Ysgol Bro Lleu

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About Ysgol Bro Lleu


Name Ysgol Bro Lleu
Address Penygroes, Caernarfon, LL54 6RE
Phone Number 01286 880883
Phase Nursery, Infants & Juniors
Gender Mixed
Number of Pupils 195 (47.2% boys 52.8% girls)
Number of Pupils per Teacher 19.5
Local Authority Gwynedd
Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol Bro Lleu is a happy, friendly and inclusive school that places a strong emphasis on respecting all members of its community. Its vision of giving the best opportunity to all pupils permeates throughout all of the school's activity.

As a result, pupils' attitudes to learning are positive and their behaviour is excellent. The well-being of pupils and staff is given a prominent priority in the school. Staff have a sound awareness of the needs of all pupils and track their progress in great detail.

As a result, most pupils make effective progress from their starting points. Staff include the views of pupils and parents, along with the local community, in developing an interesting curriculum for pupils. The curriculum foc...uses strongly on a sense of belonging to the local area, with valuable opportunities for pupils to apply their literacy and numeracy skills skilfully.

As a result, nearly all pupils enjoy their lessons and are very willing to discuss their work. Teachers question pupils skilfully and provide them with valuable oral feedback to support and extend their learning. This ensures that pupils are an integral part of improving their work.

On the whole, standards of teaching are sound across the school. In the best practice, staff plan activities across the curriculum that provide opportunities for pupils to become curious and independent learners. A notable aspect of the school's work is the way in which the headteacher has established robust arrangements to monitor and evaluate learning and provision.

The whole staff are committed fully to the process, which means that they work in a climate of welcoming challenge to develop and improve their practices continuously. As a result, there is a positive culture of self-improvement at the school. Recommendations R1 Develop opportunities for the youngest pupils to strengthen their creative and independent skills both inside and outside the classroom 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 developing a culture of a school as a self-improving organisation, to be disseminated on Estyn's website. Main findings Learning During their time at the school, most pupils, including those with additional learning needs (ALN) and those who are eligible for free school meals, make sound progress from their starting points. They develop their knowledge, understanding and skills effectively in interesting contexts that encourage them to enjoy learning.

Across the school, most pupils speak confidently, listen well to each other and adults and respond enthusiastically to their work. From an early age, the Welsh communication skills of many of the youngest pupils develop effectively. Most pupils make good progress in terms of developing their speaking skills effectively in different contexts.

Most pupils speak maturely with a natural range of vocabulary. They respond well to others during discussions and build on each other's ideas. Many pupils' reading skills develop well from an early age.

Most of the youngest pupils recognise individual letters and familiar, simple words confidently. Older pupils develop their reading skills skilfully by researching specific areas. By the end of their time at the school, many read clearly and with good expression in both languages.

Across the school, most pupils develop their writing skills effectively. The youngest pupils develop appropriate fine motor skills by using a variety of equipment, for example by weaving flowers and using a pipette to measure water. As they move through the school, most build on their skills successfully by writing for a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

As their skills develop, they use a good range of punctuation, spell more complex words correctly and choose vocabulary appropriately to engage interest. For example, Year 2 pupils re-write familiar stories and myths and, by Year 6, most write at increasing length in Welsh and English and choose words purposefully to engage interest. Overall, most pupils apply their literacy skills confidently and independently across the curriculum.

On the whole, many pupils develop a fluent and neat handwriting style and present their work with care and respect. Many pupils' mathematics skills are developing strongly. The youngest pupils are beginning to recognise numbers and use their numeracy skills in different contexts, for example when handling money when buying goods in the gardening shop.

As pupils move through the school, most develop a beneficial range of mathematical skills soundly. Most pupils across the school apply their number skills regularly in relevant learning activities across the curriculum. For example, in Year 3, pupils use a range of measurements with increasing accuracy when weighing treasure and researching the capacity of the pirates' grog.

Most pupils develop their digital skills purposefully as they move through the school. From an early age, they begin to use these skills constructively in a rich range of learning experiences across the curriculum, for example by using coding skills to move a rocket. Most older pupils use their digital skills very well to support independent research, for example through creative multimedia presentations, when using and analysing a database, by creating websites and through composing digital music.

Nearly all pupils develop their physical skills well across the school. For example, they take part in a variety of activities that promote their health and well-being effectively, for example during yoga sessions or physical education lessons at the local leisure centre. Across the school, on the whole, pupils benefit from valuable opportunities to develop their creative skills.

For example, Year 4 pupils use a variety of resources to create a diorama of an underwater environment and the school's older pupils compare and analyse the work of the artist, Kyffin Williams. However, there are not enough opportunities for the youngest pupils to develop their creative skills independently. Well-being and attitudes to learning Nearly all pupils are friendly and polite and treat their peers and staff with respect.

