PRESENTATION

P2P SCHOOL VISIT REPORT

This report outline is for P2P schools to make a summary report of their school visit

and school examination. It is meant to be used together with the guidelines written in

‘Ilomäki & Lakkala (2005): A model for examining a school’.





Name of the visiting school: Moliere’s College, Paris, France





Names of the visitors/observers:

 Mr P Santraud, Principal, Moliere’s College Paris

 Mr J L Garcia, Vice Principal, Moliere’s College Paris, Rapporteur

 Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher, Moliere’s College Paris

 Mrs A Kempf, French teacher, Erik Satie’s Vocational School, Paris





Date/time period of the visit:

Wednesday 21 septembre-Monday 26 septembre





1. General Background Information of the school visited





Name of the school:

St Patrick's College

Address of the school:

25 Coleraine Road

Maghera, Co Derry

NIRELAND

BT46 5BN

Telephone: 02879469776

Web site:http://www.stpatricksmaghera.com





Name of the principal and host: Mrs Anne Scott





Type of school (public/private, ordinary/special etc.): Catholic grant maintained

(11-18 years)

PRESENTATION





St Patrick's College opened in 1963 as an all boy’s school. The first two principals of the

College were priests but all subsequent appointments have been lay people. The current

principal, Mrs A Scott is the first female principal in the history of the college. Today the

college has a Chaplin who is responsible for the religious services which are held in the

college.

St. Patrick’s College is a co-educational (boys and girls) and bi-lateral school (Grammar,

Secondary and Special Education Needs). St Patrick's is a Catholic grant maintained school

(école publique catholique). It has two regulatory authorities:





The Council for Catholic Maintained School (CCMS), representing the Roman Catholic

Church, owns the buildings and employs of the teaching staff. They also provide advice for

all catholic schools on matters relating to education. Their Trustees represent them in Board

of Governors.





The North East Education and Library Board which is one of the five Boards of NI and

depends on the Department of Education for its funding. The NEELB employs non-teaching

staff, provides advice and support services as well as staff training and pupil transport. They

are also represented on the Board of Governors.





In 1997, the Department of Education published The Education Technology Strategy for

Northern Ireland to set tarets for the competence of teachers, the competence of pupils, the

use of ICT in teaching and learning and for integration of ICT in the NI curriculum: The C2k

Agency is in charge of carrying out this project by coordinating different partners: namely

HP, Microsoft and BT who administrer network, software and hardware. The Council for the

Curriculum Examination and Assessment is the examination awarding body in NI while the

Curriculum Advisory and Support Services (CASS) provide curriculum support and training.

The Regional Training Unit (RTU) provides Senior management and HOD training and new

teachers are trained in the Teacher Training Colleges and Universities.





St Patrick's school operates from two sites: St. Mary's building for junior division (Year 8)

and the main building for Year 9 to Year 14. The school is located in a small town and a rural

location midway between Belfast and Derry. It has an important economic role in Maghera as

it employs many teachers and non-teaching staff. It plays an important role in the Catholic

Community of the county.

The school has 1400 students and is ethnically and culturally homogenous. We have

noticed that the pupils move from class to class and that this took place in a quiet, calm

manner even though there was no supervisor. In the interests of safety all areas within each

site are under video surveillance, which is recorded in the staff room. When the bell rings

pupils can’t enter the building unless the receptionist admits them. Staff have been issued

with a swipe card which opens the doors. The school insists that all pupils wear the school

uniform and when in uniform they are expected to behave appropriately in or out of school.

John Donne wrote in the XVIIth century "He is a part of the main" and Mrs. Scott, the

Principal, echoed this when she said, "the pupils represent a part of St Patrick's and its

values".





To fulfil its mission statement, the school uses two complementary mainstays, a curriculum

structure and a pastoral care structure.





