Ynystawe Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ynystawe Primary School is a happy and inclusive school where staff and pupils treat each other with care and respect.

Throughout the school, pupils behave well, engage positively with their learning and welcome visitors happily. The headteacher has established a culture that values and celebrates the school as a focal point for its community. Teachers make very good use of the local area to enrich the school's curriculum and visits by local groups, residents and governors support pupils' sense of belonging and togetherness positively.

The school's curriculum gives pupils the chance to make good progress in their learning and well-being through a range of interesting activities both inside and outside the classroom. The sc...hool uses its grounds very well to provide pupils with an interesting range of practical, first-hand experiences. Across the school, teachers work diligently to provide pupils with exciting and rich learning tasks.

They work together purposefully to ensure that the curriculum stands pupils in good stead for the future and develops them as ambitious, ethical and capable learners. Overall, pupils develop a good range of literacy, numeracy, Welsh and digital skills by the time they leave the school. However, pupils do not have enough opportunities to write creatively or to redraft their written work.

The school's provision for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) is a strong aspect of its work. There is a wide range of carefully planned programmes and interventions that meet ALN pupils' learning, physical and well-being needs effectively. Under the able leadership of the ALN co-ordinator, well-trained support staff provide pupils with high levels of care, compassion and guidance.

Leaders and governors know the school well. They work together productively to ensure that they have a good understanding of its strengths and areas for improvement. There is a worthwhile culture of professional development that enables staff to develop their current practice and to take the next steps in their careers.

However, staff do not currently use the expertise that exists in the school well enough to support improvements to the overall consistency of teaching. The school has established strong partnerships with outside agencies and other schools, which contribute purposefully to the school's curriculum, ALN and extra-curricular provision. Recommendations R1 Use the highly effective practice that exists in the school to support improvements to the overall consistency of teaching R2 Improve opportunities for pupils to write creatively and to redraft their written work What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection.