Inspection Summary Report - St Náile’s Primary School, Kinawley

St Náile’s Primary School, Kinawley

DE Ref No 203-6090

Inspection Summary Report – June 2026

The school has a clear, inclusive and values-driven vision, encapsulated in its vision statement ‘creating the future together’. It reflects a strong commitment to nurturing the whole child through high‑quality pastoral care, promoting wellbeing, and preparing children to become respectful, responsible and compassionate citizens who contribute positively to society.
The three-year school development plan and this year’s associated action plans reflect a clear focus on improving provision and outcomes for the children. Going forward, increased systematic monitoring and the use of first-hand evidence are required to develop a clearer understanding of the effectiveness of current approaches and to inform priorities over the remaining two years.
The children have a high level of independence and resilience and engage fully in their learning.
Planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning is mostly effective. Learning is particularly effective when the teachers use engaging and thought‑provoking starter activities, along with skilful questioning that promotes extended responses. Enquiry-based learning further enhances this by challenging the children to think more deeply through relevant, real-life contexts.
Long-term planning across the curriculum requires further development to ensure greater breadth, balance and progression, particularly in mental mathematics and writing across a wider range of genres.
The children benefit from an inclusive and enriching curriculum that supports the development of their creativity and cultural awareness, while ensuring equitable access to a wide range of learning experiences beyond the classroom.
The school’s creative and inclusive approach to recognising achievement is firmly rooted in a culture of kindness. Recognition is regular, meaningful and accessible to all children, and is reflected in assemblies, high-quality displays of the children’s work, social media and the well‑established ‘Proud Cloud’.
Most of the children progress in line with the school’s expectation in literacy and numeracy.
The school places a strong emphasis on equity, diversity and inclusion, ensuring all children are welcomed, respected and supported to feel a genuine sense of belonging. The provision for children with special educational needs is highly inclusive, underpinned by a proactive and responsive approach from a skilled and dedicated staff team.
The children benefit from high-quality transition arrangements into P1 and on to post-primary; the well-established buddy system for incoming P1 children represents a particular strength.
The children play an active and positive role in the local community, engaging in a range of meaningful charitable and intergenerational experiences that build their confidence, empathy and social awareness, while strengthening their pride in the school.
The school has developed mutually beneficial partnerships with both the local and wider community, enhancing the children’s learning experiences and broadening their opportunities, while fostering a strong sense of collaboration, belonging and community.
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

St Náile’s Primary School’s vision, ‘Creating the future together’, is reflected through the daily life and work of all of the staff and is evident in the high quality, respectful relationships at all levels. The intentional values-driven approach creates a nurturing, caring and supportive ethos which enables children to engage positively in their learning and supports their development within a happy and respectful environment.

The inspection has highlighted an area for action to enable St Náile’s Primary School to achieve its vision more fully: to develop further planning for progression across all areas of the curriculum, with a particular emphasis on strengthening the children’s writing across a range of genres, and the development of their mental mathematics skills.

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