Crumlin High Level Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

provision for Welsh language. The governing body understands the need for the school to maintain stable leadership. The executive headteacher has a contract to continue in post until end of the current academic year when it will be reviewed.

R2 Improve the quality of teaching and assessment practices across the school Leaders and staff have worked diligently and strategically to improve the quality of teaching. This work is making a positive difference to pupils' progress and to the range of opportunities they have throughout the school. The school's teaching and learning experiences ensure that nearly all pupils develop positive attitudes to school and learning.

Across the school, teachers' confidence and professional ski...lls show notable improvement in a relatively short amount of time. There are now pockets of highly effective practice. However, a few aspects of teaching and provision, such as the staff's role in supporting learning through play, are at an early stage of development.

Teaching to develop pupils' writing skills is effective. Teachers have a clear understanding of the skills and knowledge that they want pupils to learn and of how to teach the intended learning successfully. They ensure that pupils' skills develop progressively as they move through the school.

In the Nursery class, pupils quickly begin to see themselves as writers, such as when they pretend to write a receipt in the role-play petrol station. By Year 6, most pupils write independently and at appropriate length for a variety of purposes. They have a secure understanding of the features of different text types and use authorial techniques effectively to enhance their work, for example to infer messages in their writing.

They asses their own and peers' progress successfully to deepen their understanding of the intended learning. In a few examples, teachers question pupils particularly well to challenge misconceptions or to enhance learning. They take good advantage of teachable moments and match the level of challenge appropriately to pupils' developmental needs.

There are good opportunities for older pupils to respond to verbal and written feedback to improve aspects of their written work. Teaching of mathematics and numeracy is developing well. Teachers across the school now ensure that pupils build their skills progressively.

Increasingly, pupils use these skills to a good standard in their work across the curriculum. Provision for younger pupils is beginning to ensure that pupils develop their mathematical understanding through play and practical experiences. Older pupils are beginning to explain their mathematical reasoning well, for instance to describe how they have solved a particular problem.

Recently, the school has focused on improving provision for three to seven-year-old pupils. Staff facilitate this work wholeheartedly and many notable improvements are evident. In particular, work to develop the indoor and outdoor learning environments has provided a positive impetus for teaching and learning.

Learning environments are welcoming and generally resourced appropriately to engage and sustain pupils' interests. Professional learning opportunities for staff who work with the younger pupils have been influential. There are now more frequent and worthwhile opportunities for pupils to lead their own learning, for example by making choices and developing ideas in the large construction area.

Pupils are confident in making independent choices and generally take good advantage of opportunities to develop their skills independently or in collaboration with friends. However, opportunities for pupils aged from three to seven to learn through play and exploration are inconsistent. At this stage in the school's development, staff do not always know how to make best use of the newly developed environments.

Overall, assessment practices have developed well to support teaching and learning. However, in a few cases staff do not make effective use of opportunities to listen to pupils or observe their play to gain key information about their learning and development. This means they are not yet able to adapt provision, including their responses and interactions, to support pupils' progress as well as they could.

R3 Improve pupils' extended writing skills Leaders and staff have worked well in partnership with external providers to develop a consistent approach to the teaching of writing. This ensures that pupils' writing skills develop well over time. Across the school, teachers provide a wider variety of opportunities for pupils to write freely.

This ensures that pupils have the opportunity to draft and improve the quality and quantity of writing. Leaders and staff have developed useful guidance that supports the progression of writing skills. The document identifies expected outcomes across each year group and for different types of writing genre.

This provides a useful benchmark for teachers and helps to ensure that all staff have high expectations of pupils' work across the school. Pupils are beginning to write for a wide range of purposes. By the end of reception, many pupils begin to hear beginning and end sounds within words and start to make good attempts at writing simple sentences.

A few more able pupils write interesting facts about bees and wasps using a wider vocabulary. In Years 3 and 4, pupils work collaboratively to write similes and use alliteration to describe volcanoes exploding, for example, liquid, lava, layering, and a' smoky, sizzling, sky'. Many older pupils make good progress in developing a wider range of writing skills.

For instance, in Years 5 and 6, pupils write persuasively when discussing whether pupils should be forced to do sports and when writing poems about deforestation. R4 Improve pupils' numeracy skills The school has prioritised effective collaborative planning of mathematics teaching as a key driver to improve pupils' numeracy skills. Supported by improvement partners and governors, leaders have created a bespoke progression map for mathematics tailored to take account of pupils' prior knowledge and experience.

This planning is kept under continual review, through evaluating assessment data and reflective professional dialogue between all staff. Planning for mathematics teaching is now secure and appropriately tailored to the school and all pupils. The school has developed agreed minimum requirements for teaching mathematics.

Teachers use this approach consistently in many instances across the school, which is having a good impact on the pace of lessons and on pupils' engagement, confidence and progress. As a result of targeted professional learning, teachers' subject knowledge has improved and, in many cases, supports highly effective questioning that allows pupils to rapidly develop their understanding and independence. Teaching assistants are actively engaged with the improvement work in mathematics.

They understand the agreed structures and strategies and, where practice is strong, use questioning effectively to support pupil progress. In the best mathematics lessons, teachers deploy a wide range of appropriate, stimulating resources which are used well to support pupils' learning. Pupils are confident and enthusiastic when discussing and explaining their learning.

They display confidence when solving problems and select resources effectively to support their learning. Planning for developing pupils' numeracy skills across the curriculum is secure and detailed. There are well-planned opportunities for pupils to employ a range of numeracy skills at an appropriate level across subjects, topics and within 'experience weeks', for example when using frequency tables and bar charts to process and represent data in a project on canteen waste.

R5 Ensure that the provision for Welsh improves pupils' oracy skills The school is beginning to support the development of pupils' Welsh language skills successfully. Staff now provide regular effective opportunities for pupils to develop their Welsh oracy skills. These include specific Welsh language lessons and additional opportunities during the school day.

Carefully planned provision now ensures that pupils are beginning to develop their speaking and listening skills progressively as they move through the school. Staff now understand and work in accordance with clear and appropriate expectations. They ensure that Welsh language sessions are fun and that the learning progresses at a suitable pace.

As a result, most pupils are developing positive attitudes to speaking Welsh. Pupils in the Nursery sing simple Welsh language songs enthusiastically and describe the weather in Welsh. In Years 2 and 3, pupils use Welsh language to support their daily routine such as when they ask and answer simple questions at the fruit tuck shop.

Older pupils are keen to learn new vocabulary and make good progress in using Welsh in lessons. A few are confident enough to initiate conversations using the Welsh they have learnt. In addition to placing a high priority on the Welsh language, staff are now developing pupils' understanding of the history and heritage of Wales.

This includes project work where older pupils research the history of the Welsh language. Regular events such as immersion days and eisteddfodau provide additional, valuable opportunities for pupils to hear and speak Welsh. The Language Ambassadors and Criw Cymraeg, which are the groups of pupils with a Welsh language leadership role at the school, work proactively to raise the profile of the Welsh language.

This positive contribution to the school's Welsh ethos further develops pupils' enthusiasm for engaging with the Welsh language. © Crown Copyright 2024: This report may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the report specified.