Inspection Summary Report - Lisburn Central Primary School and Nursery Unit

Lisburn Central Primary School and Nursery Unit

DE Ref No 401-0807

Inspection Summary Report - November 2025

Lisburn Central Primary School and Nursery Unit provides a caring, happy and inclusive learning environment where children feel safe and valued.
The highly collaborative approach, over recent years, to the development of a school vision, mission statement and core values has laid solid foundations that will support the school to realise more fully its vision of everyone ‘learning together, being creative, fulfilling their potential and experiencing success’.
A robust and comprehensive school development plan is in place which has been informed by a range of qualitative and quantitative data, underpinned by thorough and honest consultation with all stakeholders. As a result, appropriate whole-school priorities for development have been identified. Going forward, it will be important to develop the capacity of curriculum leaders to lead continuous improvement collaboratively.
The children are happy in school and almost all engage readily in their learning. They are well-mannered and respectful and respond positively to their teachers and classroom assistants. Most of the children are making good progress in their learning and development from their individual starting points.
The school has a wholly inclusive ethos. There are caring and respectful relationships at all levels, equity and fairness are promoted, diversity is celebrated, and the health and well-being of the whole school community is of paramount importance.
A revised approach to an element of planning for numeracy has been introduced recently, as a result of strategic self-evaluation. The school has identified appropriately the need to monitor the impact of this new approach on the quality of the learning, teaching and outcomes in numeracy.
Where learning and teaching are most successful: the teachers’ and classroom assistants’ interactions are of a high quality, and the children have opportunities to work collaboratively, think critically and develop their creativity through appropriately challenging, well-connected, open-ended learning and play activities.
The school has identified appropriately the need to re-establish robust monitoring and evaluation processes to improve the quality of the planning, teaching, and assessment for learning across the school, ensure progression in learning across the curriculum, and raise further the standards the children achieve.
The strategic co-ordination and provision for children with special educational needs (SEN) is a strength in the school. The individual and small group support sessions are well-planned and delivered skilfully, and as a result, the children with SEN are making good progress academically, socially and emotionally.
The children’s learning is enhanced greatly by the opportunities they have to participate in and contribute to the life of their local community, through for example, taking part in the annual Lord Mayor’s Parade and the Lisburn Trade Fair. They are developing a knowledge of, connection to, and pride in their local community through the partnerships that the school has developed with a range of high-quality learning facilities and services, such as the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum, Lisburn Civic Centre, the library, sports facilities and churches.
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

All staff and governors of Lisburn Central Primary School and Nursery Unit are committed to creating a safe, caring, inclusive and nurturing learning environment where children can experience success and thrive while ‘Learning, Playing and Achieving Together’.

The inspection has highlighted a number of areas for action to enable Lisburn Central Primary School and Nursery Unit to achieve its vision more fully:

to develop further the capacity of curriculum leaders to lead continuous improvement collaboratively; and
to improve the quality of the planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning.

There will be a progress inspection.