Celebrations At St Asaph Vp School

Staff, pupils and the governing body at  St Asaph VP School are celebrating after receiving a glowing report from school inspectors Estyn.

The report, published on Estyn’s website, www.estyn.gov.uk highlight how staff embrace new initiative to develop the school as a thriving community and allows pupils to become ‘curious and resilient learners’.

The school was rated good in all aspects of the report, including standards; well-being and attitudes to learning; teaching and learning experiences; care, support and guidance; leadership and management.

The school has been praised for having an inclusive ethos where all staff know the pupils well and provide high levels of care, support and guidance. Teachers plan a wide range of interesting and stimulating learning opportunities. They make effective use of areas of learning indoors and outdoors, to develop pupils' literacy, creative and physical skills successfully. As a result, pupils have very positive attitudes towards learning. This supports their development as independent learners and enables them to make good progress.

The report praises a number of areas of work: 

• The school council takes pride in supporting school improvement, for example when writing to parents to ask for donations of equipment and resources to improve the outdoor learning environment. The Criw Cymraeg promote the development of pupils’ Welsh language skills successfully, through playing games in Welsh at playtimes.

• Strong and supportive working relationships between staff and pupils foster mutual respect. As a result, classrooms are busy and productive places where pupils engage in their learning eagerly. Teachers and teaching assistants know pupils’ individual needs well. They manage their behaviour sensitively and calmly. This is particularly effective in supporting vulnerable pupils to engage in their learning and to make good progress.

• Teachers deploy support staff purposefully to support individuals and groups of pupils. Support staff make valuable contributions to raising the standards of literacy

• The school has an inclusive and caring ethos where pupils and staff take pride in their school. Staff create a calm learning environment and promote high standards of behaviour and manners amongst pupils.

• Members of staff welcome parents to visit the school and encourage them to engage in ‘parent share days’. These provide a beneficial opportunity for parents to find out about how their children learn.

• The school’s provision to support pupils with special educational needs is strong. A beneficial range of interventions supports pupils’ academic and social skills successfully. This has a positive effect on targeted pupils’ standards and wellbeing, and ensures that they make good progress.

• The acting headteacher provides the school with strong and purposeful leadership, and distributes responsibilities well. There are clear lines of communication and open and honest dialogue develops staff understanding of their role in helping to move the school forward. Leaders set high expectations, and they support and challenge staff to meet these successfully.

• There is a positive culture of sharing effective foundation phase practice and pedagogy, which is engaging and motivating pupils very successfully.  The school makes effective use of strategic partnerships with other local schools to support the professional learning of all staff. This work has a positive impact on many aspects of the school’s work.

Charlotte Bowers, Chair of the Governing Body, said: “We are delighted to receive such a positive report from the inspectors. It really reflects the ethos within our school of working in a community where the pupils are at the heart of everything that we do.

“I would like to take the opportunity to commend the whole staff for their tireless efforts in what they do to provide the best possible start in life for our children. Pupils benefit from taking part in a wide range of initiatives as they develop into being confident learners that are prepared for their primary education.

“Of course, we always aim to improve what we do and we will implement the recommendations made in the report”.

Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts, Cabinet Lead Member for Education, Children’s Services and Engagement, said: “This is a tremendous school inspection report and I would like to thank and commend the whole team at St Asaph VP for their dedication and commitment.

“The report itself highlights many of the school’s strengths, including the amount of support, guidance and mentoring our pupils receive and the strong link with parents and guardians.   The work going on at St Asaph VP reflects the commitment made in Denbighshire to make it a priority to provide a high quality education in its schools and we take pride in the fact that a generation of pupils at this school are benefitting from such enthusiasm and commitment within the school community”