Ysgol Hen Felin

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol Hen Felin is a happy school where pupils feel safe and secure.

Staff develop highly effective relationships with pupils, based on a strong understanding of their individual needs. A strong safeguarding culture underpins all aspects of the school's work. Nearly all pupils make strong progress towards their individual targets during their time at the school.

Nearly all pupils make positive progress in developing their communication, digital and physical skills. They gain relevant accreditation or qualifications and progress to appropriate placements when they leave the school. Nearly all pupils demonstrate positive behaviour and attitudes to their learning.

Pupils are at the heart of school life. They are invo...lved in important decision making, but also make decisions about their school experiences throughout the school day. For example, the well-established pupil voice groups, such as the 'criw cymraeg', provide pupils with beneficial opportunities to influence the work of the school.

A notable strength of the school is the wide range of internal interventions to support pupil well-being and skills development, for example, through links with communication specialists, physiotherapy, behaviour and well-being teams. Staff use information gathered through multidisciplinary working effectively to plan relevant learning experiences which engage pupils successfully. The curriculum offer is broad and meets the needs of pupils well as they move through the school.

Moving from developing key communication skills, to participating in work experience placements in the community. The school learning environment is bright, welcoming and well-maintained. For example, outdoor play areas have a range of resources which support pupils to develop their social, communication and physical skills successfully.

However, over time, the number of pupils at the school has increased and a few classes are crowded. Leaders have established highly effective monitoring processes to oversee the work of the school. They have developed a dedicated team of staff, who collaborate successfully to move the school forward.

Nearly all staff have a strong understanding of their role and participate meaningfully in school self-evaluation and improvement planning. Recommendations R1 Work with the local authority to ensure that learning environments within the school can accommodate the number and needs of the pupils effectively 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 the work of the well-being centre and the distributed leadership approach, for dissemination on Estyn's website.