Kilkenny school receives top marks from Department of Education

Grennan College in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny has received high praise from the Department of Education.

Grennan College is a co-educational school operating under the Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board (KCETB) with a current enrolment of 312 students.

The school offers the Junior Cycle, and optional Transition Year (TY) programme, the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the established Leaving Certificate. Geography is a core subject at Junior Cycle.

The school participates in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) initiative, an action plan for education all inclusion.

Overall, the report deemed the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in lessons observed was good, with some examples of very good practice and a small number of areas for development.

"In all lessons there was strong evidence of literacy development with teachers providing effective support to students on the correct use of key geographical terms.

"Teachers responded to students’ learning needs, and provided individual support where necessary.

"The quality of whole-school support for Geography was very good with appropriate timetabling and teacher deployment across all programmes.

"Teachers’ collaborative practice is good and they meet regularly, both formally and informally, to review teaching and learning strategies and to share experiences and resources.

"The quality of overall planning for junior cycle was satisfactory: schemes of work were in need of review to further reflect the learning outcomes outlined in the geography specification."