A glowing report for St Mary's
An independent Whole School Evaluation has affirmed that many 'excellent practices' are in operation at St Mary's Secondary School, Newport, to the benefit of the students and the teaching standards are very high.
The evaluation assessed the quality of teaching and learning and the quality of management and leadership in the school with the inspectors evaluating and reporting under the following headings or areas of enquiry:
1. Quality of school leadership and management
2. Quality of teaching and learning
3. Quality of support for students’ wellbeing
The report has vindicated the confidence shown in the school by the community, as demand for placed continues to exceed availability and pressure continues on the Government to deliver a further major extension to the school.
Enrolment at the school has now topped 730 students, with over sixty teachers under principal, Kevin Cusack and Deputy Principals, Orla Thornton, a native of East Clare and Danny O'Callaghan, who comes from North Cork.
Principal Cusack said that the report was acknowledgement of the commitment of everyone in the school to achieve the highest standards.
“Our annual enrolment is currently capped at 120 students and the applications that we have received for the next school year - starting September 2025 - exceed places available by well more than 50 per cent,” he said.
“We are finding that the catchment area for the school is continuing to expand over a wider area and our challenge is to ensure the highest possible achievement for every student,” he added.
He attributed the success of the school to “the quality and hard work” of the teachers and commitment that all students reach their maximum capability.
Teaching staff and management were encouraged by several of the inspectors findings including:
- A very inclusive and positive environment was evident within the school and very effective student support and care structures were in place.
- The board of management functioned effectively and provided very good support to the school.
- The standard of teaching was very good overall; this ranged from excellent, very good and good in the vast majority of lessons.
- The quality of leadership and management was of a very good standard.
- There was evidence that teachers had begun implementing agreed school self-evaluation (SSE) strategies during the lessons observed.
- Exemplary student behaviour, the very broad curriculum, opportunities for student leadership roles, the range of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities and the safe and caring environment ensured that the school had very good structures for supporting student wellbeing.
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
The students had at various stages received talks on mental health, wellbeing, anti-bullying and internet safety and could take part in a wide variety of social activities throughout the school year.
Friendship week and a student mentor system, where senior students helped the new first-year students as they transitioned from primary to post-primary school were very useful support structures in place by senior management. A social club is also up and running for First Year students on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The students reported their satisfaction with the broad curriculum that was offered to them in addition to the range of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that teachers provided.
They felt it was an indication of the effort that the school and teachers went to in order to provide them with a very positive experience of school life.
The commitment of the board to support and foster a culture of reflective practice, dialogue and communication which has led to positive and mutually respectful relationships. The report outlined that: “The positive code of behaviour and excellent day to day running of the school by the staff and senior management led to a very positive school culture and environment.”
Student behaviour was described as “exemplary” and “students felt safe and cared for”. The inclusivity of the students with AEN was also acknowledged saying that students with autism were, “included effectively in mainstream lessons”.
Teaching staff delivered high quality lessons with high standards for students. “Students excelled in the lessons where expectations for their ability and prior knowledge were suitably high” and “the quality of teachers' individual practice was very good”.