Report of a Primary Inspection - St John’s Primary School, Coleraine
DE Ref No 303-3709
May 2026
1. Introduction
A. Background information
St John’s Primary School is a maintained, co-educational primary school situated in the Heights area of Coleraine. There are 155 children enrolled in the school, with seven of these children in two specialist provision classes. The children come from ‘the Heights’ and the wider surrounding area.
Forty-three percent of the children have free school meals entitlement. Around 24% of the children have been identified as having a special educational need (SEN), 18 of whom have a statement of SEN. The intake is diverse and there are 32 newcomer children who attend.
The school has a long and well embedded Shared Education* link with Killowen Primary School. The school qualifies for Extended Schools* funding and accordingly offers wrap-around care each day from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. The school’s eco and sustainability activities have allowed them to attain the ECO Schools Green Flag* award.
B. Views of pupils, parents and staff
The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) issued online confidential questionnaires to the children in year 7, and all parents and staff in advance of the inspection.
The responses to the questionnaires are referenced, where relevant, within the main body of the report. A high-level summary of the questionnaire responses, including any concerns raised, was shared with the principal and representatives of the board of governors.
C. The process of inspection
The ETI worked alongside St John’s Primary School to consider how well the school:
- has identified and articulates its vision;
- prioritises actions to achieve the vision;
- overcomes the main challenges it faces;
- monitors and reviews progression to identify, celebrate and embed success; and
- grows and develops an inclusive community of learning.
2. Main report
A. Setting the vision
The school’s vision is one that entwines high ambitions and the school’s location, ‘Reaching New Heights’. The vision statement promotes a culture of aspiration and high expectation.
The vision was consulted upon quite extensively over the last two years, offering involvement and ownership to all stakeholders. The questionnaire returns indicate that all staff feel they contributed well to the vision and nearly all of the parents who responded to the questionnaires tell us they know the school’s vision and aims.
The outworkings of the vision prioritise the promotion of high-quality: learning and teaching, professional working relationships, faith development, holistic learning experiences, and prioritising the children’s health and safety. The values and associated behaviours are well defined and are embedded in the school’s action plans.
The school has well-embedded and effective processes for self-evaluation leading to improvement that include: book looks, planning oversight, focus group discussions and lesson observations by the principal. Oversight is action-focused and impactful, feeding into future planning.
The school is in the final stages of ratifying a new three-year school development plan (SDP) and it is expected that this will be in place by September. The current one-year SDP and the associated action plans have appropriate priorities, which focus on improving learning experiences and outcomes for the children. There is some variability in the quality of the action plans and improving the capacity of middle leaders and co-ordinators will address these inconsistencies.
The governors are well informed and supportive, providing appropriate challenge and strategic oversight through close involvement in the life and work of the school.
B. Implementing and improving to achieve the vision
The planning for learning is detailed and carried out collaboratively. It is appropriately informed by assessment information and evaluations of prior learning. The medium-term planning is characterised by clear learning intentions, progression and regular monitoring that measures its effectiveness in meeting the needs of the children.
There is a strong lesson profile. Nearly all of the lessons observed met fully the needs of the children. The high-quality lessons are underpinned by respectful relationships, high expectations for all and well-established learning routines. The lessons include brisk, active and purposeful learning that allows the children to succeed in paired and group tasks and develop confidence and independence. The teachers’ skilled questioning consolidates the children’s prior learning and promotes deeper thinking and extended responses. Differentiated approaches to learning are evident throughout the school and supportive interactions from the ‘additional adults’ (learning support assistants) enable full participation. A small number of lessons would benefit from less teacher direction and a little more time spent on consolidating the learning.
Assessment of, and for, learning is well embedded across the school and assessment processes are impactful. The feedback of the children’s work is notably effective; it is supportive, while pointing out next steps for improvement.
The curriculum is appropriately broad, balanced and well connected covering all areas of the statutory Northern Ireland curriculum. The school has excellent resources for outdoor play and a well-structured and progressive programme for ‘learning through play’ is in place.
There is a strong emphasis on the expressive arts, with music and performance forming a key part of the curriculum. The children have valuable opportunities to listen, perform and create, and they participate with confidence and enjoyment with a range of audiences. The children spoke of their enjoyment of: drama, music, choir, orchestra and shared education activities.
The literacy provision is notably well developed. The children told us how much they enjoy reading. There is effective progression in genre writing (writing in different forms for different purposes), where the children are enabled to write extended responses. Inspectors saw some high-quality written responses.
