Thematic Report Archives - Estyn

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive Summary

This thematic report focuses on the quality of teaching, learning, and leadership in mathematics in schools across Wales. It outlines effective practice and areas for improvement in teaching, curriculum, leadership, and assessment. Whilst the report identifies aspects of effective practice, it is important to note that, overall, successful mathematics teaching and leadership combines many of the aspects of effective practice identified in this report.

We visited a cross-section of secondary, primary and all-age schools in autumn 2024. In each school, we visited mathematics lessons, spoke with senior leaders, leaders and teachers of mathematics and pupils, and scrutinised a range of documentation. We also drew on evidence from school inspections undertaken over the last three years and the results of two school surveys developed for this report. We surveyed a sample of local authorities and school improvement partners and met with a smaller sample of these to discuss some of the aspects in greater detail. The findings in the report are based on a combination of inspection evidence since February 2022, and the evidence gained on the thematic visits.

Whilst we observed aspects of effective teaching and leadership of mathematics, overall, we found that the quality of teaching of mathematics was too variable and pupils’ standards in mathematics were too low. We believe the variability in the quality of teaching of mathematics is partly linked to a reduction in subject-specific support across Wales. Our findings revealed that there is too little focus on the importance of teachers’ subject knowledge and subject pedagogy and, as a result, too often teachers have a limited understanding of the best ways to support pupils’ learning.

The report emphasises the importance of effective teaching methods, high-quality questioning, a supportive learning environment, professional learning, and parental involvement in enhancing mathematics education. These elements collectively contribute to improving pupil engagement, understanding, and outcomes in mathematics.

Where teaching was most effective and pupils made good progress, teachers:

  • had high expectations of what pupils could achieve and challenged all pupils well
  • made effective use of a range of teaching and assessment techniques and used their findings from assessments to guide their teaching, adjusting the pace and level of challenge responsively
  • ensured that pupils understood what they were learning rather than just following instructions to get the correct answer
  • questioned pupils effectively to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts
  • skilfully exposed and addressed pupils’ misconceptions
  • ensured that pupils were constantly thinking and that the level of challenge was appropriate, stretching pupils without overwhelming them
  • helped pupils to make relevant connections to other areas of mathematics and, where appropriate, to everyday life

Where teaching was less effective and pupils did not make enough progress, teachers:

  • did not focus closely enough on what they wanted pupils to learn but instead planned tasks and activities that kept pupils busy
  • did not plan well enough to teach the understanding of mathematical concepts and identify and address misconceptions; they often taught procedural shortcuts rather than helping pupils understand mathematical concepts and make connections between topics
  • did not practice responsive teaching within mathematics classrooms, often due to a lack of confidence in their subject knowledge or pedagogy
  • did not question pupils well enough to encourage them to deepen their thinking or improve their understanding of aspects of mathematics
  • did not use questioning well enough to address pupils’ misconceptions, often because they did not have the subject knowledge to explore aspects around and within topics effectively
  • limited the opportunities for pupils to develop independent learning skills due to over-directed teaching, lack of challenge, or ineffective questioning
  • did not challenge pupils, particularly the most able and pupils at transition points well enough

We recognise the importance of designing a mathematics curriculum that is comprehensive and coherent. In schools that designed a successful mathematics curriculum they had a number of strong features, such as:

  • they were structured to build on pupils’ learning
  • appropriate time allocated for pupils to acquire mathematical knowledge, understanding, and skills
  • the provision of opportunities for pupils to apply their knowledge in authentic contexts and develop their mathematical independence
  • high-quality teaching that involved a balance of explicit teaching and time for pupils to explore concepts, collaborate with others, and develop their mathematical independence
  • teachers collaborated in their topic planning and framed what effective progression looked like across the topic area, including identifying and addressing misconceptions; where pupils made the most progress, teachers anticipated what came later and taught the pupils accordingly

In general, there were common factors that limited the effectiveness of curriculum planning. These included:

