has a positive impact on their academic progress and social development.
The development of the pupils’ digital skills is more effective at key stage (KS) 4 and post-16, there is work to be done at KS 3 to provide more meaningful opportunities for pupils to acquire and develop their digital skills. The school has already identified this as an area for action in their school development plan.
The provision for the preventive curriculum, shared education and the impact of physical education on the pupils’ wider dispositions and behaviours all have significant strengths and are deserving of dissemination.
The staff celebrate the pupils’ successes well through a multi-layered strategy that recognises the academic achievement, but nurtures personal development and wider community participation.
The outcomes the pupil attain are monitored rigorously from a baseline position through a comprehensive system that enables timely, targeted interventions with strategic oversight, so that all pupils and their parents are aware of the progress made.
The college sets accurate and challenging targets and its internal data shows that nearly all the pupils achieve in public examinations in line with, or above, their expectations.
The college builds an active community of learning through strong and active outward‑facing partnerships, which equip pupils with the skills, confidence, and aspirations to thrive beyond school.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child and adult protection align to the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

Cross and Passion College Ballycastle is committed to ‘creating opportunities, promoting talent and caring for the community’, thereby living out its vision well. This is a welcoming and inclusive school that cares for its children and is very serious about optimising their learning experiences and outcomes through continuous improvement processes. As set out in the college’s current development plan, the next step for Cross and Passion College is to develop further the integration of digital skills across the KS3 curriculum, ensuring pupils enjoy progressive skills development within meaningful and relevant learning contexts. The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s normal monitoring processes.

Inspectors identified aspects of highly effective practice from which others may learn. The aspects of practice which should be shared more widely are:

how the college provides a responsive and tailored preventative curriculum that is relevant and empowering;
how the college has embedded a highly-regarded and internationally renowned shared education provision built on the concept of us all having ‘more in common’; and
how the college has developed the significant value of sport as a driver for nurturing positive attitudes, dispositions and willingness to learn.