They are very welcoming towards visitors, particularly when taking part in conversations about the learning experiences they enjoy at school. Nearly all pupils feel safe at school. They discuss their feelings with adults on a daily basis, which contributes effectively towards supporting their confidence and emotional well-being.

As a result, most pupils feel that they are free from physical, emotional and verbal abuse and that they are respected and treated fairly. Pupils praise the positive relationship between themselves and the school's staff. As a result, nearly all pupils have firm trust in the school's inclusive ethos.

Nearly all pupils are proud of their school and are keen to share their successes with visitors. Pupils' respect and attitude of inclusion towards each other and others are a strong feature of pupils' well-being. Older pupils also speak positively about the sense of pride of being rewarded on a weekly basis by celebrating successes that go beyond expectations and also through continuous praise from staff.

Across the school, most pupils develop to become ambitious learners and show maturity in the way in which they overcome challenges and develop resilience. For example, Year 3 and 4 pupils explain in detail how to use the iceberg to develop a growth mindset and Year 6 pupils discuss considering how to persevere when talking about the failures of famous people around the world. Nearly all pupils develop physical skills and make healthy choices effectively.

For example, pupils develop their fitness naturally by using the playtime equipment, including the gym and the climbing frames. Most pupils have a sound awareness of the digital world and how to keep themselves and others safe online. The pupil councils are hard-working and show a clear understanding of their responsibilities and play an important part in making decisions that have a significant effect on school life.

For example, pupils on the eco council have reduced the school's use of energy by having one day a week where there is no use of computers or laptops. The behaviour of nearly all pupils during activities and around the school is excellent. Nearly all pupils follow the school rules, walk around the school in an organised manner, hold doors for each other and adults and treat each other with respect during free play.

Across the school, pupils show very positive attitudes towards their learning. They are enthusiastic and show an interest in their work. Pupils' enjoyment and motivation towards learning are a strength.

As a result, pupils talk about their work knowledgeably and with a skilful level of interest, for example as pupils talk about the planets and demonstrate an understanding of the distance of the inner and outer planets. On the whole, pupils' independent skills are developing well. Most pupils succeed in concentrating on tasks for extended periods.

Many older pupils work with increasing independence when choosing tasks and developing their creativity across the curriculum, for example by selecting how to present information about their themes in an interesting manner. Pupils have recently adapted their methods for responding to feedback. Nearly all pupils respond positively to oral feedback from staff and discuss their strengths and areas for improvement confidently.

Pupils are an integral part of the school's self-improvement processes. Across the school, pupils work together effectively in a way that respects the contributions of others within the team. For example, in Year 2 and Year 5, pupils allocate responsibilities supportively during drama and music sessions to ensure that everyone has a part.

Teaching and learning experiences The school provides a rich curriculum that reflects its local nature and context. Teachers gather ideas from pupils, parents and the local community in creating a relevant curriculum for pupils. As a result, they provide learning experiences that inspire pupils and this has a positive effect on pupils' attitudes to learning.

Learning activities are planned skilfully and build systematically on pupils' knowledge, understanding, skills and experiences to ensure progression as pupils move through the school. Pupils' literacy and numeracy skills are reinforced regularly through interesting and relevant themes, which includes planning independent work for pupils across the curriculum. The range of activities across the curriculum supports strong progress in terms of pupils' confidence and skills.

On the whole, staff plan outdoor learning experiences appropriately to support the curriculum. In the best practice, pupils develop as independent learners through experiences that encourage use of their literacy and numeracy skills, for example by recreating familiar stories on the stage or by using co-ordinates to find treasure on the school fields. Teachers and assistants provide many learning activities to develop pupils' personal and social education skills well.

Through visits and community links, most pupils have a clear understanding of issues relating to their well-being, their healthy lifestyle choices and their behaviour. The school has a strong ethos of promoting and supporting pupils' physical and emotional well-being. All staff have a caring and productive working relationship with pupils.

They treat all pupils with kindness and respect, which creates an inclusive and caring environment throughout the school in which well-being and development are given purposeful attention. A strong feature of teaching is the way in which staff foster positive attitudes to learning among pupils and create an ethos where they feel confident to ask questions, express their views and are not afraid to make mistakes. All staff work together effectively to nurture positive attitudes of perseverance and resilience in all pupils.

This allows pupils to develop as enthusiastic and ambitious learners. In the best practice, teachers develop learning activities with a suitable pace. They often use various questioning techniques skilfully, which broaden pupils' understanding of different learning contexts.