  • a lack of understanding of Curriculum for Wales requirements and guidance; furthermore, teachers and leaders often did not know who to approach to clarify and support curriculum-related questions, and this added unhelpfully to teachers’ confusion and cognitive overload
  • an inconsistent understanding of the effective use of the mathematical proficiencies
  • a lack of clarity in national guidance to support teachers and leaders in understanding the minimum expectations of pupils’ understanding and progress in mathematics; often, this meant that teachers and leaders did not have high enough expectations of how pupils should progress in their mathematical understanding
  • limited support to improve the quality of mathematics teaching, which was focused enough on pedagogy or how teachers should use their subject knowledge effectively to help pupils learn
  • support and professional learning for teachers of mathematics that was too generic, not effective, or wide-ranging enough and many teachers were unaware of the professional learning opportunities available to them externally
  • too many teachers who relied heavily on bought-in schemes of work, using them without considering pupils’ needs well enough or without considering how to adapt and use a selection of resources to achieve the best learning outcomes

We make a number of recommendations to support the Welsh Government, local authorities and leaders and staff within schools to strengthen mathematics teaching across Wales.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive Summary

This report is an updated version of our previous thematic report published in January 2024 focusing on attendance in secondary schools. These updated findings are based on inspection evidence and engagement with the schools who had cameos in the previous report, as well as an additional five schools that have seen improvements in attendance over the past twelve months. It also includes analysis of the recently published national attendance data. Updates to this report will be in blue text to make it easy for readers to identify changes.

In the best cases, schools have maintained a strong focus on improving pupils’ attendance and have identified attendance as an important whole-school priority. In the updated cameos, we have identified a few new approaches schools have implemented that have had a positive impact on improving attendance.

Schools continue to have concerns about the challenges for those pupils who live within the three-mile radius of school and therefore do not get access to free school transport. Most leaders we talked to said that this remains a very important barrier to improving attendance. They also noted that this often impacts disproportionately on those pupils who are eligible for free school meals. An additional challenge identified by school leaders is Year 11 exams. Given that examinations take place early in May, it is challenging for schools to maintain Year 11 pupils’ attendance, when pupils are keen to stay at home to revise. All of the schools we talked to indicated that they see a notable decline in Year 11 attendance during this period, especially where schools have worked hard during the year to improve the attendance of this year group in particular.

Whilst local authorities have continued to prioritise improving attendance, in a minority of instances, this work has not had a sufficient impact. The support and challenge for improving attendance remains too variable across Wales. A few school leaders also noted a challenge where some local authorities will not issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) and this is restricting their ability to challenge families to improve pupils’ attendance.

When we published this report in January 2024, we identified that the data Welsh Government publishes around attendance does not provide sufficient detail for schools to make important comparisons, for example between groups of pupils and year groups. The absence of a more detailed analysis continues to limit schools’ ability to fully evaluate the impact of their work, make comparisons and to identify important weaknesses in performance.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive Summary

This report explores approaches to promoting positive behaviour in secondary schools in Wales. It highlights the challenges that secondary schools face and includes spotlights of effective practice. The report draws on information from visits to 24 secondary and all-age schools, discussions with officers from 10 local authorities and findings from national surveys for headteachers, staff and pupils.

Positive behaviour underpins effective teaching and learning and supports academic progress. However, during inspection, school leaders and staff have reported a decline in the behaviour of a few of their pupils since the time of the pandemic. In addition, there has been a national increase in fixed-term and permanent exclusions. However, as there is currently no national system to collect data on incidences of poor behaviour in schools, understanding the full extent of the problem remains difficult.

The evidence we gathered for this thematic review suggests that there are many reasons why pupils may display challenging behaviour. These include family instability, socio-economic pressures, mental health problems and additional learning needs. Common behaviour issues identified by schools involve persistent low-level disruption, acts of defiance and, to a lesser extent, physical confrontations. External factors such as the influence of social media and community-related issues such as anti-social behaviour have led to more complicated behaviours seen in schools. Responses to our national surveys across staff and pupils [pages 33 to 58] revealed concerns about low level disruption in lessons, poor behaviour in corridors, mobile phone misuse, and increased anxiety among pupils. Leaders also highlighted difficulties in securing timely specialist support.

Schools that have difficultly managing pupils’ poor behaviour generally have inconsistent approaches or lack clear policies and processes. Budget constraints and insufficient external support may also be key factors. The most successful schools have high expectations of their pupils and staff. In these schools, leadership of well-being is strong and supported by effective behaviour policies. There is normally a consistency in behaviour management practice and regular professional learning for teachers. Effective schools may also implement trauma-informed approaches to support pupils’ emotional needs and carry out regular restorative practices. Engagement with parents and strong community partnerships are also key to sustaining a positive behaviour culture. These help foster a sense of belonging for pupils.

