Tonyrefail Community School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Tonyrefail Community School is a caring and supportive community that places the well-being of all firmly at its heart. The headteacher has worked closely with the school community to create a clear vision for the school based on togetherness, mutual respect and optimism.

The headteacher and senior leaders are managing change successfully as the new school becomes firmly established. They are working effectively to overcome the challenges as the community recovers from the disruption caused by the pandemic. During the pandemic, leaders strived to ensure that everyone was kept safe and continued to learn through provision online and in school.

This was well received by pupils and parents, whilst staff appreciated the care g...iven to ensure their own well-being during this time. The pandemic, however, hindered the school's ability to establish robust processes and policies to evaluate its work and plan for improvement and they remain in an early stage of development. Currently, the school's self-valuation processes do not evaluate well enough how teaching impacts on pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills.

This makes it difficult for leaders to plan precisely and robustly to improve areas of the school's work most in need of improvement. Most pupils feel safe in school and are confident that staff will deal effectively with any concerns that they raise. They behave well in the classroom and around the school and interact confidently with adults and visitors.

Pupils participate enthusiastically in a wide range of well-attended school groups and extra-curricular activities. A few pupils lack confidence in their ability to work independently, partly due to long periods at home during lockdown periods. Most teachers manage their classrooms well and establish positive working relationships with pupils based on mutual trust.

This has led to many pupils making secure progress in their learning over time. They recall previous learning well and apply this to new contexts and tasks. Teachers provide sound support for pupils with additional learning needs, including those in the complex learning difficulties unit.

However, teachers do not provide as well for more able pupils. In addition, leaders do not plan for the progressive development of pupils' literacy, numeracy or Welsh language skills strategically enough, particularly in the middle and upper schools. Recommendations R1 Ensure that self-evaluation activities focus on pupils' progress and skills development, and link clearly to precise, robust improvement planning R2 Strengthen provision for and monitoring of the progressive development of pupils' skills across the school R3 Improve provision for developing pupils' Welsh language skills and the promotion of the advantages of learning Welsh, particularly in the middle and upper schools R4 Ensure that teachers consistently plan and deliver sessions that meet the needs of all pupils, particularly the more able What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.