Publication seeks to spread best practice among Northern Irish schools

Tackling Underachievement through Effective Leadership is a new document designed to help headteachers.

Published by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), it highlights the good work going on in some of its post-primary settings. The plan is to share this good practice with schools in other sectors.

The document contains various case studies from schools that have enjoyed success in recent years.

St Joseph’s Boys’ High School in Newry now offers a range of strategies to support pupils, including one to improve boys’ confidence with maths, starting with the basics. In addition, its pastoral system develops positive rewards and encourages improvement.

At Immaculate Conception College in Derry, pupils are split into different academic pathways, which resulted in the proportion of pupils achieving five “good” GCSEs increasing from 12 to 79 per cent.