Inspection Summary Report - Our Lady’s and St Mochua’s Primary School, Derrynoose

Our Lady’s and St Mochua’s Primary School, Derrynoose

DE Ref No 503-6639

Inspection Summary Report - March 2026

The school’s vision, which is embedded successfully in all aspects of school life, is focused on nurturing the academic, social, emotional and spiritual potential of each child, preparing them to be responsible members of the community. The vision is supported well by the longstanding motto, “Reaching for the future…a voice today”.
The school’s status as a “Changemaker school”, is strategic, impactful and instrumental in supporting the school community to achieve its vision fully. It empowers all children to develop as confident, proactive contributors to decisions made in the school, with all children having the opportunity to hold a leadership role.
The children and staff live out consistently school’s core values and are articulate and confident “Changemakers”. The children are happy, motivated and very proud of their school and its place in the community.
The three-year school development plan is robust, strategic and drives continuous school improvement. It supports effectively the delivery of authentic and well embedded learning and teaching opportunities throughout the school, and is underpinned by an honest approach to self-evaluation, extensive stakeholder engagement and appropriate priorities.
The collaborative work of the leadership team is supported effectively by a highly committed and well-informed board of governors who meet regularly with curriculum leaders. The roles and responsibilities across the school have been reviewed and re-structured recently with support put in place for co-ordinators.
The high‑quality learning and teaching experiences are characterised by comprehensive planning, skilful questioning and a culture of high expectations. The children are eager to engage and participate, and they have good understanding of the intended learning.
The regular use of real‑life contexts across the curriculum makes learning highly relevant, fun and fosters a strong sense of curiosity. The school’s internal data shows that the children are making very good progress in their learning. They take great pride in their work, set their own targets and self-reflect on these regularly.
The whole school community is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. The sensitive support for children who experience difficulty with aspects of their learning, including those with special educational needs, is improving their self‑esteem, enabling them to engage more fully with their learning and to experience success.
The ongoing focus on the use of accessibility tools to support literacy development is effectively reducing barriers to learning, enhancing children’s confidence, accuracy and independence.
Our Lady’s and St Mochua’s Primary School is at the heart of the local community. The dynamic links and partnerships forged with an extensive range of schools, community groups and the local parish, is enriching the learning opportunities for the children and staff.
Staff professional learning is aligned to the identified priorities for improvement and impacts positively on classroom practice and the experiences provided for the children.
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

The vision of Our Lady’s and St Mochua’s Primary School places every child at the centre of the work of the school. The motto “Reaching for the future … a voice today” is lived out consistently and fully through the ethos, excellent relationships and the highly effective curriculum provision.

As identified by the school and endorsed by the inspection, the area for action for Our Lady’s and St Mochua’s Primary School is to continue to develop the roles and responsibilities of middle leaders. The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s routine 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:

the strategic, creative and collaborative approaches to realising a shared and empowering school vision;
the highly effective strategies used to build a dynamic community of learning.