Abercanaid Community School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Abercanaid is a caring, inclusive school at the heart of its community. The school collaborates well with all staff, parents, governors and members of the community, and this has helped to shape the school vision and motto “All different, all equal, all shining.” Nearly all pupils feel well supported by staff, and many older pupils undertake their leadership roles with enthusiasm and dedication.

Overall, most pupils make good progress from their starting points in literacy and numeracy. Most pupils' early number skills develop appropriately. However, provision to ensure a secure understanding of mental maths and the four rules of number is inconsistent across the school.

All staff place high value on the well-being of pupi...ls. They provide high levels of care, support and guidance. This ensures that nearly all pupils are well supported and that they have positive attitudes towards their learning.

The bespoke curriculum is a strength of the school. It provides an exciting range of activities that motivate pupils effectively. However, the approach to assessment for learning is underdeveloped and, as a result, many pupils do not respond appropriately to written feedback.

The headteacher, leaders and governors collaborate well. There is a clear emphasis on national priorities and, because of a focus on attendance, levels have risen following the pandemic. The school works well with a range of external partners to improve support for pupils, to share practice and to develop provision.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding. The school's systems to support vulnerable pupils are effective. This contributes well to the inclusive ethos of the school.

Recommendations R1 Sharpen self-evaluation and monitoring activities to enable leaders to identify key areas for improvement, particularly in teaching R2 Develop a more strategic approach to professional learning that focuses on securing high quality teaching and assessment that helps pupils to improve R3 Improve provision to develop pupils' numeracy skills