St Mary’s R.C. Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

St Mary's is an effective school with a strong, caring and compassionate ethos.

Its pupils enjoy coming to school and are proud to be members of its community. The headteacher has worked well with staff, parents, governors, pupils and the wider community to establish a clear vision for the school and develop a sense of teamwork. Leaders know the school well and are open and honest about its strengths and areas for improvement.

For example, the school recognises a need to improve how it challenges pupils to achieve to the best of their ability and to ensure that feedback to pupils helps to move them forward with their learning. This frank approach to school improvement has helped the school to identify and develop key areas... of its work in recent years. The strength of pupils' Welsh language skills is a particularly good example of this.

Teachers and teaching assistants plan engaging learning experiences that help to ensure pupils make good progress with their skills during lessons and over time. They encourage pupils to become active and reflective learners who know their strengths and what they need to improve. Pupils collaborate well with each other and show respect to their peers and adults.

Staff know pupils and their needs well. They ensure good support for pupils that need extra help, including those that join the school with little understanding of the English language. Recommendations R1.

Ensure that teachers plan effective challenge to all groups of pupils R2. Improve feedback processes to ensure that they support pupils to develop their skills and provide opportunities for pupils to improve their work 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 improving the quality of pupils' Welsh language skills for dissemination on Estyn's website.