Headteacher's Welcome

Millennium Integrated Primary School prides itself on its positive commitment to high-quality, integrated, all-ability and inclusive child-centred education which includes a commitment to equality of opportunity and working in partnership with governors, teachers, parents and the local community. 

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We opened in September 2000 with ten P1 children, our founding teaching principal Mrs Roulston and a classroom assistant, Marie Collins, on a temporary site.  This new integrated primary school was pioneered by a group of parents who were passionate in their desire to deliver integrated education. 

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Millennium Integrated Primary School is situated on the Old Saintfield Road between Saintfield and Carryduff and proudly serves the local and wider community.  In 2013, Millennium Integrated Primary School was granted a Development Proposal to allow the school to grow further to a double entry intake and an enrolment capacity of 400 pupils – which will be achieved in September 2019.

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Millennium provides a nurturing and inclusive environment for children of all abilities.  The strength of the ethos is characterised by the commitment of all the staff to integration and outstanding learning for all the pupils at the school.  The quality of the children’s achievements is very high and the school inspection reports note that the school achieves standards that are ‘very good’ to ‘outstanding’.  There is dedicated provision for our children with special educational needs and a positive and proactive approach is taken to ensure that early intervention strategies are in place. Recently, the school was awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence Award in its first year of application – something that would normally be awarded after a three-year cycle.

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MISSION STATEMENT

 

‘Together we strive to create and nurture an inclusive child centred environment where our teaching and learning celebrates individuality and inspires all children to reach their potential as lifelong learners.’

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The high achievements of the children are attained by the high quality of the teaching that takes place in the classrooms. The inspection report refers to the two-thirds of observed lessons being ‘very good or outstanding in equal measure’. The teaching staff are very committed to the children and this is demonstrated through the wide variety of experiences that they are offered. We are very active in our wider community through a range of sporting, musical and dramatic endeavours. Recently, Millennium has achieved very high levels of sporting success – with our girls winning the Northern Ireland Netball championships in June 2017 and the Gaelic sports success being recognised with the school being the first integrated primary to win the Irish News Primary School of the Year Award. The school also participates in the annual Peace Proms event held in the SSE Arena.

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Millennium is also recognised as being a leading school in the application and use of ICT in teaching and learning. Until recently, it was the only primary school in Northern Ireland to be recognised as a Microsoft Showcase School. A number of member of staff are recognised as Microsoft Innovative Educators and as SeeSaw Ambassadors. This is a fundamental element to Millennium and it is something the school has ambitions to develop even further, going forward.

The school staff is presently made up of 18 teaching staff (full-time and part-time), including a full time SENCO. In addition, there are learning support assistants across P1 to P7, with additional assistants in each of the foundation classes and Nursery. There is also a full complement of non-teaching administrative and financial staff and catering staff.

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Millennium has on-site Breakfast and After-School facilities and, to ensure that the children are afforded a wide range of experiences, offers a wide range of extracurricular activities for the pupils including netball, Gaelic, football, gardening club, dance, lyre, Monkeynastix and choir. These clubs are all taken by specialist coaches and teachers and are provided at a reasonable cost.  We are also looking at expanding this provision of after-school activities to include further sports and activities. The school has a dedicated library and music, sport and drama are integral to the fabric of the school.  Wednesday afternoon curriculum time is dedicated to activities such as sporting clubs and pursuits such as cooking, gardening and yoga, to name a few.

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Millennium’s strength is in its supportive Board of Governors, the very active Parents Council and the excellent partnerships which exist between staff, governors, parents and children.

At Millennium Integrated Primary School we aim...

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• To provide a welcoming, happy, secure learning environment, giving all children stimulating, challenging and equal educational experiences. We want our children to learn effectively and to be empowered to communicate clearly and confidently.

• To educate together children from all faith backgrounds and none.

• To provide a broad and balanced curriculum.

• To nurture the child’s self-esteem in an environment where each person feels valued and respected so that they can accept others whose ideas and beliefs are different from their own.

• To develop in our children an-open-mindedness about the world and the confidence and ability to think, question, observe and make wise decisions.

• To help children to develop personally, spiritually and socially, recognising the importance of self-fulfilment, irrespective of ability.

• To strive continuously for improvement by having high expectations and through active, co-operative and independent learning, as well as through quality teaching and learning as well as through quality teaching enhanced by effective staff development.

• To promote a supportive, respectful partnership between school, the home and the wider community.

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We look forward to welcoming you to our family,

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Barry Corrigan