Alway Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

enough. For example, interventions are not always carefully co-ordinated to make sure that all pupils access the full curriculum. As a result, the school does not always identify the best way forward for all pupils.

Staff know their pupils£ needs well. For example, they provide valuable support for vulnerable pupils with emotional needs. The learning resource provision provides a nurturing environment that benefits its pupils.

There are productive relationships with most parents, particularly the parents of vulnerable children, and the school provides appropriate information about their progress. Recently improved communication methods keep all parents well-informed about the school's life and work. Pupils have good opport...unities to learn about making healthy lifestyle choices.

For example, Foundation Phase pupils recently enjoyed preparing and eating a healthy meal with their parents, based on a popular television cookery programme. There are valuable opportunities for pupils to be physically active, including regular after-school sports clubs. The school ensures that pupils know how to keep themselves safe, for instance on the internet.

Pupils£ opportunities to make decisions and take on meaningful responsibilities, for example through the school council, are less well developed. A few aspects of the school's safeguarding procedures give cause for concern and do not fully meet requirements. Although adults know how to keep children safe and secure, record-keeping systems are not robust enough.

The school is a caring community that nurtures pupils£ personal and social skills well. It makes particularly valuable use of the forest school site, where pupils learn about trust, resolving conflicts and teamwork while taking part in outdoor activities. The school promotes respect and tolerance, and celebrates diversity in attractive displays on the school corridors.

Through regular school assemblies and their curriculum work, there are worthwhile opportunities for pupils to develop spiritual and ethical understanding. The school provides rich experiences to help pupils develop their imaginations and engage with the creative arts and cultural activities, for example through visiting theatre groups and regular whole-school productions. 5: Leadership and management Adequate, needs improvement The headteacher, senior leaders and governing body place equality of opportunity for pupils of all backgrounds at the heart of their vision for the school.

They are firmly committed to ensuring the best interests of all pupils, and all staff support this aim well. Leaders have a clear understanding of their roles and carry these out with dedication. However, senior leaders do not distribute responsibilities effectively enough to support the specific needs of the school, or plan strategically enough to address them.

The governing body is highly supportive of the work of the school. The headteacher and senior leaders keep it well informed about developments and the outcomes of teacher assessments and national tests. The governing body has worked diligently to recruit new members and work together with the wider school community.

However, governors do not challenge the work of the school robustly and are not sufficiently involved in the planning and evaluation of actions to bring about school improvement. Teachers and senior leaders meet regularly to discuss school improvement priorities and engage in training to improve provision and raise standards. Performance management procedures for teachers and teaching assistants support school improvement suitably.

There are useful opportunities for staff to attend courses, receive in-house training and work with other schools to view and share good practice. For example, work with other teachers in the local cluster of schools has been effective in improving standards in reading. Senior leaders undertake a range of monitoring activities that help them to evaluate the quality of the school's work.

These include lesson observations, scrutiny of pupils£ work and monitoring of teachers£ planning. As a result, senior leaders have an appropriate picture of how well the school meets the needs of its pupils. However, the link between the outcomes of school self-evaluation and its plans for improvement is not always clear.

In a majority of cases, planned actions in the school's previous development plans have resulted in improved provision and outcomes for pupils. For example, a focus on improving the quality of teachers£ feedback to pupils resulted in marking that now informs pupils more clearly of what they need to do to improve their work. The current school development plan outlines a wide range of priorities and actions that broadly address the needs of pupils.

A minority of the planned actions for improvement have measurable, data based, success criteria. However, senior leaders and governors do not monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these plans regularly. This means that they do not know whether they have made a difference or not.

Although the school is making good progress against a majority of Welsh Government priorities, including improving pupils£ literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, progress towards improving pupils£ attendance and Welsh is limited. The school plans its use of the Pupil Deprivation Grant suitably to ensure that pupils of all backgrounds achieve at an appropriate level. However, it does not target the grant specifically enough to meet the needs of pupils eligible for free school meals, and the majority of its actions do not meet Welsh Government spending requirements.

The school uses its central budget appropriately to support improvements in the quality of provision and to raise standards. Senior leaders and governors plan and monitor the school's expenditure appropriately. Spending priorities link well to areas for improvement identified in the school development plan.

For example, the recent purchase of additional laptops has improved provision for the development of pupils£ ICT skills. Alway Primary School is situated in the outskirts of Newport, in a designated Communities First area. The site is shared with local authority support services and Flying Start nursery provision.

Most pupils come from the immediate area around the school. Pupil numbers have increased over the last four years. There are currently 393 pupils on roll, aged from 3 to 11.

Pupils are taught in 11 single-age and two mixed-age classes. In addition, there are two mixed-age learning support classes, providing education for up to 20 pupils with a wide range of additional learning needs. There are also two part-time nursery classes.

