Awel Y Môr Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

The headteacher at Awel Y Mor provides strong, considerate leadership and knows the school well.

He is ably supported by dedicated staff, who together form an effective team. The school, including the Pupil Inclusion Centre (PIC), is an inclusive, welcoming, and happy learning community, which promotes well-being effectively. The headteacher works diligently with staff and governors to plan school improvement.

However, monitoring and evaluation processes do not always focus well enough on the most important areas for improvement such as the quality of teaching. Leaders and staff know pupils well and use this information to ensure that all pupils are well cared for. Pupils are secure in their relationships with staff and, a...s a result, their behaviour is good.

Pupils and their families have a strong sense of pride in their school and nearly all pupils feel safe and enjoy coming to school. Leaders and staff keep in close contact with the wider school community and build positive relationships with parents. The school's curriculum takes account of pupils' interests.

Staff offer pupils a variety of learning experiences, which help keep pupils engaged in their learning. As a result, most pupils including those with additional learning needs (ALN) and those in the PIC, engage well with their learning, make strong progress and achieve well. Teachers support pupils to build on their learning suitably.

They ask appropriate questions in class to check pupils' understanding and to move learning forward. However, teachers sometimes over-direct learning and this hinders pupils' independence, including knowing how to improve their own work. Teachers plan purposeful opportunities to develop literacy, numeracy, and digital skills.

However, pupils' Welsh language skills are less well developed. Provision for outdoor learning experiences is effective and focuses on improving pupils' skills through a range of stimulating learning activities. Recommendations R1 Strengthen leadership and focus self-evaluation, monitoring and improvement planning on the areas most in need of improvement R2 Address the inconsistencies in teaching R3 Strengthen the provision for pupils to develop their Welsh language skills What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.