We surveyed pupils, staff, and headteachers. Findings from these surveys reveal differing perceptions of what constitutes poor behaviour and what support is needed. While most pupils describe behaviour in a positive manner, staff and headteachers express concerns about rising disruption and the limited support available. Pupils emphasise the need for mutual respect, calling for fair treatment and consistent approaches to discipline. Teachers highlight common issues such as defiance, verbal abuse, and corridor misbehaviour. Headteachers stress the need for clearer national policies, increased funding, and more specialist provisions. In the round, the survey responses highlight the importance of consistent policy enforcement, supportive relationships, and effective external support.

The report recommends that schools strengthen their behaviour management systems by involving all stakeholders, including feeder schools, parents and carers, governors and local authorities, in developing clear, consistent policy and processes. In addition, staff should receive specific training on managing disruptive behaviour, especially those of vulnerable learners. Local authority services should provide timely support, share relative information about pupils’ needs and experiences efficiently if pupils move within or beyond the local authority, and adopt a consistent approach to family engagement. The Welsh Government is urged to update national behaviour management guidelines and launch a national campaign on positive behaviour. Initial teacher education and induction programmes should also include a comprehensive behaviour management programme.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive summary

This report examines learner behaviour within further education (FE) colleges across Wales. It focuses on the factors that influence positive and negative behaviours, as well as the variations in behaviour across different learner groups and learning programmes. The report considers how colleges promote positive behaviours and manage negative behaviours, alongside the support and guidance available to both learners and staff. It highlights ongoing challenges such as the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the rise in social media misuse and vaping. We consider the environmental factors and institutional practices that influence these behaviours. Our findings are based on visits to seven colleges, national surveys of staff and learners, and consultations with key stakeholders, including union representatives. The report includes several spotlights of effective or interesting practice based on our visits.

During our visits, and from the surveys, we identified several recurring patterns and challenges within FE colleges. Many learners demonstrate positive behaviours, including respectful interactions with staff and peers, active engagement in lessons, and a commitment to maintaining clean and orderly campuses. These outcomes are supported by an environment that fosters independence and adopts an adult-oriented teaching approach, which plays a crucial role in shaping such constructive behaviour. However, negative behaviours are also prevalent. Lateness, absenteeism, inappropriate use of social media, and vaping are commonly reported issues. More concerning behaviours, although less frequent, include incidents of sexual harassment, substance misuse, and peer violence. Staff note that serious incidents often arise from external pressures or unresolved personal challenges affecting learners.

The lasting effects of the pandemic continue to shape learner behaviour. Many young people exhibit developmental delays, particularly in social skills and resilience. Although the immediate impacts of the pandemic have lessened in the past year, the residual challenges are evident in learners’ engagement and their capacity to cope with academic pressures.

Behavioural patterns vary across different learner demographics and college programmes. Younger learners, including those on 14-16 programmes as well as recent school-leavers, and those enrolled in lower-level courses often exhibit more frequent behavioural disruptions. Neurodivergent learners face unique challenges, such as difficulties with emotional regulation and peer interactions. Learners from marginalised groups, including LGBTQ+ students, are disproportionately vulnerable to bullying and harassment, as their identities are sometimes negatively perceived by peers. Male learners, particularly those on vocational trade courses like construction, are more likely to display negative behaviours. These include the use of inappropriate language towards female learners, often driven by an effort to fit in or assert dominance in predominantly male environments.

Colleges generally provide professional learning opportunities in behaviour management and trauma-informed practices, offering staff strategies to support learners with behavioural challenges. However, some staff report feeling overwhelmed when dealing with these issues on a regular basis, which can affect their ability to manage behaviour effectively.

Colleges are at varying stages in embedding behaviour management practices. Some institutions have established effective systems with clear frameworks to promote positive behaviour and address challenges, while others are in the early stages of development and face issues with consistency and resource allocation. The stability and sustainability of behaviour management practices are further complicated by funding challenges. Colleges often rely on short-term funding streams, which hinder their ability to implement long-term support structures or retain skilled staff. This financial uncertainty undermines efforts to establish a consistent and sustained approach to managing learner behaviour, with implications for both the effectiveness of interventions and staff well-being.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive summary

This report evaluates the effectiveness of Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol’s training schemes to develop the Welsh language skills and bilingual pedagogy of practitioners in the further education and apprenticeships sector. These schemes are part of Coleg’s Gwreiddio Scheme and align with its vision of enabling all members of staff to develop their Welsh language skills and bilingual pedagogy, with the aim of increasing the number of students and apprentices who choose to study either partially or entirely through the medium of Welsh.

