Ysgol Hiraddug

Highlights from Latest Inspection

The school provides a warm, nurturing environment that enables all pupils to feel secure and confident. Pupils and parents value the strong relationships they have with staff and feel that their views are listened to and respected. As a result, nearly all pupils enjoy their time in school and feel a strong sense of belonging to their school community.

Staff set clear expectations for pupils conduct and model these consistently. Because of this, pupils' behaviour across the school is exemplary. Teachers provide an exciting variety of learning experiences that capture the interest of most pupils well.

They make effective use of well-resourced environments in class and outdoors to engage pupils in worthwhile practical activit...ies that reinforce and extend their learning beneficially. In the best instances, they plan learning experiences that develop pupils' problem-solving skills and foster their independence effectively. For example, they enable older pupils to develop their entrepreneurial skills through a mini-enterprise challenge very successfully.

In a few instances, staff intervene too readily in pupils' learning and this restricts their opportunity to make decisions for themselves. Overall, teachers plan appropriately for the development of pupils' numeracy, digital and Welsh language skills. However, they do not provide enough opportunity for pupils to write at length for a variety of purposes in their work across the curriculum.

Leaders promote the care and well-being of all pupils and staff consistently well. They create a climate that supports strong teamwork and fosters collective responsibility effectively. Leaders show a clear understanding of the school's strengths and areas for development.

They use the school's resources to support improvement purposefully, including through providing suitable professional learning for staff. However, leaders do not always make clear what specific approach teachers should use in their classes to bring about intended improvements. As a result, progress on some priorities is uneven across the school.

Recommendations R1 Ensure that leaders provide clear direction to teachers to implement improvements consistently R2 Ensure that teaching supports all pupils to develop independence and to take responsibility for advancing their own learning R3 Improve the quality of pupils' extended writing R4 Provide suitable opportunities for all pupils to participate in collective worship