St Francis R.C. Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Leaders, teachers and support staff work hard to create a safe and happy school.

Parents and carers are positive about the school's support for their children, families and the community. They praise leaders and teachers who go out of their way to make sure that all is well at home. Most pupils are confident and friendly.

They feel safe and know that there is always someone to help and support them when they need it. They talk at length about the work they are most interested in. On occasion, they find their work less interesting and do not see the purpose of tasks.

Throughout the school, many pupils make good progress in aspects of their learning. They develop strong literacy skills in English and use these to su...pport their reading well. When learning across the curriculum, pupils generally apply their writing skills well and develop their ideas through talking and listening to others.

Opportunities for pupils to practice other important skills such as numeracy and digital skills are fewer, and for a minority of pupils these tasks are not challenging enough. As a result, a minority of pupils do not make the progress they could and do not always understand how to improve their work. Pupils make contributions to teachers' planning at the beginning of topics and a few take on roles in the school's leadership groups.

Many pupils do not have enough opportunities to influence school life. The school's vision to make sure pupils have equal opportunities to achieve excellence can be clearly seen in its strong support for pupil's additional needs. Leaders carefully consider ways to combat disadvantage and to provide high quality support for those with additional learning needs.

Staff, including teaching assistants, ensure that these pupils make good progress in their work. School staff also provide space for pupils to deal positively with their emotions and support them to create good relationships with staff and other pupils. Teachers are beginning to develop authentic opportunities which reflect the new Curriculum for Wales and its four purposes.

However, teachers do not plan enough opportunities for pupils to become independent learners. Leaders set purposeful priorities for school improvement that focus on pupils' learning and well-being. However, teachers do not regularly share the good practice in the school with each other often enough.

As a result, there is variability in the quality of teaching, which affects progress and equality of opportunity in a minority of classes. Recommendations R1 Ensure that leaders focus better on addressing the variability in the quality of teaching R2 Ensure that all teachers have high expectations in order to challenge pupils effectively R3 Improve pupils' independent learning skills R4 Provide more meaningful opportunities for pupils to influence the wider life of the school 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.