Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol Pen y Bryn is a happy and nurturing school.

It provides effective and meaningful education for its pupils, which has a positive impact on their well-being and progress. The school has responded and adapted well to the challenges of the pandemic. Leaders and teaching staff at the school have successfully re-established familiar routines and working relationships to support pupils and their families.

Teaching staff understand and respond well to pupils' additional learning and emotional needs. They support pupils sensitively with consistent classroom routines, which help pupils to understand and to predict what is happening around them and to self-regulate when they need to. As a result, most pupils engage well in lear...ning and make effective progress from their initial starting points.

Staff use assessment information effectively in planning support and to develop appropriate individual education targets and learning experiences for the pupils. The school delivers a varied range of appropriate learning experiences that reflects the wide range of pupils' needs and abilities and develops their skills well. A notable feature of the provision is the school's film skills offer, which develops industry specific skills and allows opportunities for creative expression.

Overall, leadership roles are clear and are well understood with effective lines of communication between staff and their managers. The new leadership team has strengthened arrangements for school evaluation. Overall, the school environment is appropriate and is in a generally adequate state of repair.

However, the outdoor learning environment is under resourced and is not appropriate to support the needs of the pupils at the school. Recommendations R1 Address the health and safety issues identified during the inspection R2 Improve the quality of the outdoor learning environment R3 Continue to strengthen self-evaluation arrangements and improvement planning 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 in relation to its film provision, for dissemination on Estyn's website.