The Gwreiddio Scheme supports the objectives of the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers Welsh language strategy in the post-compulsory education sector.

In the report, we have focused on three types of provision:

  • E-learning sessions
  • Sgiliaith provision
  • The Work Welsh in Further Education scheme

On the whole, the schemes have a positive effect on the practitioners who take advantage of them. The number of practitioners who speak Welsh and are registered according to their ability to work through the medium of Welsh has increased in the further education and work-based learning sectors since 2020. However, there is no specific data that directly links this to the training.

The number of learning activities that include ‘a small amount of Welsh-medium learning’ has increased substantially during the past five years. However, learning activities in categories such as ‘a large proportion of Welsh-medium, bilingual and Welsh-only learning’ have not increased during the same period. This reflects the pattern of the training schemes that are more effective in terms of targeting staff with low level language skills and who are at the start of their journey along the language continuum.

In general, the figures align with the findings of this report, namely that there is very little effect on developing practitioners’ language skills beyond the initial levels. This limits opportunities for students and apprentices to use the Welsh language consistently in their learning.

We saw examples of good practice across the three types of provision. The impact of the work was at its best when:

  • Leaders at all levels are clear about the strategic importance of increasing the use of the Welsh language.
  • Training is targeted at staff who already have strong language skills.
  • Colleges provide appropriate time for staff to complete training as part of their 24 learning hours
  • Leaders recognise the Welsh language as a skill and, as a result, provide financial remuneration for practitioners who have advanced bilingual pedagogy skills
  • Staff’s efforts to develop their teaching practices as they move up the language pyramid or curriculum are recognised professionally.
  • There are clear guidelines for staff on how to increase their use of the Welsh language.
  • The provider’s own observation and quality assurance procedures are robust and focus on the Welsh language and bilingual pedagogy.
  • Provision and training are adapted in line with staff’s needs.

There are strong and supportive relationships between Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and individual colleges and providers. However, the Coleg does not have sufficiently robust procedures in place to ensure that arrangements for forward planning, quality assurance and monitoring the effect of training are consistent across individual providers and nationally.

As a result, we have included four recommendations for Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol:

  • Provide more challenge and guidance to colleges and apprenticeship providers when evaluating the effect of training on the workforce with purposeful forward planning to move teaching practices and the offer for students and apprentices up the language pyramid (from B3 to B2 and up). In general, although many institutions feel that they work well with Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, only a majority feel that they are accountable to the Coleg in terms of outputs. Many would welcome further scrutiny of their work as they plan and measure the effect of training on the linguistic ability and bilingual pedagogy of their staff. Overall, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol does not scrutinise targets and evidence in sufficient detail and there is not an appropriate culture of challenging and questioning the decisions of colleges and providers.
  • Work with relevant partners to extend the Sgiliaith offer to Welsh speakers by creating intensive bilingual pedagogy training which leads to a recognised professional qualification. Sgiliaith provision is effective in upskilling staff to teach increasingly bilingually. The type of provision available to Welsh-speaking practitioners, such as the current bilingual pedagogy course, needs to be extended to create an intensive course that leads to a recognised professional qualification. By doing this, there would be more confident linguistic practitioners available who would be able to offer increasingly bilingual or Welsh-medium provision.
  • Work strategically with colleges, apprenticeship providers and other relevant partners to mainstream innovative initiatives to recognise the value of the Welsh language as an additional skill that is recognised both practically and financially. In the report, we draw attention to innovative initiatives, such as the ‘Bilingual Educators’ Methodology’ scheme at Coleg Cambria. Coleg Cambria emphasises the strategic importance of the Welsh language strongly by offering financial incentives to practitioners, in addition to non-contact time from their teaching timetables during the training, for increasing the use of the Welsh language in their sessions. This is a notable example of linguistic planning through workforce planning.
  • Work with the National Centre for Learning Welsh to ensure that the offer for learners, standards of teaching and learning, quality assurance procedures and professional development for tutors are consistent with the Learn Welsh sector. The number of staff following Work Welsh courses has increased over the years and, in many lessons, they make sound progress. However, pedagogy in a few cases does not apply the successful approaches of the Learn Welsh sector which, in turn, has an effect on learners’ standards. There are also inconsistencies across colleges in terms of contact hours for learners on courses, quality assurance procedures and professional learning opportunities for tutors.

