Secondary schools in Wales ‘of concern’, warns chief inspector
ACTION is needed to improve secondary schools in Wales with a “high proportion” causing concern, says the Chief Inspector of Education and Training in a hardhitting report today.
Speaking as his annual report shows standards in secondary schools in Wales have remained largely static in the past year, Meilyr Rowlands believes long and short-term measures are needed and are being taken to improve all schools causing concern.
The report says standards are good or better in only half of secondary schools, the same as last year. In primary schools, standards were judged as good or better in eight in 10, up from seven in 10 last year.
Teaching and learning experiences are good or excellent in only half of Wales’ 195 secondary schools, four in 10 are adequate and need improvement and just under one in 10 are unsatisfactory and require urgent improvement.
The document, based on findings from inspections and reports in 2017-18 including 27 inspections of secondary schools, adds that in half of them there are shortcomings in teaching and assessment.
It says “assessment is the weakest aspect of teaching” and only about three in 10 secondaries have an overall culture of high expectations.
Leadership is good or excellent in half of secondary schools. It is adequate and needs improvement in
four in 10 and unsatisfactory in around one in 10 secondaries.
The document goes on: “In a half of (secondary) schools, leadership is inconsistent. In most of these cases, leaders do not have good enough oversight or understanding of the quality of teaching or the impact of provision generally. In a few cases, roles and responsibilities are not suitable or equitably shared.”
In the one in six schools where teaching is outstanding, the teachers are “exacting in their expectations of what pupils can achieve and this is reflected in the quality of pupils’ work”, the document adds.
Mr Rowlands says: “The high proportion of secondary schools causing concern is a concern itself.
“The new curriculum will help in the long term but there are things that need to be tackled immediately. We are talking about 15% of secondary schools that are of particular concern... We have schools causing concern and need to address these immediately.
“There are more of those proportionately in secondary than primary and there are things we need to do straight away.”
In the shorter term he says the process of putting schools in trouble into statutory special measures could be improved.
A new scheme where the school, governors, the local authority, consortia, the Welsh Government and Estyn all get together around one table to agree a joint action plan for schools put in special measures is being trialled.
In the longer term, new curriculum for Wales will improve teaching while the National Academy for Leadership will improve leadership.
Mr Rowlands says he is satisfied that preparation on the new curriculum is on course with a draft expected in April before it is rolled out from 2022 and “there are some early signs of improvement in Welsh education this year”.
On primary schools the report shows the proportion of primaries judged as excellent by inspectors has doubled from 4% to 8% this year.
But Mr Rowlands says he wanted that to improve more.
While there are more secondary schools causing concern than primaries, a higher percentage are rated excellent, the highest grade Estyn inspectors can give.
For “all-age schools” – where pupils aged three to 18 are taught – three of the 13 schools in this category were inspected in the last year.
Standards, leadership teaching and learning experiences were deemed good in in only one while attitudes to wellbeing and learning ranked good in two.
Mr Rowlands says these schools had come from a relatively low base created by mergers or primary and secondary schools which had been performing less well.
And secondary schools may be improving more slowly than primaries because they are more complex, but more of them are judged excellent, he points out.
“Secondary schools are bigger and more complex the primary schools and you need good leadership throughout the organisation not just from the head,” he says.
“We want to see more excellent primaries. In order to be excellent they need to concentrate on teaching and learning.”
But the Chief Inspector is confident the education system and reforms in Wales are working and the new curriculum is on course with pioneer schools leading the way in bring more creative in how and what they teach.
He adds: “I would be optimistic about the changes. I think we need to hold our nerve. There’s a lot going on in the background.
“For improvement to continue and in preparation for the new curriculum, schools need to prioritise improving pupils’ experience in the classroom.
“The distinguishing feature of schools that were judged excellent in 2017-18 is often down to the quality of the teaching and learning experiences they provide.
“The best schools have laid the foundations for a good education and in addition offer pupils stimulating experiences in the classroom that often relate to real life. In these schools, there is high quality teaching and strong leadership.”
Responding to the report, teachers and school leaders’ representatives said more funding was vital after years of austerity cuts to education.
