‘Insufficient progress’ has been made at school, say inspectors
PROGRESS at a secondary school in the Vale of Glamorgan has been too slow and many of its improvements are “still at an early stage of development” four years after a critical inspection report, inspectors have warned.
Education watchdog Estyn said Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School, in Barry, had made “insufficient progress” since its last major inspection in May 2012 and would require “significant improvement” – one of the highest forms of monitoring.
Writing in his report, lead inspector John Thomas said Key Stage Four (GCSE) attainment was a “cause for concern” and pupil performance in key indicators had deteriorated in 2015.
He praised “strong progress” in raising standards at Key Stage Three – albeit performance remained below the average for girls in Bryn Hafren’s family of schools and nationally.
Mr Thomas said senior leaders at Bryn Hafren, which has about 1,200 pupils on roll, had undertaken a “systematic and extensive programme of lesson observation” in a bid to improve the quality of teaching.
He said: “Many of these have been carried out together with consortium challenge advisers or trained peer inspectors from link schools to help ensure accuracy and consistency in the evaluations.
“Despite these approaches, overall, the quality of teaching has not had enough impact on improving outcomes at Key Stage Four since the core inspection.
“The school’s analysis of outcomes of lesson observations over the last 18 months suggest that there has been an increase in the proportion of teaching judged to be good or better and a reduction in those classes where teaching is adequate.”
Mr Thomas said the school’s approaches to improving pupils’ literacy skills across the curriculum were not consistent enough and the quality of teachers’ marking varied too much both within and across departments.
“In the majority of cases teachers do not give pupils clear guidance to help them improve their work,” he said.
“In a few cases pupils respond effectively to the advice given to enhance their work or deepen their understanding. However, too often pupils acknowledge teachers’ comments but do not take suitable actions to improve the quality of their work.
“In a minority of cases leaders provide helpful suggestions to improve the quality of marking and assessment. However, too often their evaluations of the quality of teachers’ written feedback are too generous.
“Evidence from lesson observations relies too much on the existence of certain features rather than on the quality of the feedback given.
“Senior leaders do not routinely monitor the work of pupils therefore they do not have a clear enough view of the quality of marking across the school.
“As a result leaders at all levels are not able to identify strengths and areas for development effectively enough.”
Despite “greater consistency and rigour in improvement planning processes”, Mr Thomas said the school had failed to meet all of its recommendations.
He added: “Although it is nearly four years since the core inspection many of the improvements are still at an early stage of development.
“Progress, particularly in raising standards at Key Stage Four in those indicators that include English and mathematics, has been too slow.”
Bryn Hafren head teacher Tyrone Davies said: “In their report the Estyn inspectors have recognised the work that has been undertaken at Bryn Hafren to improve the quality of teaching and to ensure our pupils are more literate.
“Despite this they reached the conclusion that not enough progress has been made since the last full inspection in 2012 and for this reason we are deemed to require significant improvement.
“Bryn Hafren has been improving throughout my five terms as head teacher but I have never hidden my belief that we can do better.
“I would like to assure all pupils and parents that both governors and staff will work tirelessly to ensure we continue along this path to higher standards.”