HMCI highlights excellent practice, but calls for improvement in literacy levels and greater consistency in teaching quality and leadership.

Estyn has today published its Chief Inspector’s Annual Report, setting out a clear and detailed overview of education and training in Wales. The report recognises examples of strong practice, while warning that ongoing weaknesses in literacy, teaching quality and leadership, particularly in secondary schools, limit progress for too many learners.

Drawing on inspection evidence from across schools, colleges, training providers and wider education services during 2024–2025, the report finds that although there are many strengths, the system as a whole has not yet worked cohesively enough to secure consistently high-quality teaching and learning.

There are examples of strong practice highlighted throughout the report, including settings embedding purposeful and systematic approaches to reading, providers establishing cultures of professional learning and local authorities effectively developing Welsh-medium specialist provision.

The report highlights long-standing challenges, including inconsistency in leadership and self-evaluation, problems with recruitment, uneven access to high-quality professional learning for teachers, and weaknesses in the development of skills such as reading, mathematics and digital competence.

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector, says,

“This year’s report certainly points to grounds for optimism. Ongoing reform to curriculum, the new School Improvement Programme (SIP), the establishment of Adnodd and Dysgu, and the first fully operational year of Medr – provide opportunities to strengthen coherence across the system.

“We are however, acutely aware of the increasing pressures on providers, including financial, growing numbers of learners educated other than at school and rising demand for specialist provision. The concerns around levels of literacy and teaching quality across Wales remain and without a sharper and more sustained focus in these areas, too many learners will continue to fall short of their potential.”

The HMCI’s annual report looks back at findings from inspection and thematic reports over the last academic year. Following on from the publication of Estyn’s sector summaries in October, February’s full report offers detailed context and provides a much deeper insight into what’s working well and what needs to improve across eighteen education and training sectors in Wales. Schools, non-maintained nursery settings, FE colleges, apprenticeships, initial teacher education, Welsh language immersion arrangements and youth work are among the sectors featured.

The report also evaluates how well providers are tackling some of the specific challenges facing learners in Wales through a series of key themes.

This year’s themes include:

• Developing the Humanities area of learning and experience (AoLE)
• Supporting pupils from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
• Developing learners as independent thinkers
• The impact of planning for literacy on pupils’ reading, writing, and oracy skills in primary, secondary and all-age schools
• Developing mathematical understanding and applying numeracy skills across the curriculum   
• The impact of leadership on teaching

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector continued:

“I would like to thank all settings, providers, staff and learners who continue to demonstrate dedication and commitment despite significant pressures. Estyn remains committed to providing rigorous, constructive and fair independent scrutiny and I hope that this report will provide useful feedback for education and training sectors to support further improvement.

“I’m proud to include the innovation and strong practice we have seen across Wales and am optimistic that we can build on these strong foundations, however decisive action is needed to address systemic weaknesses. We will continue to play our part by highlighting best practice, challenging underperformance and supporting improvement – for learners, for Wales.”

As well as a range of best practice case studies, Estyn’s report is accompanied by a series of podcasts this year which bring together education professionals and learners to discuss some of the challenges and best practice in line with the key themes of work based learning apprenticeships  and developing learners as independent thinkers.