St Patrick's has drawn up an admission policy for Year 8 pupils. The school is allowed to use

the transfer procedure test results. Parents of year 7 pupils, who are still in Primary School,

choose whether or not their child enters 11 plus exam. In practical terms, all pupils of the

school catchment area are admitted but the results of the11 plus exam are used as criteria for

the pupils living outside the catchment area. At the start of the new school year, all pupil of

Year 8 are submitted to assessment in Maths, English and IQ. They are then split up into

Band1 (Grammar, 4 classes), Band2 (secondary, 2 classes), Band3 (special need, 2 classes);

the vast majority of parents agreed to this structure because of the "rationality" of the

assessment process. Inside the bands, pupil are afforded equal standards of education. At the

end of each year, following the year assessment, a pupil can move accross the bands and

between the bands. The college also admits pupils with Moderate Learning difficulties who

are integrated into other classes on a gradual basis depending upon individual progress. The

curriculum in post primary schools of NI offers a broad spectrum of subjects and under

current changes taking place schools may have to offer as many as 27 subjects of which

religious education is considered to be very inportant. Cross-curricular themes may be

delivered through the teaching of other subjects for example education for mutual

understanding and ICT.

According to their assessment results at the end of year 10, including Key Stage 3 results in

English, Math and Science, pupils choose their subjects for General Certification of

Secondary Education \ Vocational ("brevet" equivalent) taught during Key Stage 4 (Year

11+Year 12). Vocational is intended to provide a coherent and flexible programme which is

rooted in practical and occupational context. In 2005, 97.5% of the year 12 pupils who sat

GCSE achieved grades A-G (Grade A-C are still an essential requirement for university

entrance); with 100% of the all pupils achieving success at some level of qualification.

The St Patrick's GCSE results are above the NI average results (79% against 72%). Pupils

who are to study A’ Levels choose their subjects in the second term of year 12; and while

some subjects have a GCSE entry requirement others are open entry. The school implements

the Advanced General Certificate of Education ("Bac général" equivalent;external assessment

to gain qualification), the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education("Bac technologique

" equivalent;external assessment to gain qualification) and the three Key Skills qualifications

(Communication, Application of Number, ICT; all of which require the student to complete a

portfolio of evidence and in some cases an external assessment to gain qualification). In the

academic years 2004/2005, 95% of pupils achieves 2 or more A levels at grade A-E

(including vocational) against 87% for NI average.(We don't know the proportion between

vocational and advanced levels). 86% of the leavers in 2004 of St Patrick's year 14 carried on

with higher education (1/4 Queen's University Belfast, 1/3 University of Ulster,).





St Patrick's College places great emphasises on ICT across curriculum and this is aided by an

effectively managed computer service.

The C2K agency has provided computers networked maintained and upgraded by

private ICT suppliers: 7 computer suites were allocated by the C2K (25 pc/room, 1 PC for

every 3.5 pupils). The computers on both sites are connected via a dedicated communications

line installed by C2K.

In addition to focusing on academic achievement the college also places great

emphasis on the pastoral care structure within the school and the key role this area has in the

pupil’s personal development.

The principal is particularly concerned with the welfare of each pupil: the pastoral care

structure ("vie scolaire" equivalent) affords pupil the environment in which self esteem and

individual learning can take place. The Principal works closely with all teachers in the area of

pastoral care and the college has clearly defined policies which are adhered to.

Collective success is very important in St Patrick's and this is very evident as you

walk around the school where all the photographs of the winning teams are displayed on the

walls and printed in the Patrician, the annual school magazine.

MEETING WITH M BRODERICK, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Mr D Broderick, Chairman Board of Governors

Mrs A Scott, St Patrick’s Principal

Mr M Toner, vice principal

Mr G Harkin HOD ICT

Mr Santraud, Moliere's principal

Mr Garcia, Moliere's vice principal

Mr Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, French teacher

The Chairman of the Board of Governors, Mr Broderick is a local businessman who brings

his business leadership and management skills to assist in the overall management of the

school.

The Board of Governors manage a 4,5M£ budget, the largest part of which is directed to staff

wages with the remainder used for the day-to-day running of the College. As a non-voting

governor, the principal acts as a CEO and is responsible for the internal organisation and day

to day management of the school. The board is elected for four years with member’s drawn

form the local community representing parents, business, the Catholic Church and teachers.









