Secondary school placed into special measures

A SECONDARY school has been placed into special measures after an inspection.

- Owen Hughes

Estyn inspectors have released a report on Ysgol Aberconwy in Conwy, which has over 1,000 pupils.There were many elements that the inspectors praised. This included having a “caring community where diversity is celebrated and mutual respect is encouraged”.

But they said the “quality of teaching is too variable” with pupils making suitable progress in “only around half of lessons”.

They concluded: “In accordance with the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion that special measures are required in relation to this school.

“The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will monitor the school's progress usually every four to six months.

They have made six recommendations to help the school improve:

■ Ensure that leaders at all levels are held to account fully for securing improvement.

■ Ensure that self-evaluation and improvement processes focus precisely on pupils’ progress and skills development.

■ Improve the quality and impact of teaching and feedback so it supports all pupils to make strong progress.

■ Improve pupils’ attendance, in particular that of those eligible for free school meals and those with additional learning needs.

■ Strengthen the coordination of the provision to support the progressive development of pupils’ skills, and ensure a consistently robust approach to improving the technical accuracy of pupils' writing.

■ Ensure that the curriculum consistently supports the development of pupils’ subject knowledge and understanding.