Llanilltud Faerdref Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Pupils' well-being is central to the school's culture. Staff are highly committed in ensuring that they meet pupils' well-being needs each day, in order to prepare them for learning.

The curriculumprovides a broad range of learning experiences and is well structured to ensure that most pupilsmake beneficial progress in their learning. Pupils benefit from a well-developed forest school areato learn bushcraft skills, such as recognising bird calls and making bird houses. In addition, staffhavemade good use ofthe new school build to create authentic learning opportunities and todevelop mathematical skillssuch as area and perimeter.

However, pupils do not always developtheir independent learning skills well enough. This is bec...ause on occasions, teachers over-direct pupils' learning activities. In addition, in around a half of classes, teachers promote pupils'problem-solving skillswell.

However, this good practice is not consistent across the school.Over time, most pupils make good progress from their starting points in most areas of learning.Nearly all pupils develop a real love of mathematics and are keen to share their work anddemonstrate their mathematical skills.

In the majority of classes, strong teaching supports pupils todevelop their reasoning and thinking skills well. However, this is not consistent across the school. Most pupils make strong progress in writing and reading.

The development of pupils' oracy skills isa strength of the school.Pupils with additional learning needs have clear development plans with relevant targets.However, adults do not always implement these plans as well as they could to support pupilprogress.

Leaders have worked well with stakeholders to create a shared vision, underpinned by the school'smoto 'Care, share, believe, achieve'. This vision permeates every area of the school and isexemplified by the headteacher, staff and pupils. Leaders have developed worthwhile systems tosupport strong self-evaluation of school practice, identifying strengthsand areas requiring furtherdevelopment.

As a result, the school operates smoothly on a day-to-day basis, with a clear focus onwell-chosen improvement priorities.RecommendationsRecommendationsR2Use the best practice across the school to ensure thatall teaching allows pupils todevelop theirreasoning, thinking and problem-solving skillsR3Ensure that theclassroom provision foradditional learning needs takes good account of the targets within individual development plansR4Develop arrangements to promote healthyeating and drinking in linewith the Welsh Government's requirementsWhathappensnextThe school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.School contextSchool contextLlanilltud Faerdref PrimaryLocal authorityRhondda Cynon TafCounty BoroughCouncilLanguage ofthe providerEnglishType of schoolPrimaryNumberof pupils on roll183Pupils of statutory school age136Number in nursery classes24Percentage of pupils eligible for free school mealsover a three-year average(The nationalpercentage of pupilseligible for free school meals overathree-year average inPrimary is 23.

0%)34.8%Percentage of pupils who speakWelshat home0.0%Percentage of pupils with English asan additional language5.

1%Date of headteacher appointment01/05/2019Date of previous Estyn inspection (ifapplicable)01/05/2014Start date of inspection30/01/2023© Crown Copyright 2023:This report may be re used free of charge in any format or mediumprovided thatit is re used accuratelyand notused ina misleading context.The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyrightand the title of the report specified.Publication date: 03/04/2023Please note that the photographsdisplayed may not be of the school that isthe subject of thisreport.