The Department of Education has warned that students’ needs must be central to decision-making at an Ennis Secondary School.
A whole school evalutation carried out at Rice College on New Road found that management structures are in immediate need of improvement – but also highlighted the teachers’ commitment to students.
Clare FM’s James Mulhall reports:
Rice College in Ennis is a co-educational school which currently has 643 second-level pupils enrolled.
In the inspection between April 3rd and 5th of this year, Department of Education officials spoke with teachers, management and parents as well as some students.
Management structures in the school were found to be in immediate need of improvement.
The inspector highlighted that greater efforts were needed in curriculum planning and planning for students with special needs – and noted that the needs of students need to be at the centre of decision making, while parents should be given a greater role in this.
More positively, teachers and management were found to be very committed to the holisitic development of students and in the majority of lessons, the quality of teaching was observed to be good or very good, with some lessons deemed fair.
The inspector also noted to wide range of extra-curricular activities in place for the pupils.