We have included two recommendations for further education colleges and apprenticeship providers:

  • Work with Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to ensure consistency in the way in which practitioners are allowed to attend training and language lessons with the aim of ensuring that they have non-contact time in their teaching timetables to undertake them without adding to their workload. The main barrier for staff who wish to attend training is the lack of time or time pressures. This is particularly true for courses on the Work Welsh programme. Line managers are not always willing to release staff. In most cases, staff also have to attend courses on top of their teaching hours or other normal duties, which affects their ability to join and complete courses.
  • Continue to refine their professional development offer for practitioners to increase their Welsh language skills and bilingual pedagogy with the strategic aim of moving staff and students/apprentices along the language continuum purposefully. With the exception of a very few institutions, colleges and apprenticeship providers need to extend the good work they have undertaken in terms of increasing the use of ‘a small amount of Welsh-medium learning’ in learning activities to aim for higher levels of the language pyramid or continuum to realise the aims of policies such as Cymraeg 2050.

We have included one recommendation for the Welsh Government and Medr, namely:

  • Work with the further education and apprenticeships sectors to ensure consistency in the use of language provision categories and to consider the need to make changes to the categories to facilitate this. There is still a lack of consistency in the way in which colleges and providers record the linguistic categories of their provision. Many practitioners are also of the professional opinion that the definitions of these categories need to be revisited to facilitate the journey of practitioners, in addition to students and apprentices, up the pyramid or along the language continuum.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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A person with a hearing aid is having a conversation with a young child seated across the table, in a room with warm lighting.

Executive summary

This report considers how well the funded non-maintained settings, maintained primary, secondary and all-age schools that participated in the review are implementing and embedding aspects of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (ALNET) and the accompanying Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Code. It also considers how well local authorities have supported schools. This report builds on our findings from the first thematic review The new additional learning needs system (Estyn, 2023) and identifies effective practice to support inclusive education which includes developing strategies to support pupils with ALN, enhancing Welsh-medium support and strengthening professional learning, quality assurance and the roles of the Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator (ALNCo) and Early Years Additional Learning Needs Officer (EYALNLO) .   

Our findings are based on engagement with a sample of eight funded non-maintained settings,11 primary schools, seven secondary schools and two all-age schools. Of these, nine were conducted through the medium of Welsh. Eight of the schools, including one Welsh-medium school, host local authority specialist class provision for pupils with ALN. We also drew on evidence from our ongoing inspection activity and from discussions between our local authority link inspectors and local authority officers. Further, the report draws on evidence from discussion with a focus group of Early Years Additional Learning Needs Lead Officers (EY ALNLOs). We also canvassed the views of parents and carers in relation to their experiences. 

Implementing and embedding ALN reform has been a significant undertaking for local authorities, schools and settings. During our visits and in our meetings with stakeholders, the inspection team consistently noted the strong commitment and resilience demonstrated by staff in local authorities, schools and settings. Staff were working diligently to support children and young people with ALN within the context of ongoing challenges. These included the lasting impact of the pandemic on well-being, challenges with attendance, the reported but unverified increase in children and young people with complex needs as well as budgetary and workforce pressures. Overall, the requirements of ALN reform were starting to ensure improvements in provision for pupils with ALN across the country. As a result, where ALN reform had been implemented successfully, many pupils made suitable progress from their initial starting points. However, the implementation of ALN reform was not consistent and, as a result, pupils’ additional learning needs were not always supported well enough. Further, the majority of schools and local authorities in the sample had begun to strengthen the quality assurance of ALN processes and provision. Many leaders expressed concerns about their ability to continue to deliver the necessary ALN services, once additional funding comes to an end.   

Our findings show that leaders and staff at many schools and settings had started to develop inclusive culture and practice. These schools and settings focused well on the learning and well-being of all pupils. However, in a minority of cases, inclusive vision and purposeful teaching and learning aimed at meeting the needs of all pupils were not effective enough. Based on our discussions with school leaders, as part of this review, local authority guidance for improving the quality of inclusive teaching and learning was variable across Wales. Even in the most effective cases, schools acknowledged that this support and guidance was at an early stage of development. 

