Penarlag C.P. School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Pupils who attend Penarlag Primary school receive a high level of care, support and respect. Pupils are proud of their school and speak highly of the experiences they have. Across the school, pupils are friendly, welcoming, and behave well.

They have good manners, are polite and inquisitive and enjoy learning new things. They develop valuable relationships with their peers and staff, which have a positive impact on their learning and well-being. Most pupils begin school with skills that are appropriate for their age.

As they move through the school, most pupils make strong progress in their learning and do so with confidence and enjoyment. Pupils with additional learning needs benefit from valuable support, and as result t...hey also make good progress by the time they leave the school. Staff make skilful use of the learning spaces both within and outside of their classrooms to develop pupils' independence and to provide them with opportunities to carry out interesting practical activities.

The headteacher and governors work together well to ensure that pupils are safe and happy in school. Generally, leaders identify what the school is doing well and what it needs to do to improve. They take suitable steps to make the improvements needed.

However, the school has not yet developed a curriculum that enables pupils to make constructive links between their own lives and their learning. Staff have not been given enough opportunities to undertake professional learning to support curriculum development and are not empowered to lead the necessary improvements themselves. During their time at Penarlag, most pupils gain good Welsh, digital, literacy and mathematical skills and they learn to use these well in a range of contexts.

The school has a clear Welsh identity. Throughout the school, staff model the Welsh language passionately and it has a high profile in many aspects of the school's work. The Criw Cymraeg pupil group plays an integral part in the school's Welsh language provision and a good range of other groups enable pupils to positively influence the life of the school.

Recommendations R1 Strengthen distributed leadership to develop a coherent and progressive approach to curriculum and assessment R2 Ensure that professional learning is strategically planned to meet the needs of the school's immediate improvement priorities