Betws C.P School is situated in the village of Betws near Ammanford, in Carmarthenshire local authority. Welsh is the main medium of the school’s life and work. There are 81 pupils between 3 and 11 years old on roll, including four nursery age pupils who attend on a part-time basis. Pupils are divided into three mixed-age classes. Over a three-year period, around 21% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals. This is significantly higher than the national percentage of 18%. The school has identified around 26% of its pupils as having additional learning needs. This is higher than the national percentage of 21%. Very few pupils come from Welsh-speaking homes. The current headteacher was appointed in September 2004 and the school was last inspected by Estyn in July 2013. Further information is available from the Welsh Government My Local School website at the link below. http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/Schools/SchoolSearch?lang=en 1 A report on Betws C.P. School February 2020 Summary Nearly all pupils are happy to come to school and feel safe in a welcoming and inclusive environment. Most pupils behave well and treat their peers, the school’s staff and visitors with obvious respect. Many make purposeful progress in their literacy, numeracy and communication skills from their starting points. On the whole, many teachers plan varied learning experiences and activities so that pupils enjoy developing their knowledge and understanding purposefully. On the whole, many pupils develop their mathematics and English skills soundly and make purposeful progress from their starting points. However, teachers do not always have high enough expectations in terms of pupils’ academic aspirations. As a result, a few underachieve. The headteacher has conveyed a clear vision and, over time, has established a number of activities to evaluate the school’s performance. Although leaders identify the school’s strengths, monitoring procedures are not rigorous enough to identify all aspects for improvement or address important issues, such as raising the standard of pupils’ Welsh. Inspection area Judgement Standards Adequate and needs improvement Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Good Teaching and learning experiences Adequate and needs improvement Care, support and guidance Good Leadership and management Adequate and needs improvement 2 A report on Betws C.P. School February 2020 Recommendations R1 Raise pupils’ standards of oracy, reading and writing in Welsh R2 Ensure that monitoring and improvement procedures are rigorous enough to identify and address important areas for improvement R3 Ensure that teachers’ expectations are high enough to enable all pupils to achieve to the best of their ability R4 Implement the principles of the foundation phase in full What happens next The school will produce an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection. Estyn will review the school’s progress.