Other parts of the curriculum are progressing well, but are at various stages of development. The school knows its priorities for enabling co-ordinators to move these forward and is well attuned to taking on board any upcoming curriculum reforms. The school has identified appropriately some next steps across other parts of the curriculum where it wants to improve provision further and the inspection findings support this.
Digital learning is embedded well across the curriculum and provides the children with purposeful opportunities to apply and extend their digital skills in relevant contexts. The children use digital technologies confidently to support learning through digital storytelling, photography, research and creative activities.
The preventative curriculum, including Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE), prioritises the emotional health, wellbeing and safety of all of the children and is complemented with a number of enrichments supported by a range of external providers, including the Roots of Empathy* programme. Increased opportunities for the children’s views to inform the preventative and RSE curriculum can develop the provision further. There is an embedded culture of keeping safe through strategies such as ‘You talk we listen’, worry boxes, circle time and assemblies. This sustained focus reinforces key safeguarding messages and encourages children to share concerns. In the questionnaire responses and in discussions with inspectors, all of the children told us they feel safe and know who to speak to if they are worried or have a problem.
C. Building equity
There is a caring, inclusive and nurturing ethos across the school. The staff know the children very well and provide calm, consistent and predictable environments. Positive relationships underpin all aspects of school life and the children feel valued and included. Questionnaire responses confirmed that all of the children feel they are treated with care and respect by teachers and other adults in the school.
The school promotes equity, diversity and inclusion very well. The children develop respect and understanding through meaningful experiences, including participation in events such as ‘World Religions Assemblies and ‘Autism Acceptance Month’ which improve the children’s understanding of cultural diversity and neurodiversity.
A cohesive approach to meeting the needs of all the children with barriers to learning is used well in both the mainstream and specialist provision classes. The provision for children with additional needs is well organised and effective. Individual Education Plans are of high quality and comprehensive. These plans are personalised, regularly reviewed and include clear targets informed by the views of the children, parents and staff. The ‘additional adults’ provide purposeful and attentive support and promote the children’s independence.
The specialist provision classes offer calm, supportive and nurturing environments, which enable the children to overcome barriers to learning. There are opportunities for the children to integrate into the mainstream classes, with small numbers of the children from mainstream classes also integrating to the specialist provision classes. Ongoing collaboration between staff is strengthening consistency and sharing of effective practice and this is something that needs to continue further.
There are clear strategies in place to get all children to come to school every day. Attendance is 93.4% and is on an upward trend. There are effective strategies in place to improve attendance, including close monitoring, early identification, HERO certificates (DE’s being Here, Every day, Ready and On time attendance initiative), and termly awards. Around twenty percent of the children have full attendance.
D. Embedding success
The children are positively disposed to school. They are friendly, confident, and respectful learners. They work well with staff and each other and engage easily with peers, staff and visitors. The children are happy, well-motivated and enjoy their lessons. They speak confidently about the school’s values of being positive, caring and keeping safe.
The school promotes a positive culture where success is recognised and celebrated. Achievements are shared through assemblies, including awards for reading, numeracy and personal accomplishments. Good work is showcased on classroom ‘wow walls’ and success is shared through the school website, digital communication platforms and social media. The children benefit from highly positive and supportive relationships and as a result they are ready to learn, try their best and experience ‘Reaching New Heights’.
Most of the children attain in line with or above expectations in literacy and numeracy, as indicated by the school’s internal data and evidenced in their books, which were of an appropriately high standard. There is appropriate year-on-year progress in literacy and numeracy attainment and there are clear systems in place to share progress with parents, who report high levels of satisfaction with both the quality and usefulness of information provided. Parental questionnaire responses reflected that almost all parents are happy with their child’s learning experiences in the school.
The children demonstrate good oracy skills. They speak clearly and confidently in discussions and work well in pairs and groups. They produce good-quality extended writing across a range of genres and their work is neatly presented. The children read with understanding and enjoyment. They show a clear love of reading, which supports the quality of their written work.
In mathematics, the children engage well in practical tasks. They explain their reasoning and use appropriate language. They develop skills across key areas, including number, measure and shape. There is a clear focus on mental mathematics, reasoning and investigations and the children apply their learning effectively to problem-solving and real-life situations.
