Leaders and staff at St Mary’s Aided Primary School work diligently to create a friendly, caring environment, where pupils feel happy and safe, and enjoy their learning. As a result, most pupils make suitable progress. Nearly all pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. As they move through the school, many pupils become capable mathematicians who enjoy solving problems. They develop effective speaking and listening skills, and make strong progress with their reading and spelling. Throughout the school many pupils use a narrow range of information and communication technology (ICT) skills with confidence. However, in general pupils’ Welsh oracy skills are not at the expected level. The school's curriculum is often engaging and exciting, and its learning environment is attractive and well organised. However, planning for the application of pupils’ numeracy skills is inconsistent. Teachers provide pupils with valuable opportunities to develop their independent learning skills and to direct their learning. However, at present, this is too variable across the school. The school is developing a sound track record of making improvements. The process of self-evaluation and planning for improvement is at an early stage of development. Leaders make sound use of the assessment of pupils’ work and tracking data to identify areas where standards need to improve. However, monitoring activities do not always identify clearly enough important areas to help raise pupils’ standards. Inspection area Judgement Standards Adequate and needs improvement Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Adequate and needs improvement Teaching and learning experiences Adequate and needs improvement Care, support and guidance Adequate and needs improvement Leadership and management Adequate and needs improvement 2 A report on St Mary's Aided Primary School October 2018 Recommendations R1 Improve monitoring and school improvement processes to ensure they focus robustly on raising standards R2 Involve all staff, parents, pupils and governors in contributing ideas to bring about school improvement R3 Raise pupils standards in ICT and Welsh oracy R4 Improve pupils’ independent learning skills in key stage 2 R5. Ensure teachers’ planning enables pupils to develop their numeracy skills systematically across the curriculum What happens next The school will draw up an action plan, which shows how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will review the school’s progress