A report on Croeserw Primary School Bryn Siriol Cymmer Port Talbot SA13 3PL Date of inspection: January 2020 by Estyn, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales A report on Croeserw Primary School January 2020 About Croeserw Primary School Croeserw Primary School is in the Neath Port Talbot local authority. There are 159 pupils on roll, including 17 nursery pupils who attend part-time. There are seven mixed-age classes and one single-age class. These include two local authority resource classes for pupils with moderate learning difficulties. The average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals over the past three years is around 61%. This is well above the average for Wales of 18%. The school has identified around 35% of pupils as having special educational needs. This is considerably higher than the national average of 21%. A few pupils have a statement of special educational needs. Nearly all pupils are white British and speak English at home. No pupils speak Welsh at home. Croeserw Primary School, along with Glyncorrwg, Cymer Afan and Pen Afan Primary Schools, is part of the Upper Afan Valley Federation of Schools, which formed in September 2013. The federation was previously one of five schools, but reduced to four primary schools after the closure of Cymer Afan Comprehensive School in July 2019. The headteacher of the federation took up the post in September 2019; he had been the primary phase leader since 2013. Each primary school has a lead learner who is responsible for the day-to-day running of the school. Further information is available from the Welsh Government My Local School website at the link below. http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/Schools/SchoolSearch?lang=en 1 A report on Croeserw Primary School January 2020 Summary All staff provide pupils with effective care, support and guidance and place a high priority on ensuring that they have high levels of wellbeing. As a result, nearly all pupils feel safe in school and enjoy its welcoming and inclusive environment. Strategies to improve behaviour are successful in ensuring that pupils behave well at lunchtime and break times and that they are ready to learn at the start of lessons. Most pupils have positive attitudes to learning and work well together. However, their problem-solving skills are underdeveloped and they do not have sufficient opportunities to develop skills such as resilience and perseverance. Nearly all pupils start school with skills lower than expected for their age. As they move through the school, many make suitable progress in their literacy, numeracy and ICT (information and communication technology) skills. Teachers provide learning experiences that excite and engage pupils but they do not always adapt tasks and activities well enough to match the needs of those of all abilities. As a result, not all pupils make the progress of which they are capable. Provision in the learning resource classes is a strength of the school. Pupils in these classes make good progress and participate in all aspects of the school’s life. Since the establishment of the federation of primary schools in September 2019, the headteacher and the lead learner at Croeserw have continued to focus on the wellbeing of pupils as an important priority. School leaders collect a broad range of information about pupils’ achievements and use this well to plan interventions for pupils needing extra support. However, their monitoring and evaluation activities do not focus well enough on evidence from classroom practices including the quality of teaching and the standards that pupils achieve. Arrangements to share best practice in teaching and in provision for skills across the federation are at an early stage of development. Inspection area Judgement Standards Adequate and needs improvement Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Good Teaching and learning experiences Adequate and needs improvement Care, support and guidance Good Leadership and management Adequate and needs improvement 2 A report on Croeserw Primary School January 2020 Recommendations R1 Improve teaching and learning so that all pupils make the progress of which they are capable R2 Improve provision to develop pupils’ literacy skills, particularly in reading R3 Develop pupils’ independent learning skills, including their capacity to reason, solve problems and improve their own work R4 Strengthen the contributions of leaders at all levels, across the federation, particularly to evaluation and improvement work R5 Improve attendance and punctuality What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will review the school’s progress. 3 A report on Croeserw Primary School January 2020 Main findings Standards: Adequate and needs improvement Nearly all pupils start school with literacy and numeracy skills that are well below the levels expected for their age. As they move through school, many make appropriate progress in their learning. Most pupils who have special educational needs make good progress in meeting their targets. Many pupils listen well to adults and to each other. Pupils in the nursery class listen with enjoyment to the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. In key stage 2, pupils listen effectively to others in their group when planning how to carry out a fair test in a science investigation. Most pupils have weak speaking skills when they start school. However, they develop these skills appropriately as they move through the foundation phase. Pupils in Year 2 describe a missing dinosaur, giving details of her appearance and where she was last seen. Many older pupils in key stage 2 speak confidently. For example, pupils in Year 6 explain how they use the green screen to enhance their news reports. Across the school, pupils use a limited vocabulary when talking and this impacts negatively on their reading comprehension and limits their writing skills. In the foundation phase, many pupils develop an appropriate understanding of the sounds that letters make. By Year 2, many pupils use these skills to help them to read simple words. However, they are not able to apply these skills to reading longer or unfamiliar words and a minority do not have a wide enough sight vocabulary. As a result, they do not read accurately and lose the meaning of what they are reading as they focus on attempting to identify individual words. In key stage 2, many pupils make suitable progress in developing reading skills. Pupils in Year 5 who are more able locate information in non-fiction books by scanning the text for specific words. Many Year 6 readers read accurately. They enjoy reading and can name favourite authors including Enid Blyton and Michael Morpurgo. However, across the key stage many pupils’ comprehension skills are underdeveloped. They read aloud fluently but find it difficult to understand fully the texts that they are reading. Many pupils in reception can form familiar letters, such as those that are in their name. In Year 1 they form letter shapes accurately and by Year 2 many write in simple sentences, for example to produce information leaflets about planets. Pupils who are more able use basic sentence punctuation including capital letters at the start and full stops at the end of sentences. As they move through key stage 2, pupils begin to understand how to write using an increasing range of genre. For example, in Year 4, pupils write a set of rules about using the internet safely. Pupils in Year 6 write letters about being an evacuee and newspaper reports about Anne Frank. Across the school, most pupils’ spelling skills are appropriate to their age and ability. However, they write using a limited vocabulary range. Many do not use punctuation consistently well independently. Across the school, the standards of pupils’ handwriting and presentation have improved. Most pupils’ Welsh language skills develop appropriately. In the foundation phase, many sing songs and rhymes that help them to learn Welsh words and phrases. By Year 5, many respond to simple Welsh commands appropriately, for example when 4 A report on Croeserw Primary School January 2020 responding to the register. They use simple familiar vocabulary to ask questions in Welsh, for example ‘beth wyt ti’n hoffi fwyta?’. Nearly all have a positive attitude towards learning Welsh. Most pupils have suitable number skills. In the reception class, they use these appropriately, for example to count blocks to measure the length of a hamster. In Year 2, many recognise numbers up to one hundred and order them from the smallest to the largest accurately. A majority recognise and identify coins correctly, with a very few adding up values within one pound. By the end of key stage 2, pupils generally use their numeracy skills appropriately to reason and solve problems related to their topic work. They work out how much food a family would receive with wartime ration cards and the distance that evacuees travelled to their new homes during the Second World War. However, most pupils’ reasoning, problem solving and number skills are at a lower level than expected across the school. Many pupils have appropriate ICT skills. In the foundation phase, many pupils use tablet computers, for example to take photographs. Most pupils in Year 2 create pictograms successfully to show the different pets belonging to pupils in the class. Most pupils in key stage 2 use their ICT skills well to communicate information, for example producing presentations about Tutankhamen and writing letters of application for the role of head girl. Most pupils make simple animations, for example to show how the earth moves around the sun and program apps to make simple patterns. However, pupils’ use of a wider range of ICT skills such as data handling is underdeveloped.