Ysgol Pendalar

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Ysgol Pendalar is a close-knit and friendly community where staff and pupils work together happily and positively. On the whole, most pupils comply with the teachers' requests and settle quickly to activities and tasks. Many behave well in the classroom, listen carefully to staff and behave respectfully towards their fellow pupils.

They engage well with their learning and work easily with teachers and support staff. During their time at the school, most pupils make suitable progress from their starting points. Many pupils develop valuable social skills as they move through the school.

However, there is a lack of opportunities for pupils to practise their communication, reading and extended writing skills. Ysgol Pendalar ha...s a balanced pupil-centred curriculum. Although the curriculum supports pupils' needs in general, there is a lack of opportunities for pupils to develop their independent living skills.

The quality of teaching in not consistent across the school. In a few lessons, teaching is effective. On the whole, staff meet the needs of pupils appropriately in a suitable range of activities.

However, overall, teachers do not plan challenging enough learning experiences and tasks to ensure that pupils make strong progress. Leaders have a clear vision that is shared by all staff. This vision is based on creating a school that places the pupil at the heart of all decisions.

The staff are a dedicated and hard-working team. They work well together and are passionate about their work. Although there is a strong rationale for the current improvement priorities, they do not derive directly from extensive self-evaluation processes.

The priorities are based on informal evaluations by members of the senior management team and do not reflect some important areas for improvement, such as teaching. The school does not plan a timetable for quality assurance and useful activities such as monitoring the quality of teaching and provision and evaluating pupils' progress. This prevents leaders from identifying the school's true strengths and areas for development.

Recommendations R1 Strengthen strategic leadership at all levels and ensure that responsibilities are defined clearly and allocated in a balanced manner R2 Strengthen self-evaluation and planning for improvement procedures R3 Strengthen teaching and planning to develop pupils' increasing skills systematically R4 Ensure robust opportunities for pupils to develop independent living skills and move forward to the next stage of their lives R5 Strengthen the role of the governing body so that their understanding of the school's strengths and areas for improvement enable them to act effectively as critical friends

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