Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin provides a highly positive and motivating learning environment for pupils. The school has a Welsh and homely ethos where all pupils' emotional and mental health needs are a continuous priority.

There is an extremely close and supportive working relationship between staff and pupils. There is a caring culture at the school that promotes pupils' personal development very effectively. The rich opportunities that the school provides supports learners to become principled, respectful citizens who contribute fully to school life.

Overall, pupils have very positive attitudes to their work and nearly all behave excellently in lessons and around the school. These attributes contribute to the swift pr...ogress that most pupils make in their lessons. Pupils in the sixth form have mature interpersonal skills and most develop a deep understanding of the texts they are studying.

During their time at the school, most pupils make strong progress in their ability to express themselves in Welsh and English, both orally and in writing. Overall, they engage in discussions enthusiastically and listen respectfully to other pupils' views. The school provides a broad offer of courses in key stage 4 and the sixth form.

There is also a very wide range of opportunities for pupils to take part in valuable cultural and physical activities. In many lessons, there is effective teaching which ensures that pupils develop their subject skills and knowledge well. In these lessons, there is careful planning which engages pupils' interest and provides them with an appropriate challenge.

However, a few teachers do not plan their lessons effectively enough or ensure that pupils develop their thinking skills sufficiently. Leaders are gradually resuming their quality assurance processes to identify strengths and areas for improvement in their areas of responsibility and across the school. As a result of restrictions due to the pandemic, leaders are not currently using the full range of self-evaluation methods effectively enough or evaluating the effect of teaching on pupils' standards and progress.

The headteacher provides wise, sensible and supportive guidance to all stakeholders. She places significant importance on fostering a caring and supportive ethos. Leaders at all levels, including governors, take pride in their roles and shoulder their responsibilities diligently.

As a result of these strengths in leadership, Ysgol Gyfun Bro Myrddin is thriving as a hard-working, civilised and happy community. Recommendations R1 Ensure that leaders resume a wide range of rigorous quality assurance activities R2 Strengthen leaders' ability to evaluate the quality of provision according to its effect R3 Share strong practices in teaching to ensure consistency in the quality of teaching across the school What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection. Estyn will invite the school to prepare a case study on its work to be disseminated on Estyn's website.