They ensure that pupils know what needs to be done and understand when they have succeeded. Staff use a range of interesting resources to engage pupils' interest and curiosity, for example by creating a gardening shop in the youngest pupils' outdoor area or by providing different treasures for pupils to weigh. On the whole, assistants use their skills to contribute effectively to developing pupils' learning.

Teachers provide regular opportunities for the school's older pupils to work independently and plan valuable sessions for them to work together to solve challenges. At times, staff over-direct activities for the youngest pupils, which hinders their creativity and ability to research, experiment and learn independently both inside and outside the classroom. Staff provide pupils with valuable written feedback to support and extend their learning there and then, for example when teaching pupils to use measuring equipment correctly.

They provide simple but effective written feedback and pupils respond to it regularly, which gives them clear guidance on the next steps in their learning. Pupils are given regular opportunities to assess their own work and that of their peers, in line with the activity's expectations. As a result, pupils across the school respond confidently in relation to what is good in their work and the progress they are making.

Care, support and guidance The school is an inclusive and homely community. Staff promote the importance of good behaviour, courtesy and respect successfully. There is a caring feel and ethos towards all pupils.

Staff create an exceptionally warm and safe learning environment where pupils feel that they are valued. They encourage pupils to consider the views of others sensitively, acknowledge and respect diversity and the importance of values. There are robust and highly effective arrangements to support the emotional, health and social needs of nearly all pupils.

Staff foster a strong relationship with pupils, which promotes beneficial attitudes towards their well-being. For example, staff support pupils on a daily basis by following an electronic record of their feelings, in addition to providing a variety of strategies to ensure that pupils develop their emotional literacy. Provision promotes and supports the pupils' excellent behaviour highly successfully.

There is highly effective provision to support pupils with additional learning needs. The ALN co-ordinator has rigorous processes to identify pupils' educational and well-being needs. Staff reflect on and evaluate provision and pupils' progress regularly, for example through weekly meetings between the co-ordinator and assistants.

As a result of planning provision skilfully, pupils receive support that meets their needs beneficially. The school communicates well with parents and carers about ALN arrangements and pupils are an integral part of the process. The school considers the views and feelings of the child, parents and carers in full as part of these valuable arrangements.

Staff have appropriate arrangements for tracking the progress of ALN pupils in relation to their targets in their individual development plans and their progress from their starting points. As a result, most pupils who need additional support with their learning or well-being make good progress. Staff promote the importance of healthy eating and encourage physical fitness through a range of physical education activities, which include extra-curricular sports clubs such as the football, rugby and netball clubs.

The extensive playing fields allow staff to organise and provide a range of outdoor activities that contribute well to pupils' well-being and enjoyment of exercise activities. Provision also promotes pupils' understanding of how to make healthy choices in terms of their lifestyle and the importance of keeping fit successfully. Provision supports all pupils to take part in whole-school decisions effectively.

For example, most pupils express an opinion about their learning by planning for the class themes and through the work of the pupil councils in developing the playing field. Collective worship arrangements provide beneficial opportunities to support pupils to learn about issues relating to various beliefs, in addition to reflecting on fundamental questions and their own values. Regular assemblies are held and pupils are given opportunities to play an active part in them.

Children's rights are a consistent part of the focus of assemblies. Staff help nearly all pupils to understand issues relating to values, equality, diversity and inclusion appropriately. This permeates all aspects of the pupils' life and work effectively and there is a clear inclusive culture within the school, with a strong emphasis on respect.

The school's culture also promotes pupils' moral, social and cultural development effectively, for example by providing a variety of opportunities for pupils to explore new ideas. For example, pupils at the top of the school recently compared the rights of citizens in Wales and Qatar appropriately during the World Cup. The school has a strong culture of safeguarding pupils.

Staff promote a culture of safety highly effectively and the arrangements are not a cause for concern. The procedure for reporting safeguarding concerns for pupils is robust and staff make timely referrals to external agencies, where appropriate. The school has robust processes for monitoring pupils' attendance and punctuality.

Leadership and management The headteacher's strong, intelligent and effective leadership sets a clear strategic direction for the school. Leaders have ensured valuable feedback from a wide range of stakeholders in producing a shared vision. They listen to the voices of pupils, staff, parents and governors in addition to the views of local businesses and members of the community.

This means that their aspiration to support, motivate and inspire all pupils to be the best they can be is relevant to everyone who is associated with the school. Leaders have clear strategic objectives and understand their responsibilities well. They have high expectations of themselves, staff and pupils and, as a result, a caring, polite and hard-working ethos permeates through all of the school's activities.

