Education

2026 Easter School

West Belfast Partnership Board Easter School 2026

“Education at the Heart of Regeneration”

West Belfast Partnership Board have a strategic vision for west Belfast and high expectations with an uncompromising belief that every pupil in west Belfast can and will do well with sufficient supports and that disadvantage should not be a barrier to this.

There is a long established pattern which acknowledges poverty as presenting barriers to children’s education, which means that they enter post primary school with lower than average attainment and dealing with social and economic problems that inhibit their learning. A proven route out of poverty is quality education and the West Belfast Partnership Board (WBPB) strategic and operational plan identifies education as a top priority area to be addressed if we are to improve the life chances of children, young people and their families and develop sustainable social and economic neighbourhood regeneration and renewal.

West Belfast Partnership Board recognises the powerful influence that local communities can exercise on educational outcomes and the importance of engaging with parents and families. Whilst all education stakeholders have an important role to play, West Belfast Partnership has proven through previous DE funded operational and strategic programmes that so much more can be achieved when a community itself takes the lead.

The West Belfast Partnership Board focussed on particular recommendations arising out of an Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI), Area Based Evaluation Report in 2010. The ETI report focused on the quality of strategic planning, learning and transition arrangements for education and training in west Belfast and our current work builds on that foundation.

West Belfast Partnership Board currently has two education programmes of work:

Sharing the Learning: funded by the Department of Education
City-wide GCSE Maths and English Support Programme in partnership with Belfast Area Partnership across the city: funded by Belfast City Council

Through our core Sharing the Learning Programme work has been undertaken which not only reflects the findings of the ETI inspection but also responds to government policies and needs bespoke to west Belfast.

Supporting Education Achievement in West Belfast

Pat Sheehan MLA led an Adjournment Debate on the positive education achievement in West Belfast in the Assembly on Tuesday 4^th June. This was a good news story, with Pat stating:

“It is well known that there are strong links between persistent education underachievement and socio-economic background. However, it is also the case that underachievement is not inevitable and west Belfast is bucking the trend. A place based, whole community approach to education has been happening in west Belfast, through a partnership approach with children and families at its core. The work that West Belfast Partnership Board does in boosting attainment should serve as an example of good practice for others to learn from.”

Pat Sheehans Question

Education Minister Response

Education Strategic Steering Committee members

Frank Maskey	Chair
Bronagh Farrimond	Post Primary ALC
Sean McNamee	Primary ALNC
Clare Evans	Nursery ALNC
John Unsworth	Education Authority
Dougie Cusin	Department of Education
Wendy Crawford	Education & Training Inspectorate
Michael Keenan	Council for Catholic Maintained Schools
Gabrielle Nig Uidhir	St Mary’s University College

Terms of Reference

“Addressing Achievement in a Connected Way”

Education Strategic Themes

Addressing educational inequalities – raising local educational attainment levels and leaving no-one behind.

West Belfast Partnership will continue to place education at the heart of its regeneration programme. Driving the education agenda of the Partnership is the Education Strategic Steering Group, a subcommittee of the Partnership who are drawn from a range of community, statutory and schools education stakeholders in west Belfast. The Strategic Steering Group will address educational inequalities and contribute to transformative change in education outcomes in west Belfast through a collaborative value based approach which embraces and supports all learning opportunities and flexible education options.

Key Strategic Aim:

To work collaboratively towards the goal that all children and young people in west Belfast will have the means to achieve their full potential at each stage of their development.

Key Strategic Objectives:

To promote and implement structural development to influence educational change.
To promote the development and implementation of an education strategy for west Belfast which aims to bring the area‘s attainment levels up to a par with the Belfast average.
To promote and implement practical measures which will enhance and improve the learning and training pathways relevant to the needs of children, young people and their parents; and raise their educational outcomes.
To develop and implement a robust Communications Strategy with stakeholders and Government Departments to ensure a transparent multi- departmental / agency strategy and approach.

In order to achieve the objectives above we have ensured connectedness in the following areas:

Key Outcomes 2019-2022

Education inequalities are reduced.
The education performance gap in west Belfast is reduced.
Educational attainment levels and access to education and training are improved.
The quality of education and training performance is monitored and improvement sustained.
To ensure connectivity with areas of Education, Health and Employability both internally in WBPB and externally across the Belfast area linking to Lifelong Learning