Tim Pratt, director of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru, said: “School leaders are well aware that the key to raising standards further is the quality of teaching and learning experiences.
“However, they are constrained by levels of funding which are totally inadequate and which have a direct impact on staffing numbers, professional development and the opportunities they are able to provide to pupils.
“We all share the ambition of making the education system in Wales among the best in the world and we fully support the delivery of an exciting new curriculum. But we need sufficient funding in order to be able to turn aspirations into reality.
“We call upon the Welsh Government to review both the amount of funding allocated to education and the system for delivering money to schools as a matter of urgency.”
David Evans, Wales secretary of the National Education Union Cymru, echoed that view: “At least secondary schools are not slipping backwads. Evidence we are getting from member is that they are striving as best they can but dwindling resources make it impossible to make the huge leaps forward we all want to see.
“We welcome the recognition of improving standards in our 1,272 primary schools in Wales where the number adjudged to be excellent has doubled in 2017-18.
“In the secondary sector standards have been maintained despite the significant challenges that all schools currently face and have faced for too many years.
“With budgets decreasing, resources diminishing, job losses rising, workload increasing and class sizes expanding we have to applaud the profession who are fighting to improve education provision with one hand tied behind their backs.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The report shows that standards in our schools are continuing to improve and that our new professional standards, together with a focus on the new curriculum, are helping to improve teaching and learning.
“The challenge now is to ensure that schools that need additional support are identified at an earlier stage and that we work closely with schools and the profession to address these issues.
“We recognise the importance of supporting the profession in delivering our new curriculum, which is why we’re investing record levels of funding to support professional learning for teachers – giving schools the time they need to plan ahead
and bringing about a wholesale reform of how teachers in Wales learn.”
The report also highlights examples of good practice in secondary schools including Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales School and Ysgol Bro Edern in Cardiff, Castell Alun High in Flintshire, Olchfa School Swansea, Ysgol y Preseli, Pembrokeshire and Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn in Gwynedd.
Case studies of good practice in primaries include Ysgol y Wern in Cardiff, Cwm Glas, Caerphilly, Ysgol Plascrug in Aberystwyth, Ysgol Yr Esgob in Flintshire, Gladestry Church in Wales Primary School, Powys, and Ysgol Heulfan Primary, Wrexham.
The independent Westbourne School in Penarth was highlighted for support to pupils with English as an additional language and Gower College for its work helping students explore different educational pathways.
PARENTS queued for hours in freezing weather to get their children into a school breakfast club. Dozens of mums and dads at Pontprennau Primary School, Cardiff, queued from 4am yesterday morning with camping chairs, blankets and Thermos flasks to make sure their children got one of the 70 coveted places.
The school said the plans were put in place after consulting parents and they received no complaints when they were announced in October.
One mother of a pupil at the school, who did not want to be named, said: “The last time they said we could email in on a one-by-one basis. But people complained that they could not use email. But now we have gone back to the dark ages.”
The mum said parents were “calm” as they queued amid “cold and wet” weather. She said: “It’s just awful. I’m not well at the moment anyway, I really didn’t need it. It was freezing cold. People had Thermos flasks and blankets on the floor. People had really thought out their plans.”
The school’s breakfast club has space for 70 children. Half of them are paidfor places which have an earlier opening time and cost £3 a day.
Parents will have to sign up again in July for the following September term.
The mum said: “You pay all this money and it’s this difficult. It’s incredibly frustrating. If you don’t get a place you have to reallocate your childcare or change your work hours.”
In July more than 130 parents at another Cardiff School, Ysgol Y Berllan Deg in Llanedeyrn, queued from 3am to make sure they had a space at their breakfast club.
Pontprennau Primary School said registration for the places opened at 7.30am, as planned and advertised, but the school opened the building earlier so parents queueing could come inside “out of the wind and rain”.
A school spokesperson said: “This process for breakfast club registration has been put in place after the school consulted with parents on how they would like it to work. The results of the consultation showed that the favoured option amongst parents was a queuing system, with places allocated on a first come, first served basis.
“The school will continue to monitor the process, and continue to listen to all its parents, to ensure the system is as transparent and as fair as possible.”