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St. Paul's Primary School, Belfast

Principal's Welcome

Welcome to St. Paul’s Primary School and Nursery Unit Website. Here you will find 
all there is to know about our schools, what they can offer your child and how we 
cater for the many demands of the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

At St. Paul’s we believe for children to fulfil their potential, they must be happy and
great effort is put in to ensuring that we nurture the talents of all our pupils in a
stimulating and innovative environment. Our links with our community are  many
and varied and we access the very best of resources from within the local and
wider community in order to achieve this. This includes working together with our
partners in the Full Service Community Network (FSCN) to ensure that  we meet
the needs of all our pupils and families. We have developed a multi disciplinary
team within the school which gives us access to professionals from a wide range of
disciplines from counselling to educational psychology and educational welfare. We
pride ourselves in our ability to ensure that the individual needs of every pupil and
parent are considered as at the heart of our mission we want every child to realise
their potential and every parent to know that we deliver an outstanding service
which places their needs at the centre of everything we do.

The standard of teaching and learning at St.Paul’s is exceptional and many of our 
initiatives have been used as examples of good practice across the field of
education. Every school will trumpet their successes but through rigorous external
measures from e.g. Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) and CCEA, it has
been proven over the past three years that St.Paul's Primary School has delivered
incredible standards of teaching and learning and this is evidenced in the
substantial gains in educational achievement by our pupils across the school.
Our staff are dedicated and motivated towards improving on our previous
best. Teachers and non teaching staff have very high expectations of the pupils
and themselves and have developed progressive initiatives in numeracy and
literacy in order to raise standards, all of which have been consistently successful.
The interest of the child is at the centre of everything we do and the website will
provide many examples of the wonderful opportunities which pupils experience
while they progress through our school.  Our inspection report of 2009 bears
testimony to all of this.

We have a large number of pupils who come from overseas and we celebrate our
cultural diversity throughout the school. We take steps to ensure that every
assistance is given to pupils and their parents in terms of transitional support and
where necessary access external support from the diversity service and the BELB
which, at times of reporting to parents, includes translation facilities if required.
Each year the celebration of cultural diversity culminates in the 'One World Day'
presentation which is a colourful performance of music, dance and literature from
across the globe, mostly performed by our parents and local troupes. This day has
become the highlight of the school year and also includes a multi cultural food
fayre and workshops. It is a primary example of the extent to which diversity has
become embedded in the life of the school.

September 2011 saw a new chapter written in the history of the school with
the nursery school  becoming a unit of the primary school following the
Education Minister's decision in March 2011 to amalgamate both institutions. This 
has ensured a continuation of the excellent standards of pre-school provision in the
nursery unit and  helps immensely in the transition process for pupils and parents
when transferring to primary school.  

The school continues to invest in state of the art resources. St.Paul's has a large
computer suite equipped with networked computers. There are four interactive
whiteboards in the school. Each classroom has at least one computer which is
networked. The school in 2010 renovated the library to make it a centre of reading
for young and not so young and is the envy of many schools. Pupils attend the
library each week which allows all the pupils to gain access to a range of literature
which is renewed yearly. This includes interactive material, big books, fiction and
non fiction.

Outside the class, there are many extra-curricular activities for the children to get
involved in. These include a breakfast club, homework club, GAA club, drama club,
soccer club and cookery club. Pupils are encouraged to attend the breakfast club
each day where they receive cereal, fruit, toast and fruit drink for 50p. This opens
each morning at 8.00am and is fully supervised. It is a lovely way for the children to
begin their day in a friendly and less formal environment. It also assists working
parents as it allows them to drop their children off earlier in the sound knowledge
that not only will their children receive a nutritious breakfast, but that
they themselves will have that little bit less stress in the rush to get the pupils
to school and get to work on time!! All other after school activities are delivered
through our extended schools programme and are delivered free of charge for all
pupils.

Music plays a major role in the life of the school and we encourage all our pupils to
perform. Additional time is given towards music activities and we have found music
and drama to be outstanding stimuli for developing the self confidence of every
child. In 2014 the school particpated with Ant and Dec on the saturday Night
Takeaway on Tour at the Odyssey Arena. Our drama club are particpating in the
Shakepere festival in the Mac Theatre.

I am immensely proud of this school, of the teachers, pupils and parents that make
up our school community. We have developed a wrap round service for every child
in our school and we continue to look for ways in which we can improve. I know, as
it is often said by visitors to the school, there is something special about St.Paul's
and in the relationships that exist between our staff and children. I encourage you
to come and experience this ethos for yourself. A copy of the latest annual report
from the Board of Governors is available to the right of this page.
 If you would like to contact us to find out more about St. Paul’s Primary 
School and Nursery,please contact us directly via our contact lists.
Thank you for viewing our site and enjoy your visit to St. Paul’s Primary School and
Nursery Unit online.



Yours sincerely,
Sean McNamee.

Principal.