School Improvement Plan

St. Mary’s College School Improvement Plan           Literacy September 2013-16

 

Summary of main strengths as identified in last SSE in May 2014

  • STen scores for reading among First year students are above the national norms.
  • Students engaged in the DEAR programme liked reading for pleasure.
  • Teachers are using teaching strategies to improve literacy and 50% are actively building a classroom based subject specific library.
  • There is a broad curriculum to meet the needs of students. (WSE-MLL report 2013).
  • Students are enabled to reach their potential in the school by a team of dedicated teachers who collaborate in subject department teams. (WSE-MLL report 2013).
  • The attainment in the majority of subjects at JC and LC is at or above the national norms.

 

Summary of main areas requiring improvement as identified in last SSE

  • Teachers to focus on the development of literacy as well as knowledge and skills by increasing expectations in standards of writing (sentence and paragraph formation).
  • Increase the number of students taking higher level in certain subjects in the LC examination to replicate the levels in the JC examination.
  • The development of the library as a resource and reading room.

 

Improvement targets

  1. Embed the DEAR programme for First Year students
  2. Increase the reading age of students in First Year by at least one year
  3. Enable the acquisition of subject specific vocabulary in Year 2 to ten words per subject per student
  4. Focus on development of sentences, word sequencing and paragraph formation in Year 3.
  5. Increase the attainment levels of students in LC and JC exams from C grade to B grade at higher level.
  6. Develop the library.

 

Review Dates         May 2015.