A SCHOOL in Rhyl in special measures has made “insufficient progress” in achieving the recommendations it was given by Wales’ education inspectorate, four separate reports found.
Christ the Word Catholic School was placed in special measures following an report by Estyn, published in July 2022; a core inspection had taken place two months earlier.
Steps taken at the school since then have included a new governor appointed specifically to address safeguarding concerns, and a new leadership team established under its interim head.
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Following a Freedom of Information request by the Journal yesterday (March 13), copies of all four of Estyn’s follow-up inspection reports have been published.
Each of them, dated March, July and December 2023, and January 2024, state that Christ the Word had made “insufficient progress in relation to the recommendations following the most recent core inspection”.
Below is a summary of how Christ the Word was judged in the follow-up reports to have performed in each recommended area.
Recommendation 1 - Strengthen safeguarding arrangements and address the concerns identified during the inspection
Estyn focused on this recommendation during its inspections in March and July 2023, and in January 2024.
In March 2023, it found that school leaders had established a safeguarding team, and staff are now “confident about who they should approach for advice and support”.
Safeguarding was also described as a “regular agenda item on senior leadership and staff meetings”, though Estyn felt that its secondary school pupils in particular felt that it did not deal with reported incidents well enough, or took their concerns seriously.
Estyn added: “A minority of pupils’ behaviour continues to cause concern.
“Too many pupils choose not to engage with the learning, routinely disrupt other pupils’ learning, and waste valuable time during and between sessions.”
In July 2023, Estyn found that Christ the Word had “focused suitably on maintaining their systems and processes for keeping pupils safe”.
But, it added, “not all procedures are suitably robust”, such as leaders having identified that lockdown procedures at the time were not tight enough.
Staff were said to remain clear about how to report any concerns, but did “not always receive confirmation and reassurance that actions have been taken” once reported.
Estyn also noted then that attendance levels had continued to decline and were lower than the previous visit and when compared to 12 months prior.
It also found that a minority of pupils “regularly disrupt the learning of others and are frequently absent from their classes”, while the number of exclusions for the 2022-23 academic year was deemed “too high”.
In January 2024, Estyn again found that the school has “maintained the improvements made to safeguarding processes”.
Governors, meanwhile, were said to have a “sound understanding of the progress and matters for further development relating to safeguarding”.
Rates of attendance remained a “significant concern”, with it having been “substantially below that of similar schools” last year.
Estyn added: “The notably high rate of persistent absence, and the poor attendance of pupils eligible for free school meals are of particular concern.
“Very recently, the headteacher and governors have raised expectations about the need to tackle poor attendance with greater urgency and are working more purposefully with the local authority.
“At times, staff are too accepting of pupils being late to lessons and disrupting the learning of others.
“Some steps previously taken to attempt to address this issue, such as moving form time away from the start of the school day, are under review.”
Recommendation 2 - Improve leadership at all levels, including leaders’ ability to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning
Estyn focused on this recommendation during its inspection in December 2023.
It found that, since her appointment as Christ the Word’s interim head in November 2022, Bernadette Thomas has “redefined roles and responsibilities and increased the size of the senior leadership team”.
This was felt to have distributed responsibilities more equitably, though Estyn felt senior staff are “not held to account robustly enough”.
Estyn added: “Overall, leaders have not developed a strategic enough approach to improvement.
“Their impact on improving important aspects of the school’s work - for example, the quality of teaching and pupils’ attendance - is limited.”
While leaders now meet more regularly, these meetings “focus too heavily on operational issues and do not support leaders well enough to think about how they will plan for and secure improvements in pupils’ learning and the quality of teaching”.
Governors were noted to have started to visit the school more frequently to discuss specific aspects of the post-inspection action plan, meanwhile.
Recommendation 3 - Improve the quality of teaching so that pupils of all ages and abilities make strong progress
Estyn focused on this recommendation during its inspections in March and December 2023.
In March 2023, it found that leaders had “not focused well enough on improving the quality of teaching and classroom practice”.
There was said to be “too much variation and inconsistency” in the quality of teaching across the school, with pupils not making sufficient progress.
Estyn also found that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve were “not high enough”, and that their questioning is “often weak”.
At the time of the inspection, there was also said to be a significant number of newly qualified teachers at the school, meanwhile.
In December 2023, it found that, despite some improvements, the quality of teaching remained “too weak”.
Mrs Thomas and a group of staff had developed a set of clear expectations for pupils and staff, helping teachers establish routines to start lessons and build positive relationships.
This was seen to be “beginning to have an impact in the classroom, especially at the beginning of lessons” while, learning spaces for foundation learners were “more defined”.
During observed lessons, Estyn found that “a few teachers delivered engaging activities”, but that school “too many sessions lack challenge”.
Estyn also found that inaccurate work was “too often” marked as correct.
Recommendation 4 - Ensure that the curriculum provides pupils of all ages with broad, balanced and relevant learning experiences
Estyn focused on this recommendation during its inspection in July 2023.
It found that, following changes to leadership, leaders had taken “suitable steps” to improve the Key Stage 4 curriculum provision.
Despite this, it felt that “too many” Year 11 pupils leaving the school did not have planned opportunities to broaden their learning and gain worthwhile qualifications.
Leaders increased the number of subjects on offer at Key Stage 4 from September 2023, and revised the Years 8 and 9 curriculum for the autumn term.
Meanwhile, the curriculum provided to lower school pupils was deemed “unsatisfactory” and did not “support pupils’ progress well enough”.
Estyn added: “Since the core inspection, leaders have been too slow to improve the curriculum offer available to pupils.
“Overall, there is not a coherent shared vision for the curriculum across the school and there is no shared understanding of the pedagogy required to develop confident, capable and curious learners.”
Recommendation 5 - Strengthen the provision for the progressive development of pupils’ skills
Estyn focused on this recommendation during its inspection in January 2024.
It found that, since the core inspection, “very little progress has been made in providing well-planned and cohesive opportunities for pupils to develop their skills”.
Staffing issues were also highlighted, especially in the maths department, and were described as “an impediment to addressing the current situation”.
Estyn added: “Although individual coordinators work diligently, there is no shared understanding or expectations of what is required.
“The monitoring of pupils’ skills through lesson observations and work scrutiny remains underdeveloped and teachers’ marking for literacy largely ineffective.
“The number of leaders involved whose roles and responsibilities are unclear creates a further impediment to progress.”
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 typically inspects schools in special measures every four to six months, so will likely return to Christ the Word before the end of the 2023-24 academic year.
It has agreed with the school to “tailor our next monitoring visit accordingly”, and plans to focus on its progress in planning for and implementing improvements to the provision of reading.
Also set to be evaluated are the school’s leadership, and improving the progression of pupils’ skills.
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