MEETING WITH PASTORAL TEAM

Thurday 22nd September

11 :55am->12 :25am

Mr D Clarke Pastoral co-ordinator

Mrs A McGuckian Year 12 Head

Mrs B Mussen Senior management

Mr P Santraud, Moliere's principal

Mr J L Garcia, Moliere's vice principal

Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, french teacher









-The middle management role: an example, the pastoral care structure

The aims of the structure is to strengthen the spiritual and physical welfare of the pupils

through attendance monitoring, progress monitoring, pupils behaviour watching and parents

and pupils listening.

The pastoral care structure is organised as a down\up and inside\outside communication

system, vertically from classroom teacher to principal and horizontally from pupils to parents

both via class tutor, Head of Year with a key role for the latter ("CPE" equivalent for the year

group). A pastoral care policy has been drawn up and both staff and pupils are aware of the

roles of HOY, Class Tutor and HO Pastoral Care. A formal referral system has been

developed within the college and email is used to communicate at all levels therefore a record

can be maintained.

The HOY is in charge of the Year Group and is assisted by a team of teachers, class tutors,

who meet their Tutor Class once a day at registration (9.15am – 9.25 am) and also during a

Tutor Period, which takes place once every two weeks. The HOY also takes an assembly once

a week, where the pupils gather for ten minutes in an assembly hall. There they receive

relevant school information and where the success of individuals or groups can be

acknowledged. This time each week has the effect of strengthening the bond within the year

group and establishes the feeling of belonging to a successful community.

The Class Tutor deals with most of the minor behaviour issues. Every morning, he or she will

meet their class and take registration as well as deal with absence notes, check uniforms and

deal with any latecomers. In his or her timetable the Class Tutor has a form period ("heure de

vie de classe" equivalent) which is devoted to raising discipline issues, matters relating to

Personal, Social and Health Education, and it may be used to check the Student Journal: in

fact each student has this diary provided by the school where one finds homework’s,

communication notes with parents, school rules etc. It is a well-presented book with two

characters, "red and green apollo" presenting positive and negative reactions to day-to-day

situations or common teenage problems. They also appoint class captains, but these are not

represented onboard of Governors.





Teachers in St Patrick's work from 9 am to 4 pm five days a week (Monday to Friday). They

generally teach two subjects for 23,5 hours and may attend several meetings of the teams of

they belong.(Department meeting, Class Tutor Meeting, Whole School Staff Meeting.). In

the case of staff absence there is a system called Rota where teachers are timetabled to

provide cover for absent colleagues if the absence is for only a short period of time.





One of the key targets of the St Patrick's strategic plan for 2004-2007 is the development of

HOY so that they have a clearer view of their roles and responsibilities in areas such as record

keeping and agreed practices for conducting assemblies.

The observation of the PRSD process could be of further interest for the french team.





MEETING WITH HEADS OF DEPARTEMENT

Friday 23th September

10 :25am->11 :15am

Mrs F Walls HD RE

Mr H MGuigan HD Business Studies

Mr P McAteer HD Modern Language

Mr G Harkin HD ICT

Mr Byron Regional Training Unit (RTU)

Mr P Santraud, Moliere's principal

Mr J L Garcia, Moliere's vice principal

Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, French teacher





Main interests:

-The middle management role: for example, the curriculum structure.





The school is structured on traditional subject lines offering a broad spectrum of subjects with

Religious education being compulsory for all pupils. Within the College there are 33 heads of

department whose main role is to improve the effectiveness of teaching within their

department by providing advice on personal and professional development.

Once a month, each HOD calls a department meeting dealing with subjects such as

implementation of the national curriculum, monitoring homework policy, sharing good

practice, assessment and reviewing examination results. . One of the targets of the strategic

plan for 2004 2007 is to introduce a culture of self-evaluation within each department.

In June of each year the department draws up an Action Plan identifying the target

areas for development for the next academic year. The minutes of all meetings held within the

department are recorded and submitted to the principal. At class level teachers have

objectives for pupil progress (attainment targets) and these are recorded by the teacher and

used to report to parents on Parents Day and are also used in written Reports which are

provided to parents on an annual basis. The College is in the process of moving to a system of

computerised records, which will be provided by the C2K MIS. During years 12 & 14 each

class teacher completes an examination Target Setting sheet for their class and this is used to

monitor the pupils achievement in final examinations against targets set during the year. The

HOD can use this to monitor pupil progress and to identify any areas for improvement within

the department.

