Froncysyllte C.P. School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

The Dee Valley Federation of schools was formed in January 2014 and consists of Froncysyllte Primary, Garth Primary and Pentre Church in Wales Controlled Primary schools. It is led by the recently appointed headteacher and a team of assistant headteachers at each of the three schools. These senior leaders manage the day to day running of each of their schools and assume responsibility for the operational matters at each school in the headteacher's absence.

Froncysyllte Primary School is a calm and safe environment where pupils feel happy and secure as part of a small family community. All staff know their pupils well and work well together to support their social, emotional, and academic progress. For example, pupils from Ukraine h...ave recently arrived at the school and staff and pupils have welcomed them into the family at Froncysyllte and ensured that they have settled well into school life.

Most pupils make sound progress across the school, including those with additional learning needs (ALN). Pupils are developing good literacy and numeracy skills and are beginning to use these well across different subjects and activities. A particular strength of the school is how well staff develop pupils' creative skills.

They provide many engaging opportunities for pupils to use and apply their artistic skills across their topics. Pupils are developing their voice within the school, for example as 'tech heroes' or being a 'maths whizz'. Staff in the school are working well together to trial new approaches to the curriculum as they move towards the Curriculum for Wales.

They are beginning to develop interesting themes that are strongly influenced by pupils' ideas. Teachers work hard to design learning opportunities that are purposeful and creative, and are beginning to link skills and knowledge across different areas of learning. While these approaches are still developing, at times the topics that pupils choose do not always allow the curriculum to fully reflect the cultural heritage and diverse nature of Wales.

Teachers and support staff provide good support to all pupils in lessons. In each class there is a strong culture of kindness and respect for others, which staff encourage through a gentle but firm approach. Teachers use positive praise regularly both in their verbal feedback and when marking pupils' work.

However, questioning and feedback do not always challenge pupils to think deeply enough about their learning and how they can make their work better. Often, pupils do not have sufficient opportunity to redraft their work and improve its quality. The headteacher, senior and middle leaders are beginning to have an impact on improving the opportunities for pupils across the federation.

They have recently begun to reflect on the school's provision and consider necessary improvements to be made, for example in mathematics and teachers' assessment of pupils for the next steps in their learning. Recommendations R1 Develop leadership at all levels across the federation, and share the strong practice that exists R2 Strengthen self-evaluation processes to focus on the impact of teaching on learning and the progress of pupils over time R3 Strengthen teachers' strategic planning for pupil progress across the wider curriculum R4 Secure teachers' understanding of effective classroom assessment to evaluate teaching and learning and identify how to help pupils move on in their learning What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will work with the local authority to review the school's progress.