Clydach Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Clydach Primary school is an inclusive environment where pupils feel safe and cared for by their teachers. Staff work hard to build positive working relationships and provide good support for pupils' emotional well-being.

Pupils are enthusiastic learners and enjoy sharing their work with visitors. In general, pupils make suitable progress in their skills and understanding across the school. In a few areas of the curriculum pupils are making good progress, for example in mathematics and when developing their oracy skills.

However, not all groups of pupils, including those with additional learning needs or the more able, are challenged or supported well enough. This means that these groups of pupils do not always make enough... progress from their starting points. The school is beginning to develop its curriculum appropriately and is providing a few engaging learning experiences for pupils.

However, progress towards the Curriculum for Wales is slow and the school has not yet developed its curriculum well enough to ensure that pupils build on their skills and make sustained progress. The re-introduction of school trips following the pandemic is having a positive impact on pupils' enjoyment of learning. Pupils engage enthusiastically with experiences such as their woodland walks.

Due to significant levels of staff absence, the school does not currently have an effective leadership team. The local authority and governors have recently appointed an interim headteacher who is helping to improve staff well-being and pupils' progress. However, this arrangement is temporary and there remains a lack of capacity in leadership at all levels.

This is slowing the progress of the school and reducing its ability to build strong relationships with parents to help them support their children's learning. In addition, self-evaluation and improvement activities, as well as professional learning opportunities for staff, do not focus sufficiently well on improving the quality of teaching and learning. The local authority and governing body recognise challenges facing the school and are providing additional support.

Recommendations R1 Establish stable and effective leadership at all levels and improve communication with stakeholders R2 Improve self-evaluation and strategic planning to enable the school to identify and sustain the necessary improvements in teaching and learning R3 Improve teaching across the school to ensure that all groups of pupils are challenged well enough and make suitable progress R4 Improve the curriculum and provision for the progressive development of pupils' skills R5 Ensure that professional learning encourages collaboration across the school and improves teaching and learning What happens next In accordance with the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion that special measures are required in relation to this school. The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will monitor the school's progress on a termly basis.