Llanharan Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Pupils at Llanharan Primary are happy in school and enjoy attending every day. They feel safe and well cared for, and trust that adults will always support them appropriately. During their time in school, many pupils, including those who are vulnerable and those with additional needs, make satisfactory progress in most areas of learning.

Pupils' well-being is at the core of the school. Staff work effectively to ensure that it is a thoughtful, inclusive and supportive environment for all pupils and their families. Relationships across the school are strong.

Many pupils enter the school with literacy and numeracy skills below the expected level, with a very few considerably below the expected level. As pupils move through th...e school, they make satisfactory progress in most aspects of learning including reading and digital skills, and in their understanding of mathematical concepts. However, they do not apply their learning across the curriculum at the same level as in specific English and maths lessons.

Pupils' use of Welsh, and their writing skills in English, are underdeveloped. Leaders, staff and pupils are in the very early stages of designing their school curriculum to align with the expectations of the Curriculum for Wales and to reflect the environment and community in which they live. Leaders regularly review the school's work against its improvement priorities.

However, leaders' monitoring activity does not always pick up on important areas of teaching and learning that need improving, such as how effectively teachers plan and how feedback helps pupils to improve their work and make the expected progress as they move through the school. Recommendations R1 Develop consistent and rigorous approaches to monitoring that focus fully on the quality of teaching and learning R2 Ensure consistency in the quality of teaching and learning and pupil feedback R3 Develop the curriculum to ensure that pupils' knowledge and skills build progressively from nursery to Year 6 R4 Improve standards of writing R5 Improve pupils' Welsh oracy skills What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will work with the local authority to review the school's progress.