Inspection Summary Report - St Bronagh’s Primary School

St Bronagh’s Primary School

DE Ref No 503-6673

Inspection Summary Report - June 2026

The school has a strong, faith-based ethos, with clearly embedded values and vision ‘Learn, Achieve, Pray, Believe’ which is consistently promoted and reflected in a nurturing environment where every child is known, supported, and enabled to thrive.
The school’s well-informed and carefully monitored School Development Plan is providing staff with strategic clarity and focus on the successful steps to improvement in the children’s learning and attainment, and most children achieve very good outcomes in literacy and numeracy.
High expectations for learning and teaching in literacy and numeracy are evident in the detailed long-term, medium-term and short‑term planning that guides well progression for learning. The school needs to develop robust long-term planning for the wider curriculum to ensure progression, consistency and challenge for learners.
The staff use the area of learning of the World Around Us to provide meaningful contexts for rich writing opportunities, across the genres. The children are enticed to write due to their interest and enjoyment.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is effectively embedded across the curriculum by all staff who have worked collaboratively to develop ICT provision that aligns with CCEAs ‘5 Es’ and the desirable features. The children are enjoying breadth of learning in ICT, working in teams and producing creative outcomes.
The children from year 1 to year 7 have timetabled Irish language lessons which they enjoy; this provision is building their confidence in speaking a second language. The children across the school are articulate, well-mannered and respectful learners.
Health, wellbeing and safety of children is prioritised in this caring environment where every child is safe, secure and supported. The adult-child relationships are gentle and encouraging and impact positively on the children’s engagement with learning.
The staff make effective use of data to monitor and assess the children’s progress from their starting points, and support meaningfully their holistic development.
The provision for children who face barriers to learning is responsive to the children’s needs. The staff know the children and families well and provide tailored support which enables the children to participate fully in school life and access equitable learning experiences.
The parents are valued partners in the life and work of the school and contribute meaningfully to the children’s learning experiences.
The school benefits from a wide range of well-established collaborative partnerships, connections with local schools, community organisations and external agencies which enrich the children’s learning and strengthens their connections to the wider community.
The children’s views are highly valued and actively sought; the children are consulted on their learning and involved actively in decision-making through leaderships opportunities such as the school council, eco-committee and digital leaders’ group. This development of the children’s participation is set out as a priority within the School Development Plan and ensures that pupils are at the heart of the school’s work.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child protection and adult protection align to the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

St Bronagh’s Primary School’s vision ‘To nurture each other to be the best that we can be, enjoying opportunities to learn, achieve, pray and believe’ is understood by all and lived out daily within the school. The children have a mutual respect for each other and a commitment to improving their school and local community.

An area for action for St Bronagh’s Primary School identified by the inspection is to: develop robust long-term planning for the wider curriculum to better support progression, consistency and challenge for all of the children.

The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s routine monitoring processes.

The inspectors also identified an aspect of highly effective practice from which others may learn. The aspect of practice which should be shared more widely is:

the strength of the pupil voice, which is highly valued and actively sought which is impacting positively on the learning and wellbeing of the children.