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 timebound. 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.