Plasyfelin Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Plasyfelin Primary school provides a welcoming, nurturing environment where strong relationships between pupils, staff and parents generate a warm, friendly atmosphere for learning. As a result, most pupils make good progress from their starting points.

The consistent sensitivity and respect shown by staff towards their pupils is reflected in pupils' kindness towards their peers and in the excellent standard of behaviour across the school. Staff know their pupils well and meet their individual needs effectively. There is a strong culture of safeguarding that supports pupils to feel happy and safe at school.

Support for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) is a strength of the school. Teachers provide a variety of le...arning experiences that are increasingly linked to real life contexts. These enable pupils to develop their skills and build their knowledge and understanding appropriately over time, although opportunities for pupils to use their writing and numeracy skills are at an earlier stage of development.

Teaching supports many aspects of pupils' development and learning effectively. However, in general, teachers tend to over direct pupils' learning and do not always provide sufficient challenge or opportunities for pupils to develop their independent learning skills. Teachers' feedback does not support pupils to know what their next steps in learning are effectively enough.

Over time, leaders have created an effective team ethos amongst staff which is built on positive relationships, trust and collaboration. School leaders address national priorities well and have developed a clear vision for the school with well-being at its heart. This is well understood by all members of the school community.

Leaders make suitable use of first-hand evidence to evaluate much of the school's work. However, they do not focus closely enough on evaluating the difference that the school's provision makes to pupils' learning. Leaders have established effective relationships with parents and the wider school community, which underpins the positive and supportive ethos at the school.

Governors provide the school with purposeful support and undertake many of their roles diligently, such as monitoring the school's finances. They know the staff, pupils and families well and maintain open and productive communication with all. Recommendations R1 Ensure that leaders evaluate the school's provision and the impact of improvement strategies by considering the difference they make to pupils' experiences and progress R2 Strengthen the curriculum to ensure that it engages and challenges all pupils effectively and helps them develop the full range of skills, particularly in writing and numeracy across the curriculum R3 Develop aspects of teaching so that it provides appropriate challenge and supports pupils to respond to feedback and develop as independent learners What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.