THE acting headteacher of a school in Rhyl has said she believes good progress is being made towards it being taken out of special measures, but that doing so “will take some time”.
Bernadette Thomas, who has been in her current role at Christ the Word Catholic School since November 2022, said staff are doing “absolutely everything we can to support the pupils”.
Christ the Word was placed in special measures following an Estyn report published in July 2022; a core inspection had taken place two months earlier.
Its headteacher at the time, Amanda Preston, resigned in September, having been absent from the school since November 2022.
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During a site visit of the school on November 30, Mrs Thomas told the Journal that particular focus is being placed on improving its safeguarding procedures and the quality of teaching.
Mrs Thomas said: “Our focus is to make sure our pupils are well-rounded pupils, and that they have the very best education they can have.
“By doing that, we will come out of special measures. We’re not jumping through hoops for anyone’s sake, apart from our pupils.
“We’re a big ship to turn around, so it will take some time. It’s not an easy or quick fix, especially as we want things to be embedded and become everyday practice.”
Mrs Thomas said that the school has an “internal time frame” regarding when it hopes to come out of special measures.
Estyn visits schools in special measures each term (but not for core inspections), and is due to return to Christ the Word before Christmas.
Safeguarding, Mrs Thomas added, will not be the main focus of its next visit, as it was previously, due to the organisation being “very happy with all of our processes” in that regard.
She said: “Some of the catchment area we serve is the first- and second-most deprived areas in Wales.
“Our goal here is to make sure we’re the best facility possible, so that those pupils can come out of deprivation, and can have the opportunities that their parents maybe weren’t afforded.
“We can only be judged by what Estyn says. Teaching and learning is our main focus, to make sure we’re providing our pupils ithw the best education as quickly as possible.
“We have one safeguarding system that’s been put in place which is well understood by all staff. Anything they consider significant, they would verbally report as well, so that we can escalate that, if need be.”
Staff are told to report any safeguarding concerns they may have, no matter of what the nature of the concern is, and are also being “upskilled”, both in-house and through external providers.
From this, Mrs Thomas said, “we can see that the pupils’ learning is showing progress”.
She added: “As a school, we’re doing absolutely everything we can to support the pupils, and to create an environment where pupils feel safe.
“I’d like to extend my thanks to the parents, staff, the Diocese of Wrexham, and mostly the pupils, for the welcome they’ve given me, and for the way everyone’s working together.
“The pupils have been, and continue to be, absolutely fantastic.”
John Droog, who was elected as the school’s new chair of governors earlier this year, also attended the site visit.
Mr Droog said the school is also endeavouring to increase the frequency of its newsletters, and to make them more focused on “school life”.
He added: “More of a team approach is much more evident in the last year; everybody’s starting to work together.”
Geraint Davies, head of education at Denbighshire County Council, added: "I can’t speak on behalf of Estyn, but from the regulators’ point of view, they have increased confidence that the issues they saw during the core inspection have been, and are being, addressed appropriately.
“We’re confident that the systems in place adequately meet the requirements of the All Wales Child Protection Procedures.
“That Estyn aren’t looking at it (safeguarding) in their next one or two visits is an indication that it’s not their current focus.”
Christ the Word replaced secondary school, Blessed Edward Jones Catholic School, and primary school, Ysgol Mair, when it opened in September 2019.
The £23million school caters for children between three and 16 years old.
Estyn’s recommendations for the school following its core inspection were as follows:
- Strengthen safeguarding arrangements and address the concerns identified during the inspection.
- Improve leadership at all levels, including leaders’ ability to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning.
- Improve the quality of teaching so that pupils of all ages and abilities make strong progress.
- Ensure that the curriculum provides pupils of all ages with broad, balanced and relevant learning experiences.
- Strengthen the provision for the progressive development of pupils’ skills.
An extended report from the Journal on its visit to Christ the Word on November 30 will follow later this month.
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