The success of Catholic school principals and governors in raising standards is to be shared among all leaders seeking continuous improvement.
Two new documents - Effective Governance for High Quality Education and Tackling Underachievement Through Effective Leadership - have been published by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS).
The documents highlight the good work going on in CCMS primary and post-primary settings and the plan is to now share this good practice with schools in other sectors.
Various case studies from schools that have enjoyed success in recent years are featured in the two reports.
Among the initiatives featured is Christ the Redeemer PS in Lagmore's underachieving boys' programme. Girls had been identified as outperforming boys in literacy. As a result, it was decided that the school would use data to identify possible causes for boys' underachievement.
Clear pupil profiles for each child were established enabling SEN teams to create a structured programme to engage and motivate the boys. After five weeks, teachers reported that all boys had become keener to contribute, they were more confident and had greater enthusiasm.
There was also a general improvement across P4-7 with the target boys.
Elsewhere, Our Lady's PS in north Belfast took measures to improve the literacy levels when it found P3 and P4 children were underachieving. It introduced support classes, with a focus on number. While it is still in its first year, the school reported that the progress children were already making had made the intervention worthwhile.
Malachy Crudden, CCMS head of education standards, said the leadership resource was a modest attempt to share understanding of the root causes of underachievement and what could be done to address it within Catholic schools and beyond.
"It reflects the willingness of Catholic school leaders and teachers to engage with one another about important educational issues and I thank them for their openness of spirit and willingness to share their ideas with their colleagues," he said.
CCMS chief executive Jim Clark endorsed the new publications.
"The principal purpose of CCMS is to assist the teachers, school leaders, governors and trustees of Catholic maintained schools to continually and purposefully raise standards in every aspect of their service provision in the interests of every young person in its schools," he said.
Copies of the publications are now available to teachers and governors through the CCMS website or by contacting CCMS.
Education minister John O'Dowd said the important documents underpinned the significance of effective governance and leadership in raising standards in schools.
"School governors play a key role in the management of our schools and ensuring that a school does everything in its power, to help children achieve their full potential. I thank CCMS for producing these documents which will help governors be clearer about what is expected of them and making sure that the needs of children and young people remain our central focus in the education system," he said.
Also at the event, the minister took time out alongside St Luke's PS pupils Nell and Grace Robinson, and site developers Eric Allen and Damian Poland from D4 solutions to launch the redeveloped CCMS website - www.onlineccms.com.
