St. Brigid's PS Downpatrick is celebrating another transformative year after successfully maintaining their Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) Centreof Excellence Award.
The school's Senior Leadership Team launched a comprehensive review of its Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy, which aims to ensure every pupil, staff member, and parent feels a true sense of belonging.
After extensive consultations with parents, staff, the Student Council, and dedicated focus groups of Newcomer pupils, the resulting-board ratified policy serves as a thoughtful, community-backed roadmap for the school's future.
St. Brigid’s PS has worked hard to ensure that diversity is not just accepted but celebrated. Newcomer pupils actively shape the school’s policies and contribute to vibrant multi-cultural celebrations with their peers in school.
St Brigid’s is also celebrating another successful year for student inclusivity and digital innovation following a highly successful rollout of its assistive technology initiative.Driven by a clear vision from the Senior Leadership Team, the school has spent the past year upskilling staff and pupils to create a nurturing, tech-driven environment tailored to individual learning needs.
Central to the school's success was a strategic partnership with the local SERC College, which placed a student technician on-site. This extra ICT resource proved invaluable, providing classroom assistants and pupils with hands-on support. Students have also been thriving under the AI Integration programme Amira to support reading. The initiative has positively improved pupil confidence. During a recent assessment, students seamlessly navigated the advanced software package. Assessors noted the effective use of adaptive AI tools that tailored reading materials to a child's exact ability level while still offering a healthy academic challenge.
The impact on Newcomer pupils over the last 12 months has been profound. Younger students proudly demonstrated their rapid language improvements to a visiting assessor, supported by close communication between staff and parents to encourage English language dialogue. The school’s data-driven strategy is also yielding excellent results in literacy and numeracy where students identified for additional support are withdrawn weekly from mainstream classes for targeted, small-group sessions with a specialist resource teacher.
By seamlessly blending digital innovation with deep community roots, St. Brigid’s has proven that true inclusivity is not just a policy, but a living practice. As the school continues to grow, its unwavering commitment ensures that every child, regardless of background or learning need is empowered to learn, grow, and thrive together.
“St Brigid’s Primary School serves as an example of excellence in nurturing a welcoming environment, where diversity is celebrated, and every individual is valued as a part of an inclusive, diverse community.” - IQM