Inspection Summary Report - St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon

St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon

DE Ref No 542-0304

Inspection Summary Report - September 2025

The school’s vision of Achieving Excellence Together is central to every aspect of school life, creating a strong sense of community and promoting ambition and high expectations for all.
The pupils are highly motivated and happy to learn; their behaviour is exemplary, and they show kindness and respect in their engagement with their peers, the staff and visitors.
The school development planning process is underpinned by robust self-evaluation, rigorous analysis of data and meaningful consultation with all stakeholders.
The planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning is mostly effective; the pupils enjoy working with others in pairs and groups.
The highly effective provision for health, wellbeing and keeping safe is underpinned by the strong Catholic ethos and evidenced by the deep levels of care and respect between all members of the school community.
A range of well-considered interventions and targeted support enable pupils who experience barriers to learning to make progress and experience success.
The staff monitor closely the pupils’ progress from entry into year 8 and ensure that all pupils have a well-structured and appropriate curriculum that prepares them for the next stage of their learning.
The pupils attain high standards in public examinations and their many successes and broader achievements are celebrated widely across and beyond the school.
The processes for harnessing the pupils’ views are highly effective; they are pupil-led, valued by all and have a discernible impact on improving further the pupils’ experience of school life.
The pupils benefit significantly from creative, purposeful collaboration with others; the partnerships extend and enhance the range of learning opportunities and are integral to realising the school’s vision.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child and adult protection align with the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

A strong sense of partnership, mutual respect and high expectations for all means that the school’s vision of Achieving Excellence Together is being implemented very effectively. As set out in the school’s current development plan, the next step for St Patrick’s Academy is to take forward the area for action, which is:

to ensure consistency in the quality of planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning.

The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s normal 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:

how the staff facilitate the pupils to lead successfully on aspects of school improvement; and
the meaningful collaboration with a community of learning that extends and enhances the pupils’ learning experiences.