Ysgol Crud Y Werin

Highlights from Latest Inspection

The headteacher and staff place a particular emphasis on pupils' well-being as they aim to achieve the school's motto of supporting pupils 'O'r crud i'r byd' ('From the cradle to the world').

As a result, Ysgol Crud y Werin is a caring learning environment. Pupils behave well and treat adults and each other with respect. Nearly all pupils make sound progress during their time at the school.

They become confident communicators and speak confidently to visitors from a young age. Most develop good reading skills and apply their skills well to find information. Pupils in the school's lower years develop sound writing skills.

They build on their early progress in terms of identifying letters and sounds and write connec...ted sentences and short paragraphs by the end of Year 2. However, although pupils in the school's upper years continue to write confidently, they do not always refine their work adequately to master different writing genres. On the whole, many pupils develop their numeracy skills appropriately, although a minority of older pupils do not use their numeracy skills confidently in their work across the curriculum.

In the school's lower years, staff plan and deliver stimulating activities that support pupils to develop and apply their skills appropriately. Pupils develop as independent learners from an early age by selecting their own activities and choosing the equipment that they need. Across the school, staff provide valuable opportunities for pupils and their families to contribute ideas about what they would like to learn.

Teachers use real-life or imaginary events suitably so that pupils feel that there is an actual purpose to their tasks. On the whole, activities that are provided for pupils in the school's older years vary in terms of their appropriateness. In the strongest cases, they provide valuable opportunities for pupils to develop new skills at an appropriate level and apply them to different contexts.

However, activities are not always planned with enough purpose to provide clear progression for pupils as they develop their skills, and teachers do not always have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve during lessons. Leaders succeed in creating and maintaining an ethos of teamwork where everyone's contributions are valued. This includes forging valuable links with parents and the wider community.

The governing body supports the school's work purposefully. Together, leaders use a wide range of strategies to evaluate the school's work and its effect on pupils appropriately. They succeed in identifying many of the areas for development, although these to not always lead to improvements quickly enough.

Recommendations R1 Improve the writing and numeracy skills of pupils in the school's upper years R2 Ensure that all staff have high expectations for pupils' achievement in lessons in the school's upper years R3 Provide activities that enable pupils to develop their skills purposefully over time R4 Ensure that leaders address areas for improvement promptly and effectively