The HOD and teachers within the department can attend courses organised by the

examinations board (eg CCEA, AQA) which are use by the college. In St Patrik's College one

of the objectives is to ensure that each pupil gains a qualification reguardless of his or her

academic ability.





The HOD writes a department policy document that takes onboard the school development

plan for the subject including aims, objectives, teaching approach and methodology,

resources, assessment, homework and budget. Each department has its own budget allocated

by the principal depending on the student number and the subject.

Within the school all recent ICT, software and hardware were provided by the C2K

(Classroom 2KILO) and they provide maintance on site under contract. The school employs

two technicians who deal with minor technical issues and liase with C2K to ensure an

effective computer service is provided within the College. All the teachers within the College

have received ICT and the school considers staff development in this area very important. The

College has appointed three C2k Managers who look after the day-to-day management of the

400 plus computers and the 1500 users as well as providing support for the MIS modules and

curriculum software.

On Monday, the day of our departure, all staff were involved in the Process Review and Staff

Development. This scheme aims to identify training and development needs through a

personal interview with a member of the senior staff. The reviewer and the reviewee seek to

agreed on three objectives covering the areas of professional practice, pupil and curriculum

development and personal and professional development of the teacher. It is very important

that objectives of this process should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-

bound. As a result of this meeting two classroom observations will take place during the year

and will focus on the three objectives, which have been identified at the review discussion.

Ms Scott, the Principal, will be reviewed by the chair of governors, M Broderick who will in

turn review the 3 vice principal’s and this process will continue until all teachers have been

reviewed.

In NI, the ELB through the CASS support services provide assistance to school through the

use of teaching Advisors and in the case of Religious Education this is done through the

Diocesan Advisors office. St Patrick’s College is located within the Diocese of Derry and

therefore receives RE support from the Derry’s Diocesan Centre in Derry.

For French Principals, PRSD is of great interest; as this school is building a whole human

resources system based on the middle management's skills and commitment while at the same

time incorporating a system of pay to match the responsibilities of the various levels of

management.

St Patrick’s College has developed strong links with the community in which it as founded

and this is reflected in the Business Studies Department where the HOD has developed

contacts with local business to allow all the pupils of Year 12 to take part in a one week Work

Experience placement. Many of the business in the local area are owned or managed by past

pupils and this contact means that St. Patrick’s College is very much at the heart of the

community.

CONCLUSION

The governors (among them the Principal) propose a vision and the middle manager mediates

between the "what should be" mindset of the top and the "what is" mindset of the frontline

teachers to build a reality according to the school's mission statement: "St Patrick's College

strives for excellence, recognising the uniqueness of each individual by developing the whole

person and providing education for all through Catholic moral principles". The main problem

of such an organisation may be bureaucracy, which is not the case in St Patrick’s where

actions are decided and their result self evaluated. One very important observation that was

made was that teamwork is vital for success and this is very obvious when the role of the

pastoral team and the role of Curriculum / HOD are considered.









ACTIVITIES AND CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS





Thursday 22nd September

2pm->3pm

Mr M Toner, vice principal, in charge of timetable

Mrs D Devlin, senior manager, MIS/C2K manager

Mr G Harkin, ICT HOD

Mr J L Garcia, Moliere's vice principal

Mr E Bunocore, ICT teacher





The Management Information System called SIMS.net is a suite of administration software

developed by a private company and built on Microsoft. net. The system is remotely

maintained by C2K and provides different services through various modules, which deal with

both staff and pupil information (Attendance, Examination Results, Medical Records, and

Timetable). Pupil data is readily available to teachers who have the appropriate access rights.

The timetable module allows for the management of complex group configuration and is not

only used for timetables but also for the administration of the Rota structure for covering staff

absence as previously mentioned.

.





22nd September

2:30pm->3pm

Classroom observation

Miss A Holmes, ICT teacher

Mr P Santraud, Moliere's principal

Mr J L Garcia, Moliere's vice principal





18 pupils of year 12, ICT course, ICT suite (25 computers, printer, video projector)

It is a quite spacious and bright room. As in all the classrooms, these statements are written:

-Respect the rights, feelings and property of others

-Listen and do your best

Awards and punishments are also reminded

On the back wall of the classroom there were display boards with different panels develop

particular themes: e.g. data logging, Internet features etc.

We joined the class in the course of the lesson while the class were working on the

development of a Web site. A web page -an application form- was video projected on the

white board and the objectives of the lesson were also displayed for the class. The pupils had

to search the Internet for information on flight details with different constraints, which was to

be use as part of their final Coursework. They used Microsoft Word to copy the screen image

of the web page found and added comments on the document to show that they understood.

The teacher worked with each pupil during the lesson and the pupils were actively engaged in

their work. The teacher also logged us onto the Network so that we could see how this

operated at a classroom level. One specific area was Learning Resources which allows the

teacher to create resources which can be categorised by Subject, Department, Staff Member,

Year (some resources specially for ICT) and which can the be used by the pupil in the

classroom. C2K also provides the school with security for the pupils while they are on-line

and the school can request that particular sites can be blocked therefore the pupils have no

access.

Each department has a folder for the teacher to save resources into and the public folder

allows pupils to download work onto their computer and it will also allow the pupils to work

back to an area on the fileserver so that the teacher can correct it. Each pupil has a unique user

profile and password and the C2K Managers can request a list of internet web sites listed by

any pupil or member of staff. The C2K has a black list of web sites and the pupils are

prevented from accessing these sites on all computers within the school therefore providing

secure Internet access. The system doesn't allow pupils or staff to use any other software other

than that approved by C2K.





22nd September

2:30pm->3:15pm

Classroom observation

Mrs D Devlin, ICT teacher

Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, French teacher

Mr G Harkin, ICT HOD





This class consisted of 6 of the 48 pupils of year 14 who were undertaking the Key Skill

course, and was being taught in an ICT suite (25 computers, printer, video projector)

All the learning objectives were video projected on the white board. The pupils had to create

an Access database from an Excel spreadsheet.

All sixth form students undertake ICT Key Skill at Level 3 in the three areas of IT,

Communication, Application of Number, which are equal to 60 UCCAS points for

University. At the end of the lesson the teacher revisited the learning objectives and from the

question and answer session it was obvious that these had been achieved.









22nd September

2:30pm->3:15pm

Supervision observation

Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, French teacher

Mr G Harkin, ICT HOD





The first Year 14 Study area visited contained approx. 20 pupils and was equipped with

computers. This room was clearly visible for the corridor of the school and while it was

unsupervised it was under video surveillance connected to the staff room with the ability to

speak to the pupils if required via a microphone. There was no teacher supervision in the

study however the atmosphere was quiet and pupils were engaged in their work

In the main study a teacher was supervising the pupils who were working in total silence

.









22nd September

3:15pm->4:00pm

Classroom observation

Mr L McClean, Science HOD

Mr P Santraud, Moliere's principal

Mr J L Garcia, Moliere's vice principal

Mr E Buonocore, ICT teacher

Mrs A Kempf, French teacher





Biology Room, 19 pupils Year13

Objectives are as usual written on the board. The teacher used software edited by The

Times with animation showing the mitosis and this was projected onto the board.

During the lesson the pupils had to put back in a chronology the different stages of

mitosis. The teacher questioned the pupils using the white board to reformulate the

answers to a list of questions. The students are participating and are very attentive. At

the end the teacher reminded the pupils of the knowledge they should have gained but

he also reminded them of the ICT competences they had achieved. We were all very

interested by the mitosis!



Information source:

 The school’s Website: http://www.stpatricksmaghera.com

 The C2K’s web site: http://www.c2kni.org.uk/

 The DENI’s web site: http://www.deni.gov.uk/index.htm

 St Patrick’s Strategic Plan

 St Patrick’s Pastoral Care Policy

 St Patrick’s Prospectus

 The Patrician

 The ICT’s Policy document

 The Annual Staff Development Plan

 The report for “Investors in people”

 General education documents provided by M Maxime Lejeune, MENF

 Methodology document provided by M Serge Pouts-Lajus,

Education&Territoire



Special thanks to M Gerard Harkin, St Patrick’s ICT HOD, who offers us much more

than his competence.