Ysgol Gynradd Beddgelert

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Most pupils enjoy their time at this inclusive and homely school, which promotes their well-being effectively. Nearly all pupils are polite and respectful towards each other, staff and visitors.

This is a strong feature of the school. Staff know the pupils well. They provide a range of stimulating activities that engage most pupils' interest successfully.

They ask probing questions that are effective in terms of recalling previous learning and developing pupils' thinking skills. At the beginning of a new theme, teachers provide opportunities for pupils to contribute to what they would like to learn. This promotes pupils' interest in their work and gives them an opportunity to take ownership of learning themes.

Sta...ff provide purposeful oral feedback, which enables pupils to identify spelling and punctuation errors in their work. However, feedback does not always provide opportunities for pupils, particularly the older ones, to identify and act on the next steps in their learning. Pupils are given purposeful opportunities to develop their skills across the areas of learning and experience, including their literacy, numeracy and digital skills.

As a result, many pupils make sound progress in developing their skills over time. However, teachers tend to over-direct learning. As a result, pupils are not given purposeful enough opportunities within learning activities to develop their skills with increasing independence.

The sense of teamwork is strong across the school. The headteacher is supported by a small team of staff and a governing body who are passionate about the school. Together, they work together enthusiastically to identify the school's strengths and act on the areas for improvement.

There is a firm emphasis on developing pupils' Welsh language skills, which has a positive effect on raising many pupils' standards of Welsh. Leaders and staff provide information for parents about events and occasions within the school. However, communication methods are not always effective enough and parents do not receive enough timely information about their children's progress or to support, maintain and improve their children's attendance.

Recommendations R1 Provide activities that support pupils to extend their skills to the best of their ability when applying them in independent learning activities R2 Provide pupils with feedback that enables them to identify and act on the next steps in their learning R3 Strengthen communication methods between the school and the home, so that parents receive timely information about their children's progress and support to improve their attendance