The Estyn scores and reports for every Newport secondary school

Inspectors will judge all education and training providers in Wales on five areas: standards, Wellbeing and attitudes to learning, teaching and learning experiences, care, support and guidance, and leadership and management.

They are then given a score for each area, which ranges from:

Excellent – Very strong, sustained performance and practice

Good – Strong features, although minor aspects may require improvement

Adequate and needs improvement – Strengths outweigh weaknesses, but important aspects require improvement

Unsatisfactory and needs urgent improvement – Important weaknesses outweigh strengths

Here are the most recent Estyn inspection and monitoring reports for all secondary state schools in Newport.

The John Frost School

Date of inspection: March 2020

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 – Good

(Head teacher Mark Tucker took over at the school in 2017.)

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Summary

“The John Frost School is a caring community that provides a calm and purposeful learning environment for pupils and staff alike.

“Pupils are welcoming and friendly, and convey a strong sense of pride in their school. They behave well in lessons and around the school, and the majority make secure progress in their learning. Most teachers nurture positive working relationships with pupils and many have secure subject knowledge.

“In the majority of lessons, teachers provide helpful activities and clear explanations. However, in general teachers do not develop pupils’ thinking or independent skills well enough. In a minority of lessons, teachers do not adapt activities sufficiently to meet the needs of pupils of different abilities.

“The school provides high quality care, support and guidance and promotes tolerance and respect successfully. This ensures that the diverse needs of the school community are met effectively. Pupils are supported well and enabled to develop as caring, well-informed citizens. Leaders provide a clear sense of direction for the school. They understand the school’s strengths and weaknesses well and prioritise wisely.

“There is a tangible sense of common purpose amongst staff and a strong ethos of teamwork. Staff feel well supported and benefit from a worthwhile programme of professional learning activities.”

Read the full report here.

Lliswerry High School

Date of inspection: February 2020

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

(Lliswerry head teacher Neil Davies took over in 2017.)

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Summary

“Lliswerry High School provides an inclusive, caring environment for pupils from a diverse range of backgrounds. Leaders at all levels are committed to supporting all pupils’ wellbeing and progress in order to help them reach their potential.

“The school’s support for pupils who have English as an additional language is particularly effective. In the majority of cases, teachers use their detailed knowledge of individual pupils to plan engaging, demanding lessons that help pupils to make sound progress.

“A minority of teaching does not provide pupils with sufficient opportunities to further their knowledge, understanding and skills.

“The school does not have a strategic enough approach to the development of pupils’ skills across the curriculum. Leaders monitor pupils’ progress and wellbeing carefully, and this has enabled them to make a positive impact on, for example, rates of attendance.

“Overall, leadership has not had a consistent enough impact on important aspects such as the quality of teaching and the standards pupils achieve.”

Read the full report here.

Bassaleg School

Date of inspection: May 2019

Standards – Good

Wellbeing and attitudes to learning – Good

Teaching and learning experiences – Good

Care, support and guidance – Excellent

Leadership and management – Good

(Bassaleg School boasts Wales international Aaron Wainright as a former pupil.)

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Summary

“Bassaleg School is an inclusive school in which care support and guidance is central to its ethos. The school’s comprehensive provision to strengthen pupils’ sense of community, promote respect for diversity, support them to become ethically informed citizens and to develop their leadership skills is a strong feature of its work. This has contributed successfully to a culture where equality and diversity are celebrated and where pupils demonstrate a secure sense of social awareness and responsibility.

“Performance at key stage 4 generally compares well with that in similar schools. The school’s performance in the sixth form has improved in recent years and overall pupils in the sixth form make sound progress.

“The quality of teaching helps many pupils to develop their skills in a wide range of contexts well. In particular, pupils demonstrate strong literacy skills and express their ideas and views confidently and articulately in discussions and in writing.

“Leadership at all levels have a shared commitment to the values of the school. Secure improvement processes are used effectively to enhance the quality of the school’s work and outcomes for pupils.”

Read the full report here.

St Joseph’s R.C. High School

Date of inspection: March 2018

Standards – Good

Wellbeing and attitudes to learning – Good

Teaching and learning experiences – Good

Care, support and guidance – Excellent

Leadership and management – Good

(St Joseph's scored good or above in all five areas. Picture: Google maps.)

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Summary

“Ensuring that all pupils are both nurtured with care and enabled to achieve their potential is pivotal to the work of St Joseph’s R.C. High School.

“As a result, many pupils make strong progress, particularly in external examinations at the end of key stage 4 and in the sixth form.

“The school is especially successful in promoting its principles of ‘faith in action’. Kindness and consideration for others are demonstrated consistently by both pupils and staff.

