Many pupils start Monnow Primary School with underdeveloped social and communication skills. From these starting points, they often make strong progress in their development as learners and members of the school community. They engage positively with the wide range of experiences that the school provides. Across the school, pupils’ behaviour and engagement during periods of independent and unsupervised learning are extremely good. This is a direct result of the influence of the school’s learning environment, relationships between staff and pupils, and the quality and relevance of teaching and the curriculum. These factors combine to foster a very strong sense of ‘cynefin’ (belonging) amongst pupils, including those with additional learning needs (ALN) in mainstream classes and the school’s learning resource bases. Approaches to teaching match pupils’ developmental needs well throughout their time at school. In particular, they receive regular opportunities to learn through engaging practical activities and play experiences both indoors and outside. Teachers develop most aspects of pupils’ skills progressively and successfully as they move through school. The approach to developing pupils’ communication and reading skills is particularly effective. This nurtures a real enjoyment of reading. For older pupils, this often includes classic literature. Pupils develop good numeracy and digital skills and apply these well in their work across the curriculum. However, the school’s provision to develop pupils’ Welsh language skills is less successful. Leaders and staff understand the needs of pupils, their families and the local community very well. They are determined to ensure that pupils achieve good levels of well-being, for example by supporting pupils to develop strategies to help them regulate their emotions and through effective work with parents and a variety of external support agencies. Leaders ensure a strong safeguarding culture at the school. They promote the importance of regular attendance at school and monitor all absences carefully. However, rates of pupils’ attendance remain relatively low. The headteacher provides highly effective leadership. In a relatively short period of time, in collaboration with a skilled and committed team, she has developed a vibrant learning community. Staff feel valued. They are empowered to make decisions and take actions that are in the best interests of pupils. Leaders implement improvement strategy successfully. This is evident in many ways, including the development of the school’s curriculum, improvements to provision to develop pupils’ skills and adaptations to the learning environment to facilitate positive behaviour and engagement. They generally support improvement work well with professional learning. Leaders evaluate many aspects of the school’s work effectively to identify opportunities for further improvement. However, in a few instances, they have not identified opportunities to further develop the skills of teachers and teaching assistants, for example to help them become more aware of how and when to intervene in learning experiences to enhance learning.