Leaders take staff's well-being seriously and there are arrangements in place to take care of their physical and mental health. These types of arrangements have a positive effect on the school's provision, for example by reducing staff absences over time. The headteacher has established robust arrangements to monitor and evaluate learning and provision.

All staff are completely committed to the process, which means that they work in a climate that welcomes challenge to develop and improve their practices continuously. Staff and governors contribute effectively to a wide range of sources of evidence to create a clear and honest picture of the school's performance. This means that leaders and staff identify the school's strengths and areas for improvement exceptionally well and respond to them promptly.

For example, through a process of scrutinising pupils' work and progress regularly, teachers are able to identify aspects that are in need of attention as they arise, such as a decline in the presentation of pupils' work. By focussing on this specific aspect, they are able to raise standards quickly. This is a notable example of the school's work.

The school has strong links with the local community to provide valuable experiences for pupils. Staff organise various activities that promote pupils' sense of pride in their local community and shows them how they can take care of it as responsible citizens. They organise litter picking sessions for the school's older pupils and pupils create posters to encourage pupils to pick up their dogs' mess.

The headteacher forges a strong relationship with parents and they appreciate the clear communication between the school and the home. Parents contribute towards planning the direction of their children's themes and benefit from meeting different family support agencies in parents' evenings at the school. Leaders seek parents' views regularly through appropriate questionnaires and analyse them carefully and respond appropriately to their responses.

The school has performance management arrangements for teachers and assistants that are based on their individual professional needs and the school's priorities. The awareness of all staff of the professional standards and their own performance enables them to reflect purposefully on what they need to do to improve their practice further. This contributes robustly to the school's ethos as a self-improving organisation.

As a result, the school has a knowledgeable and professional team that contributes regularly to raising pupils' educational, well-being and social standards. Ysgol Bro Lleu is part of the Bangor University education partnership and is a lead school for initial teacher education. This means that the school's staff are responsible for mentoring a large number of students each year.

This reinforces the positive attitude of all staff towards professional learning. Members of the governing body are highly supportive of the school and have comprehensive knowledge of the school's performance. They receive regular, up-to-date information from the headteacher and use their experiences from their regular visits to challenge and support leaders with their work.

During their learning walks, they gain a complete picture of the school's work. They question pupils about their work, scrutinise books and take part in professional discussions about the standard of teaching. They also reflect on how efficient their meetings are by monitoring the level of challenge they set for leaders.

They promote healthy eating and drinking effectively. As a result, most pupils speak confidently about healthy eating practices, bring fruit to school and understand the importance of a balanced diet. The headteacher manages the school's budget effectively with the experienced support of the governing body.

The pupil development grant is used appropriately to provide support programmes for pupils and ensure that all pupils attend school trips. As a result, pupils are able to take advantage of appropriate educational opportunities that have a positive influence on their standards and well-being. Evidence base of the report Before an inspection, inspectors: • analyse the outcomes from the parent and pupil questionnaires and consider the views of teachers and the governing body/members of the management committee through their questionnaire responses During an inspection, inspectors normally: • hold a meeting with parents to hear their views on the school and its effectiveness • meet the headteacher, governors, senior, middle leaders, and individual teachers to evaluate the impact of the school's work • meet pupils to discuss their work and to gain their views about various aspects of their school • meet groups of pupils in leadership roles, such as representatives from the school council and eco-committee • visit a broad sample of lessons, including learning support groups and the specialist resource base (where appropriate), and undertake a variety of learning walks to observe pupils learning and to see staff teaching in a range of settings, including classrooms, support groups (where appropriate) and in outdoor areas • visit the specialist resource base within the school to see pupils' learning (where appropriate) • observe and speak to pupils at lunch and break times and at a sample of after-school clubs • attend assemblies and daily acts of collective worship • look closely at the school's self-evaluation processes • consider the school's improvement plan and look at evidence to show how well the school has taken forward planned improvements • scrutinise a range of school documents, including information on pupil assessment and progress, records of meetings of staff and the governing body, information on pupils' well-being, including the safeguarding of pupils, and records of staff training and professional development After the on-site inspection and before the publication of the report, Estyn: • review the findings of the inspection alongside the supporting evidence from the inspection team in order to validate, moderate and ensure the quality of the inspectionCopies of the report Copies of this report are available from the school and from the Estyn website (http://www.

estyn.gov.wales) The report was produced in accordance with Section 28 of the Education Act 2005.

Every possible care has been taken to ensure that the information in this document is accurate at the time of going to press. Any enquiries or comments regarding this document/publication should be addressed to: Publication Section Estyn Anchor Court, Keen Road Cardiff CF24 5JW or by email to [email protected].

wales This and other Estyn publications are available on our website: http://www.estyn.gov.

wales/


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