“The school is highly successful in providing outstanding care, support and guidance within a Catholic community. Strong, principled leadership has ensured high levels of wellbeing and positive outcomes for pupils, as well as good quality teaching and valuable opportunities for staff to develop professionally.”

Read the full report here.

Newport High School

Date of inspection: November 2017

Standards – Unsatisfactory and needs urgent 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 – Unsatisfactory and needs urgent improvement

Newport High was placed in special measures as a result of the inspection.

Estyn is monitoring the school’s progress on a termly basis.

(Newport was placed in special measures.)

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Summary

“In Newport High School, many pupils demonstrate a positive attitude towards their learning. These pupils make suitable progress in many lessons.

“Despite this, performance at key stage 4 is weak and is well below that in similar schools over the last three years.

“Most staff develop positive working relationships with pupils, which enables them to participate purposefully in their learning.

“The school has designed a ‘transition’ curriculum for key stage 3 that enables pupils to settle in well. However, the curriculum does not incorporate a sufficiently co-ordinated approach to the development of pupils’ skills, and teaching across the school does not challenge all groups of pupils well enough.

“Senior leaders have a vision of their school where every individual is important and valued, and will be supported to achieve their very best. However, line management is not secure enough to ensure that all areas of the school’s work are carried out sufficiently well. In addition, the lack of frank evaluation, secure planning and robust monitoring means that the pace of improvement is too slow.”

Read the full report here.

Llanwern High School

Date of monitoring report: November 2019

Llanwern High School were given a number of recommendations that they had to meet at their last core inspection.

In November 2019, they were judged to have made “sufficient progress”.

As a result, they were removed from the list of schools requiring “significant improvement”.

(Llanwern High were judged to have made progress in their most recent monitory report. Picture: Joe Bevan.)

The outcome of their monitoring report states:

- Raise standards and improve pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills

“In lessons, many pupils make suitable progress in developing their knowledge, understanding and skills.”

- Improve behaviour and attendance

“Since the core inspection, the school has strengthened suitably its approach to improving behaviour.

“After a substantial decline in 2018, they improved well in 2019, and are now higher than at the time of the core inspection. However, they remain well below expectations. In particular, girls’ attendance does not compare well to their counterparts in similar schools.”

- Improve the quality of teaching and assessment

“Since the core inspection, the school has deployed a suitable range of approaches to improve the effectiveness of teaching and assessment.”

- Strengthen provision for more able pupils and for the progressive development of all pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills

“Since the core inspection, the school has strengthened appropriately its provision for the development of pupils’ skills.”

- Increase accountability at all levels and strengthen performance management procedures

“Over the last year, the new headteacher has established a clear vision for improvement that is well understood by all staff.”

- Improve the accuracy of self-evaluation and planning for improvement

“Since the core inspection, the school has taken suitable steps to strengthen self-evaluation and improvement planning.”

Read the full report here.

St Julian’s Comprehensive School

Date of monitoring report: June 2017

St Julian’s School were judged to have made “insufficient progress” on the recommendations made in an inspection in 2014.

As a result, it was placed in special measures.

The school was required to draw up an action plan that showed how it was going to address the recommendations.

(St Julian's school has been placed in special measures. Picture: Google Maps.)

This is what the monitoring report said on how much progress had been made in relation to each recommendation in the 2014 report:

- Improve standards in key stage 3 and key stage 4

“Limited progress in addressing the recommendation.”

- Improve the co-ordination and planning for progression in developing literacy and numeracy

“Satisfactory progress in addressing the recommendation.”

- Improve the quality and consistency of teaching, marking and assessment

“Limited progress in addressing the recommendation.”

- Improve self-evaluation and improvement planning

“Limited progress in addressing the recommendation.”

- Strengthen the role of middle leaders so that they are fully accountable for standards, provision and the quality assurance of the work of their departments

“Limited progress in addressing the recommendation.”

- Meet statutory requirements for the annual report to parents on their child’s progress

“Very good progress in addressing the recommendation.”

The report’s recommendations:

“In order to maintain and improve on this progress, the school should continue to sustain the level of progress it has already made, and continue to address those inspection recommendations where further progress is required.”

See the full report here.

Caerleon Comprehensive School

In 2017, the Caerleon Comprehensive was judged to have made “sufficient progress” in addressing recommendations from a previous Section 28 inspection.

As a result, the school was removed from the list of school requiring Estyn review and as such, there is no monitoring report – as is the case with St Julian’s School and Llanwern High School.

(The school had made sufficient progress.)

How the school was rated in 2016.

- Standards – Adequate

- Wellbeing – Adequate

- Learning experiences – Adequate

- Teaching – Adequate

- Care, support and guidance – Adequate

- Learning environment – Adequate

- Leadership – Adequate

- Improving quality – Adequate

- Partnership working – Adequate

- Resource management – Adequate

See the full report here.