English is the predominant language for nearly all pupils. A few pupils learn English as an additional language. No pupils speak Welsh at home.

Approximately 45% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is much higher than the average for Wales. The local authority looks after a few pupils. The school has identified that around 21% of pupils have additional learning needs.

This is lower than the national average of 25%. Around a third of these pupils have a statement of special educational needs. There have been 18 fixed-term exclusions during the past 12 months.

The present headteacher took up his post in September 2003. The school was last inspected in November 2009. Appendix 1: Summary table of inspection areas Standards Good Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Adequate, needs improvement Teaching and learning experiences Good Care, support and guidance Adequate, needs improvement Leadership and management Adequate, needs improvement Estyn evaluates a provider's effectiveness using a four-point judgement scale: Excellent Strong, sustained performance and practice Good Strong features, although minor aspects may require improvement Adequate, needs improvement Strengths outweigh weaknesses, but important aspects require improvement Unsatisfactory, needs urgent improvement Important weaknesses outweigh strengths Appendix 2: Performance data 6802315 - Alway Primary SchoolNumber of pupils on roll413Pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) - 3 year average44.

8FSM band5(32%
484.3Benchmark quartile1222Language, literacy and communication skills - English (LCE)Number of pupils in cohort51465151Achieving outcome 5+ (%)84.382.

684.384.3Benchmark quartile2323Achieving outcome 6+ (%)37.

330.441.241.

2Benchmark quartile1211Language, literacy and communication skills - Welsh (LCW)Number of pupils in cohort****Achieving outcome 5+ (%)****Benchmark quartile****Achieving outcome 6+ (%)****Benchmark quartile****Mathematical development (MDT)Number of pupils in cohort51465151Achieving outcome 5+ (%)86.387.082.

488.2Benchmark quartile2232Achieving outcome 6+ (%)25.523.

937.343.1Benchmark quartile2211Personal and social development, wellbeing and cultural diversity (PSD)Number of pupils in cohort51465151Achieving outcome 5+ (%)86.

393.594.192.

2Benchmark quartile3223Achieving outcome 6+ (%)33.341.349.

047.1Benchmark quartile2222* This item may disclose information on individuals, or it is not sufficiently robust for publication, not applicable or is otherwise unavailable.The Foundation Phase indicator (FPI) represents the percentage of pupils achieving outcome 5 or above in PSD,LCE/LCW, and MDT in combination.

The benchmark quartile compares the performance of one school against others who have similar levels of pupils with free school meals (FSM). FSM is used as a proxy of social deprivation in schools. This allows a comparison of the performance of a school against others who are in the same FSM category, and who might therefore have a similar intake of pupils from deprived backgrounds.

A school in benchmark quartile 1 is in the highest performing 25% of schools with similar levels of free school meals to this school. Therefore, the school's attainment levels are higher than many other schools with similar levels of pupils from deprived backgrounds. A school in benchmark quartile 4 is in the lowest performing 25% of schools with similar levels of free school meals to this school.

Therefore, the school's attainment levels are lower than many other schools with similar levels of pupils from deprived backgrounds.6802315 - Alway Primary SchoolNumber of pupils on roll413Pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) - 3 year average44.8FSM band5(32%
480.081.484.

3Benchmark quartile4233EnglishNumber of pupils in cohort47404351Achieving level 4+ (%)66.082.583.

786.3Benchmark quartile4332Achieving level 5+ (%)25.530.

030.247.1Benchmark quartile2231Welsh first languageNumber of pupils in cohort****Achieving level 4+ (%)****Benchmark quartile****Achieving level 5+ (%)****Benchmark quartile****MathematicsNumber of pupils in cohort47404351Achieving level 4+ (%)63.

885.083.788.

2Benchmark quartile4232Achieving level 5+ (%)31.935.039.

543.1Benchmark quartile2211ScienceNumber of pupils in cohort47404351Achieving level 4+ (%)68.185.

083.788.2Benchmark quartile4332Achieving level 5+ (%)31.

935.032.647.

1Benchmark quartile2221* This item may disclose information on individuals, or it is not sufficiently robust for publication, not applicable or is otherwise unavailable.The core subject indicator (CSI) represents the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in English or Welsh (first language), mathematics and science in combination. The benchmark quartile compares the performance of one school against others who have similar levels of pupils with free school meals (FSM).

FSM is used as a proxy of social deprivation in schools. This allows a comparison of the performance of a school against others who are in the same FSM category, and who might therefore have a similar intake of pupils from deprived backgrounds.A school in benchmark quartile 1 is in the highest performing 25% of schools with similar levels of free school meals to this school.

Therefore, the school's attainment levels are higher than many other schools with similar levels of pupils from deprived backgrounds. A school in benchmark quartile 4 is in the lowest performing 25% of schools with similar levels of free school meals to this school. Therefore, the school's attainment levels are lower than many other schools with similar levels of pupils from deprived backgrounds.