Abercorn Primary School

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Abercorn Primary School is a primary school located in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland. The school was built in 1931 and officially opened in 1932. It currently has 402 pupils, with an average class size of 26. Most of the pupils are drawn from varied housing in the south end of the town. The school is within the Southern Education and Library Board area.

Abercorn describes itself as "a secure and stimulating environment for children" where "emphasis is placed on children showing courtesy to classmates, teachers and visitors and all staff endeavour to relate work to the children's interests and daily lives".^[1]

Enrolment: 378 in 1995-96, 401 in 1996-97, 392 in 1997-98, 393 in 1998-99, 402 in 1999-2000
Address: 13A Newry Road, Banbridge, BT32 3HR^[2]

The school was one of seven which worked together in 2004 on the development of the Southern Education and Library Board's "Talk to Me" project to develop fun approaches to maths homework. They designed and produced activity boxes to help parents play purposefully with their children and also help create a sound basis for learning.^[3]

In February 2006 Abercorn Primary School won a bonus prize of £100 as the best newcomer to the Banbridge Yellow Woods Challenge, the school's recycling environmental competition run by Yellow Pages, working with the Woodland Trust and Banbridge District Council.^[4]

1 School inspection
2 References
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] School inspection

A Department of Education (Northern Ireland) inspection of March, 2000 concluded that the school had significant strengths including its pastoral care, some excellent teaching, and quality in several subject areas. It described the school's leadership as "effective" and said that a "culture of self-evaluation and improvement" on the part of the staff was developing. Among areas with potential for better development, it particularly recommended that the children's independence and ability to make their own personal responses could be better developed by including more investigative and interpretative activities throughout the curriculum.^[5] A 2001 follow-up insection found that more such activities were being planned for and provided.^[6]