SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN – LITERACY 2013 - 2016
Summary of Main Strengths
 Children’s reading scores are above the national norms with over half of the
children tested performing above a STen of 7.
 Children enjoy reading
 Children are good at editing and drafting stories
 Children make good use of ICT in the editing and drafting process.
Summary of Main Areas requiring improvements
 Further oral language development
 Spelling , grammar, syntax and punctuation need to be addressed
 Comprehension strategies to be developed further.
COMPREHENSION
IMPROVEMENT
TARGETS
By end of each year 20132016, 80% of pupils will
record an increase of 2%
percentile ranking in
comprehension in
standardised testing.
All pupils will be au fait
with various
comprehension strategies
(visualizing making
connections, inferring,
evaluating, synthesizing
and summarising) and
strive to implement them.
ACTION
Display and refer to
comprehension strategies.
EVALUATION
Standardised Tests
Teacher designated tests.
Use of Comprehension Box
(1st – 6th )
Teacher observation.
Increased use of Cloze
Procedures/ Exercises.
SPELLING
IMPROVEMENT
TARGETS
ACTION
EVALUATION
Results of standardised testing
to improve by percentile of 2%
each year 2013 – 2016.
Abolish Friday spelling test.
Standardised Tests
Introduction of Tell & Spell.
Dictation Sentences
Pupils to be encouraged to
build word awareness (noun,
verb, antonym, synonym, root
etc)
Strategy for learning : Look,
Say, Cover, Write, Check
and spend time exploring this.
Examination of Free Writing.
Increase use of dictionary to
check spelling – not just for
word meaning.
Encourage visual discrimination
to enhance accuracy.
Study word families, patterns,
misspelled words, topical words
etc.
I.W.B. Spelling Games
ORAL LANGUAGE
IMPROVEMENT TARGET
ACTION
EVALUATION
Extend and enrich range of oral
language.
Direct instruction in specific
Teacher observation.
word meaning. (Word meaning.
(Word of the Day etc)
Learn to identify unfamiliar
words by reference to word
parts, prefixes and suffixes.
“Follow Me” Loop games
(synonym, antonym games
context clues, prefixes, suffixes
compound words etc).
Pupils should be enabled to :
 Give own point of view
 Give instructions
 Request information
 Talk about personal
experience
 Discuss with peers
Oral language activities
Show and Tell
Talk About
Classroom games
(The Minister’s Cat etc)
Speaking and Listening
(Prim-Ed – oral language
activities)
SUMMARY SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN - NUMERACY
Introduction
The focus of the evaluation
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As part of our ongoing work in the school, we conducted a school self-evaluation of teaching and learning this year. We evaluated
Numeracy.
The school improvement plan sets out the actions that we will undertake in the school over the next year in Numeracy. The main
purpose of these actions is to improve our students’ learning.
Summary of school self-evaluation findings:
Our school has strengths in the following areas:
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STRENGHTS
High level of interest in maths
Large amount of resources available in school.
97% of students tested in average or above range in standardised tests.
We know this because we consulted with students, parents and teachers and examined test results in the school. We circulated questionnaires
to all parents and children and collated the results.
Areas For Development
Our school decided to prioritise the following areas of development.
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AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Improvement in mental maths skills – pupils are reliant on scaffolding
materials e.g. hundred squares.
Mathematical language to be explicitly taught through the school.
Introduction of maths games and activities.
ICT to be integrated more into maths lessons.
Continue to improve in the area of problem solving.
We have decided to prioritise these areas because through teacher observation we noticed that children were overly reliant o hundred squares
and other maths aids. We noted from questionnaires that children would like to have more access to ICT in maths and to play more fun maths
games. Parents also would like us to make maths more fun for children.
Targets
Rahealty N.S. has set the following targets for improvement which are related to pupils’ achievement and has identified the following actions
which will help in achieving those targets the next year.
TARGETS FOR IMPROVEMENT
 Computation results in
standardised tests will rise by 1%
over the year.
 ICT will be used in the majority of
maths lessons in all classes.
 Children will take home mental
maths games once per week to
play with parents.
 Children will complete 1 item of
maths homework per week
involving mental maths.
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ACTION
Ten minutes per day (5 min in
infants) specifically on mental
maths tasks.
Registration of all pupils on
mathletics programme.
Mental maths book from 1st class
up.
Speed tests.
Loop cards
Brainstack for problem-solving
Card games for probability.
www.ixl.ie
www.mathletics.eu
As a parent you can help us by:
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Playing maths games weekly with your child.
Allowing your child to use the mathletics programme on www.mathletics.eu
Encouraging your child to use maths practically by telling the time etc.
Reporting to teachers any difficulties your child may be experiencing.
We know we will have achieved our targets when:
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Our computation scores in standardised tests rise by 1%.
The majority of children are scoring above 90% consistently in weekly mental maths and tables tests.
The majority of children no longer require scaffolding materials such as hundred squares and multiplication.