Radnor Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Radnor Primary School is a caring and inclusive community where pupils and families feel respected and valued. The school provides beneficial opportunities for pupils to reflect on important values, such as equity and diversity.

Pupils behave well and are respectful to teachers, their peers, and visitors. Relationships between staff, pupils, governors and parents are strong. This creates a thoughtful and supportive environment for all pupils and their families.

Many pupils enter the school with literacy and numeracy skills at the expected level or above. As pupils move through the school, they make suitable progress in most aspects of learning. They develop strong oracy and reading skills and an appropriate understanding o...f mathematical concepts.

However, progress in their writing skills is not as strong, as adults do not always provide pupils with enough opportunity to write at length and across sufficient areas of the curriculum. The school places an emphasis on developing a healthy lifestyle for the whole-school community. As a result, pupils' understanding of healthy living and the importance of being fit and active are outstanding.

The school utilises the limited space it has exceptionally well to support pupils to be physically active throughout the school day. This is a notable feature of the school. Provision for pupils with additional needs and those new to English are successful.

The school involves parents, staff and outside agencies to ensure that planning for individual needs is effective. As a result, most pupils with additional needs and early language skills make good progress in their learning. The school delivers a bespoke curriculum incorporating their local area well.

It utilises the culturally diverse nature of their school and Wales effectively. Most teachers plan interesting and authentic learning experiences that build on pupils' existing knowledge and understanding. However, the use of assessment and feedback varies across the school.

In a few classes, pupils struggle to verbalise what they have done well or what they could do to improve their learning. The headteacher provides effective leadership and encourages a strong team ethos within the school. Leaders work well with the governing body to review strengths and areas for improvements within the school.

However, leaders do not always ensure that the features of the most effective teaching are shared and implemented consistently across the school. Recommendations R1 Refine self-evaluation processes to ensure that effective practice is shared consistently across the school R2 Improve the consistency and quality of teachers' feedback R3 Ensure sufficient challenging opportunities for pupils to write at length across the curriculum What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection. Estyn will invite the school to prepare a case study on its work in relation to how the school promotes physical fitness for the whole-school community, for dissemination on Estyn's website.