Barnish Primary School - School Inspection, 2002

School Inspection, 2002

A focused school inspection (on mathematics and information and communications technology (ICT))carried out by the Department of Education (Northern Ireland) in April 2002, reported that "there is a strong caring ethos in the school ... relationships between the staff and the children are excellent ... the children are well behaved, friendly and sensitive to the needs of one another ... and the school environment is bright and welcoming". It also reported that "the school plays an important part in the local community. It is greatly valued and strongly supported by the parents and the governors, for example, recently they have provided funds to purchase benching for the new computers supplied through the Classroom 2000 (C2K) initiative.

In terms of teaching the inspection found that "the quality of teaching is good and often excellent ... practical work is used well to stimulate the children’s interest and enthusiasm ... and a wide range of resources is used to introduce, develop and consolidate the children’s knowledge and understanding". In terms of numeracy the school "as part of cohort one of the Northern Ireland Numeracy Strategy ... has developed an appropriate action plan for numeracy with a focus on mental mathematics and ICT". In terms of computer skills "the children’s ICT skills are good and ICT is well integrated into many aspects of the curriculum".