Albany Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Albany Primary is a diverse and welcoming inner-city school in Cardiff. It is an inclusive school that places its families and the community it serves at the heart of its work.

This is particularly important as each year the school sees a significant turnover in its population as families from many parts of the world join and leave the school. Parents very much appreciate the strong support they receive from the school. The information and guidance the school provides for families is a notable feature of its work.

As a result, pupils who attend Albany Primary are happy and make good progress from their varying starting points. The headteacher leads a team of dedicated staff who care for their pupils, support their well-bei...ng and encourage them to be the best they can be. The school provides solid support for pupils with additional learning needs and those where English is new or an additional language.

Leaders and staff have a clear vision for the development of a purposeful and rounded curriculum. This has its roots in the school's drive to foster pupils' sense of identity within Cardiff and Wales and provides pupils with many opportunities to learn beyond the walls of the school. Staff plan thoughtful and interesting topics for pupils and encourage them to contribute their thoughts and ideas on what they would like to learn.

The headteacher has been effective in developing partnerships with other schools and organisations to improve provision to the benefit of pupils, staff and the wider community. Leaders ensure that there are beneficial opportunities for teachers to develop their practice through professional learning in areas of importance to them and the school, such as the curriculum, well-being and pupil progress. However, self-evaluation processes do not always highlight inconsistencies in teaching and the effectiveness of planning to develop pupils' skills across the school and over time.

Overall, the school has a generally suitable approach to health and safety and safeguarding its pupils. However, during the inspection the team raised a few issues with school leaders. Recommendations R1 Address the health and safety issue identified by the team during the inspection R2 Ensure that senior leaders robustly monitor and evaluate learning and teaching to identify necessary areas for improvement R3 Ensure that the curriculum builds pupils' skills systematically as they move through the school R4 Improve the quality of teaching to ensure progression and consistency across the school What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.