St Aidan’s V.A.P. School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

St Aidan's Church in Wales VA School is a friendly and caring school, which promotes an inclusive ethos successfully. Pupils enjoy learning in a positive atmosphere, and they are enthusiastic during lessons and tasks. This is due to the strong working relationships that they have with their teachers and other staff.

This promotes effective learning, a strong sense of well-being and good progress. As a result, pupils develop appropriate extended writing skills and their speaking, listening, reading, numeracy, and digital skills are good. Pupils' outcomes are particularly successful where the teaching is consistent and stimulates pupils' learning.

Additionally, pupils respond enthusiastically when they receive feedback that ...is purposeful and challenges them to perform at their best. However, where inconsistencies occur, the teaching and feedback do not help pupils improve their work effectively. Staff demonstrate positive attitudes towards pupils, and they support and care for them diligently.

This contributes to pupils' eagerness to learn and their resilience to persevere with tasks. Staff effectively encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own well-being and behaviour Their emotional support for both pupils and their families is a strength of the school. Overall, the school environment promotes beneficial learning opportunities.

For example, staff and volunteers use the stimulating woodland area purposefully to engage pupils in outdoor learning. However, the indoor provision is not consistent and equitable for all younger pupils. Leaders evaluate the school's work to plan for improvements sensibly.

The headteacher provides effective and committed leadership and focuses on developing strengths within the school community to benefit pupils and their families. The senior leadership team, staff and governors share her caring vision. They work together well to ensure that the school is inclusive and that it promotes positive learning and well-being opportunities.

The headteacher uses the self-evaluation processes well to identify targets that will improve the school's practices. She supports the improvement strategies effectively by providing staff with purposeful opportunities to develop their expertise. This is facilitated well through well-planned professional learning and productive collaboration with local schools.

This thoughtful approach to staff training is successful. It contributes to a positive whole-school ethos, where staff feel valued for their impact on pupils' outcomes and for their overall contributions to school life. Recommendations R1 Provide better opportunities for pupils to improve the quality of their extended writing R2 Ensure that teaching is effective and consistent across the school R3 Ensure that teachers' feedback targets the next steps in pupils' learning effectively R4 Ensure that indoor learning experiences for younger pupils are resourced equitably across all classes What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.