School told ‘must try harder’

 

The Church In Wales Infant and Nursery School has been told to brush up on its Maths and English, the core subject indicators which have placed it in the bottom 25 per cent of schools.

 

And while the report praises its relationship with parents and says many aspects of learning and teaching are good, it has had its knuckles rapped for falling attendance over the last two years which are ‘below the national average’.

 

It also highlighted that planning, assessment for learning strategies, marking procedures and reports to parents are “relatively underdeveloped”. In summing up, Gungrog School has been told that there has been ‘little progress in standards since the last inspection (in February 2005) and the Core Subject Indicators indicate a downward trend’.

 

Estyn, the body responsible for inspecting schools, has now instructed Gungrog to come up with an action plan that will meet the five following recommendations resulting from the report:

 

R1 raise standards particularly in mathematics and writing;

R2 continue to develop Foundation Phase practice across the school;

R3 raise levels of attendance;

R4 further develop planning procedures, reports to parents and assessment for learning and marking strategies;

R5 ensure leadership and management arrangements, including the role of the Governing Body and self-evaluation procedures, are effective and robust.

 

The school has 68 pupils but the report claims that only six parents returned a questionnaire with most saying they were happy with the school and felt it was well run.