The school provides a wide range of enriching experiences. The shared education partnership with Killowen Primary School includes joint projects, community events and visits to Stormont. Environmental activities, such as Beach Schools NI* and litter-picking, promote eco-friendly responsibility. Almost all of the parents highlighted the positive impact of shared education opportunities in helping their children develop positive relationships with those from other communities. There are good participation levels in sport, music and drama productions, which build the children’s confidence and promote teamwork. These experiences develop their skills in communication, leadership and collaboration. Transition arrangements are well established, and Year 7 children feel confident and well prepared for ‘big school’.
E. Growing a community of learning
The school has an inclusive learning community. It promotes pupil participation, strong staff collaboration and purposeful partnerships with parents and the wider community. The children benefit from a supportive environment that values their contribution and encourages active involvement in school life.
There is an appropriate range of opportunities for pupil participation. The school council allows the children’s voice to be heard and nearly all of the year 7s told us that they work well to improve aspects of school life. The children told us the value they place in their P1/ P7 ‘buddy’ system, where the older children befriend the younger ones. The majority of the children take part in music, speech and drama festivals, school productions and sporting competitions. They highlighted the value they place in the biennial musicals (Mary Poppins in 2025), performing in the orchestra and at the Peace Proms, and participating in new activities such as a pupil-led digital coding after-school club. These experiences build confidence, creativity and a strong sense of community.
Parental engagement is strong and well established. The parents and carers attend workshops, assemblies and school events; the school engages well through highly effective and regular communication. Almost all of the parents commended the communication the school has with them in our questionnaires and communication is a strength. Almost all of the parents told us that their child is happy at school and making good progress and most of them told us they would recommend the school. These positive partnerships contribute to a cohesive and supportive school community.
Professional learning is purposeful and responsive to need. The staff engage in a broad range of training, including play-based learning, World Around Us, creative writing, phonics and numeracy. The training in special educational needs and speech and language strengthens the provision of inclusive practice. The staff share their learning through collaboration with themselves and through a primary schools cluster with three other local schools. This collegial approach supports consistent practice and improving outcomes in literacy and numeracy. The staff told us in the questionnaires that with regard to staff professional learning, most feel their professional skills and knowledge are valued and they have opportunities to share with others.
F. Child protection
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.
3. Next steps
St John’s Primary School lives out well its vision of ‘Reaching New Heights’. Learning is inclusive and engaging and the children feel safe, happy and are ready to learn. There is a positive culture of high expectations and the school is well resourced. There is an attractive physical learning environment that reflects the value placed in wanting the best for the children. During the inspection, the inspectors saw children who were ‘Reaching New Heights’ in their learning.
As set out in the school’s current plans, the next steps for St John’s Primary School are to take forward the following area for action: to improve further the capacity of middle leaders and co-ordinators.
Inspectors have highlighted one area of highly effective practice, from which other schools may learn:
- the positive impact of the school’s collaborative networks and its communication with stakeholders that provide the children with a wide range of high-value social, sporting and cultural learning experiences.
The district inspector will continue to work with the school to disseminate these areas of highly effective practice and to monitor the school’s progress in addressing the next steps as part of ETI’s normal monitoring processes.
4. Appendices
Appendix 1: Quantitative Terms
In this report, proportions may be described as percentages, common fractions and in more general quantitative terms. Where more general terms are used, they should be interpreted as follows:
Almost/nearly all - more than 90%
Most - 75% - 90%
A majority - 50% - 74%
A significant minority - 30% - 49%
A minority - 10% - 29%
Very few/a small number - less than 10%
Appendix 2: Notes
Page 1
Shared Education*
Shared Education is a formal collaboration in which two or more schools work together so that children and young people from different religious and socio-economic backgrounds can learn together on a regular, sustained basis. It is designed to promote inclusion, improve relationships across communities, and deliver clear educational benefits.
Extended Schools*
Extended Schools provide funding for schools to offer services before, during and after the normal school day to help the children achieve their full potential.
Eco Schools Green Flag*
The Eco Schools Green Flag is an internationally recognised award for excellence in environmental action and learning.
Page 3
Roots of Empathy programme*
The Roots of Empathy programme allows families into classrooms to demonstrate the power of security and attachment between babies and their parents. The children learn about the needs of the baby and the importance of empathy, connections, relationships and kindness.
Page 5
Beach Schools NI*
Beach Schools NI is a development of the Forest Schools Programme, which aims to promote outdoor learning and teach children about the coastal environment through exploration and discovery.