Overall, the number of pupils identified with ALN or special educational needs (SEN) on schools’ registers had continued to reduce. However, the number of pupils whose additional learning provision (ALP) / special educational provision (SEP) was identified in a statutory plan, either through an individual development plan (IDP) or a statement of SEN, had continued to increase. In addition, there was a significant increase in the number of individual development plans (IDPs) that were maintained by schools. Across local authorities, inconsistencies remained in the interpretation of the ALN Code and in the subsequent approaches to school maintained and local authority maintained IDPs.  

Overall, participating schools and settings had a secure understanding of the provision that they make for pupils with ALN. However, it remained the case that the extent to which the provision is classed as ALP was unclear. Most schools and local authorities agreed that it would be beneficial for ALP to be clarified at a national level. 

Most schools that participated in this review recognised the enhanced and specialist role of the ALNCo under the Act and welcomed the increased accountability and strategic responsibility of the role. Where the role of the ALNCo was most effective, they were part of the senior leadership team, and they made a significant contribution to the provision for and outcomes of pupils with ALN. However, in a minority of schools, ALNCos were not fully involved in influencing the strategic direction and decision-making of the school.  

This is the first time that we have reviewed the progress of funded non-maintained settings and the role of the Early Years Additional Learning Needs Officer (EYALNLO) in relation to ALN reform. Many of the funded non-maintained settings that we visited as part of this review provided effective learning experiences for children with ALN. Overall, they planned carefully to tailor learning experiences to meet the individual requirements of each child including those with ALN. Further, the role of the EY ALNLO was well established across Wales. Overall, these officers worked effectively to support parents and early years settings to ensure beneficial and timely support for younger children with emerging or identified ALN.  

The extent to which local authorities, schools and settings planned and provided equitable support for Welsh-medium ALN provision remained underdeveloped. This has been recognised by the Welsh Government and local authorities, but significant challenges remained in relation to Welsh-medium recruitment and retention as well as the provision of Welsh-medium standardised assessments and resources.  

Our report identifies a range of effective practice, including in areas that remained challenging such as Welsh-medium delivery. We also make some recommendations. 

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive Summary

This report considers how effective the support and provision provided by early years education providers is at addressing the adverse effects of poverty and disadvantage on early years children.

It focuses on how well local authorities and school improvement services support these providers in early years pedagogical approaches and how best to support children adversely impacted by poverty and disadvantage. It also considers how well funded non-maintained settings and schools use their Early Years Pupil Development Grant (EYPDG)1 funding on sustainable interventions to improve the attainment of children adversely affected by poverty and disadvantage. Finally, the report considers how well the provision for play and learning in settings and schools supports children in their development and the transition between settings and schools. It is based on engagement with a sample of 31 non-maintained settings, nursery, primary and all-age schools. We also considered evidence from 15 local authorities.

We found that there is a variation in how early education is accessed across Wales, depending on how local authorities provide nursery education. This variation results in an inequitable provision across Wales. In practice, this means that parents often have little to no choice of where they can access nursery provision for their child.

There was a variation in the accessibility of early years professional learning for the sector, with non-maintained leaders more likely to have accessed high quality early years professional learning from their local authorities and umbrella organisations than practitioners in schools. However, many school leaders reported that there was limited professional learning to support effective early years pedagogy offered by local authorities and school improvement services.

During our visits, leaders from non-maintained settings and schools reported on how many families were experiencing the negative impact of poverty and disadvantage at a level far worse than previously seen. As a result, a large proportion of their time and resources was spent trying to address these needs. In nearly all cases, settings and schools took time to get to know the children and their families well. They spent time forging supportive and trusting relationships. Although leaders had not received specific training or information from local authorities on how to best meet the social,
emotional and developmental needs of early years children adversely impacted by poverty and disadvantage, they knew and understood the importance of supporting families and the difference this was making to their lives. This often took the form of practical support such as collaborating with the third sector to provide food items, toys, uniform and practical support with issues such as housing.

