Archive Council News

26.05.06

Bronington Church in Wales School - "Good with Outstanding Features"

School is praised for outstanding features.

Bronington Church in Wales has come through two school inspections with flying colours!

As a Church in Wales school it is inspected for its religious education and its collective worship by the Diocese of St Asaph Director of Education and by Estyn the Welsh education and training body.

A report by ESTYN gave it top marks in all but one of seven key areas and praised school bosses and staff for making great strides since its last inspection in 2000. The Report said “This is a good school – with outstanding features. The school is very well managed and standards achieved are high. There has been a good improvement since the last inspection.”

The inspection team also recognised that the pupils' behaviour was outstanding and that they were polite, considerate and thoughtful towards each other. Partnerships with parents were judged as excellent and the quality of care and support for pupils was outstanding.

As a Church school it "a good church school with very many good features. It provides an effective learning environment for its pupils, who feel happy, secure and valued at school as part of a caring Christian family."

Two key stages were inspected on behalf of the Diocese's Director of Education, Religious Education and Collective Worship and both areas were considered good with pupils written work being well presented and there a was a good balanced provision for worship with appropriate emphasis given to major events and festivals in the church's year. The worship seen by inspectors made a significant contribution to pupils' spiritual and moral awareness and strongly affirmed the school's caring ethos.

The inspectors also commented on the overall standards of attainment at the school which have been consistently high for several years, exceeding both local and national averages.

Of further note the team recognised:- Under-fives children make good progress towards the Desirable Outcome for Children’s Learning. Pupils with SEN make good progress and achieve the targets set for them. All Pupils communicative skills are good and sometimes outstanding. Mathematical skills of the under-fives and the rest of the school are consistently good. All Pupils have good skills in the use of ICT throughout the school.

Headteacher Terry Walker said:

"We are delighted with the findings of both reports, particularly that almost every aspect of school and its life were found to have outstanding features. This is testimony to the hard work and commitment of a dedicated team of staff and governors and our partnerships with parents and the community working towards shared targets. We found the inspection a positive experience and will now prepare an action plan in response to the inspections. Everyone should be very pleased with themselves.

"We look confidently to the future and to taking on board the development of the healthy schools initiative and a breakfast club, to continue to raise standards at Key Stage 1 to include more Level 3s, to develop pupil involvement in target setting and to extend free writing in Religious Education in upper Key Stage 2."