Inspection Summary Report - Omagh Academy

Omagh Academy

DE Ref No 241-0066

Inspection Summary Report - November 2025

The school’s vision, Inspire, Empower, Achieve, underpinned by a non‑denominational Christian ethos, fosters a strong sense of purpose and identity across the school community. The pupils are inspired and empowered to achieve well in their learning and holistic development through high expectations and positive working relationships.
The caring and supportive staff encourage the pupils to strive for excellence, enabling them to live out with pride their school’s motto ‘Veritas Vincet’ (truth will prevail) in being their best selves and overcoming barriers to learning.
The pupils are highly motivated, polite, respectful and confident; their behaviour is exemplary. They volunteer readily, ask questions and make observations, showing high levels of interest in their learning.
Most pupils experienced success in their learning in the lessons observed through their teachers’ in-depth subject expertise and enthusiasm, enquiry questions, adaptive strategies, high-quality resources, real-life engaging connections, stimulating learning environments and ongoing feedback.
The pupils attain high standards in public examinations; almost all (97.9%) year 12 pupils attained seven or more GCSE (or equivalent) qualifications at grades A* to C. In 2025, a majority (70.6%) of year 14 pupils achieved three or more GCE A level (or equivalent) qualifications at grades A* to C. The staff continue to keep the curriculum review at post-16 including the need to develop further the pupils’ understanding of the progression pathways.
Pupils achieve success through their high levels of participation in an extensive range of musical, sporting, charitable and spiritual co-curricular activities and their successes across and beyond school, provincially, nationally and internationally, are celebrated widely.
The health and well-being of pupils is a key priority for the school; the pupils understand the importance of following a healthy lifestyle through high levels of participation in an extensive range of sports and activities.
Pupils and staff benefit from the high priority given to the development of their digital skills through a well-planned programme of training workshops and whole-school initiatives to learn and thrive in an increasingly digital age.
At Key Stages 3 and 4 the pupils would benefit from further development of their employability skills, personal career planning and work-related learning opportunities in helping them to understand more fully the range of appropriate progression pathways in relation to their skills, aptitudes and aspirations.
The staff professional learning inspires staff in their passion for learning with, and from each other, through connected team working in sharing best practice across the school and the Omagh Learning Community.
The school’s community of learning is enriched by how the pupils are empowered in their leadership skills and participation and the community links with alumni, feeder primary schools, its Strule partners and OLC members, local churches, youth events, businesses and employers and available support services.
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

Omagh Academy’s vision, Inspire, Empower, Achieve, underpinned by a non-denominational Christian ethos, fosters a strong sense of purpose and identity across the school community. The pupils are inspired and empowered to achieve well in their learning and holistic development through high expectations and positive working relationships. The caring and supportive staff encourage the pupils to strive for excellence enabling them to live out well their school’s motto ‘Veritas Vincet’ (truth will prevail) in being their best selves and overcoming barriers to learning.

The inspection has highlighted an area for action which is: to ensure greater precision in whole‑school target setting processes, including through robust evaluation of first-hand evidence of the pupils’ learning. The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s normal monitoring processes.