Ysgol yr Eglwys yng Nghymru Penrhyn Dewi

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol yr Eglwys yng Nhgymru Penrhyn Dewi VA has a caring and supporting ethos and a clear focus on the personal development and well-being of its pupils and staff. This ethos is underpinned by strong Christian values. The school provides very strong and well-considered support for pupils' well-being, physical, cultural and moral needs as well as their learning needs.

As a result, most pupils are happy and enthusiastic about coming to school. They feel safe and know who to turn to with any concerns. Leaders ensure that all pupils are included in its activities.

Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to participate fully in all aspects of school life by way of sensitive and discrete support. Most pupils with addition...al learning needs (ALN) play a full part in the school and are well supported to ensure that they can take on leadership roles and responsibilities. There are very good working relationships between staff and pupils.

In the primary phase, the quality of teaching is consistently high, but this is more variable in the secondary phase. Most pupils in nursery and reception make strong progress from their starting points. Many pupils across the school make suitable progress while the majority of pupils have a sufficiently good understanding of relevant prior learning and can apply this well to new contexts.

While many pupils display appropriate standards of literacy, numeracy and digital skills, the planning for progression of pupils' skills across the school is not co-ordinated well enough. In addition, as pupils progress through the school there is little opportunity for them to practise and develop their Welsh language skills outside the Welsh lessons. Staff make excellent use of the outdoor spaces, the surrounding local area and community to develop engaging real-life learning experiences.

Pupils benefit fully from the wide range of experiences offered in a unique location. The headteacher and new leadership team are conscientious in their approach to leading the school. The headteacher is passionate in her desire to provide pupils with the best education.

She supports the well-being of staff and pupils well. Leaders have established suitable processes to evaluate the school's work and plan for improvement appropriately. However, leaders do not always identify areas for improvement precisely or evaluate teaching by its impact on pupil outcomes well enough.

A few health and safety issues were identified during the inspection. Recommendations R1 Improve co-ordination of planning for progress in pupils' skills including development of pupils' Welsh speaking, reading and writing skills across the school R2 Improve the quality of teaching, to match the best practice seen in the school R3 Strengthen quality assurance processes to consider the impact of the school's work on pupils' standards and sharpen improvement planning R4 Address the health and safety issues identified during the inspection 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 school's use of the wider outdoor environment and community (Cynefin) to enhance pupils' learning experience, for dissemination on Estyn's website.