The EYPDG provides funding to schools and settings to support children aged three to four years with their communication, well-being and physical development needs. Our review found that, due to the complexities of funding formulas and difficulty of gathering data on this age group, there was an inequity of funding across the non-maintained sectors in Wales. This resulted in local authorities who do not fund early education in the non-maintained sector receiving funding and local authorities with high levels of deprivation receiving limited funding.

Most non-maintained settings receiving delegated EYPDG funding made good use of this money to purchase resources that helped to develop children’s communication and well-being needs, such as outdoor equipment and speech and language resources. They attended beneficial training that supported them in their roles, particularly in supporting children’s communication skills. In addition, they enriched children’s experiences through a range of visits as well as inviting visitors to the setting. However, in those local authorities where the grant money was held centrally, they did not always target training well enough on tackling disadvantage or target the most disadvantaged settings well enough.

In most schools, leaders often used this funding to sustain existing provision. For example, they employed additional adults to provide a suitable adult/pupil ratio in early years classes. In a few examples, these practitioners delivered speech and language and emotional health and well-being interventions. In a minority of schools, leaders were unable to disaggregate their EYPDG funding from their wider PDG funding and therefore could not allocate their funding in a targeted way well enough.

Many leaders provide children and their families with beneficial opportunities to get to know practitioners and the setting or school prior to starting. This includes when children transition from home to a setting or school or between a setting and school.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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During the spring and summer term 2024 an Estyn inspector with experience in supporting learners with additional learning needs (ALN) joined link inspector visits to all further education (FE) colleges across Wales. During each visit, they met with key staff to discuss ALN reform1 and how implementation was progressing in each college. The findings of these visits informed this report.

The ALN Act and wider ALN Transformation Programme aims to transform the separate systems for special educational needs (SEN) in schools or pupil referral units (PRUs) and learning difficulties and/or disabilities (LDD) in further education to create a unified system for supporting learners from 0 to 25 with ALN.

Overall, colleges reported that they are at varying stages in implementation of the ALN act. Further, each college was supporting different cohorts with a varying range of additional learning needs. For example, most colleges supported learners with more complex additional learning needs on independent living skills courses and a minority had an established strong relationship with an independent specialist college to enhance provision in partnership.

Nearly all the colleges we visited reported an increase in learners with ALN as well as mental health and anxiety-based difficulties since the pandemic. In addition, a few colleges reported an increase in learners joining who were previously home-educated and so there is limited information available about any additional learning needs.

Many of these colleges ran multiple types of provision which were impacted by the ALN reforms where learners are on the roll of the college. These included Jobs Growth Wales+, youth employability programmes and junior apprenticeships2. In a few instances, provision for more complex learners, typically registered as independent specialist colleges, was initially delivered through a mainstream college before the subsidiary institution registers with the Welsh Government.

These arrangements were further complicated by the geography of Wales. Nearly all colleges needed to build relationships and develop information sharing with more than one local authority. A very few also developed information sharing arrangements with English local authorities. Colleges also reported variability in their relationships with local secondary schools based on whether they were the main provider of tertiary education in that area.

We completed our first thematic report of ALN reforms in September 2023, which focused on implementation of the ALNET Act in schools and local authorities. While the focus of the review did not include post-16 settings, we did leave one recommendation for local authorities in relation to post-16: to develop and publish their strategy for post-16 learners with ALN.

Within the 2023 ALN thematic report, we found that local authority strategies for post-16 ALN provision are at a very early stage of development. Those local authorities that had appointed dedicated post-16 officers reported that they were developing stronger strategic partnerships with further education providers. The knowledge that local authorities had of independent specialist colleges was less secure, and consequently their engagement with them was more limited. As a result, local authorities were not able to make informed decisions about the full range of additional learning provision across the post-16 sectors.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive summary

This report considers how well schools work together to support pupils’ transition from primary into secondary school. It focuses on how well schools work together to ensure that their curricula and teaching develop pupils’ knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours effectively across transition. It considers how schools support the well-being of learners at this important transition point.

It is based on engagement with a sample of 23 primary schools, 13 secondary schools and 3 all-age schools, and evidence from our inspection and follow-up work since September 2022. We also took evidence from three regional school improvement services and three local authorities.

Our findings show that headteachers or senior leaders from most clusters of schools meet regularly to discuss Curriculum for Wales and how to support pupils’ transition from primary to secondary school. In nearly all cases, leaders focused well on ensuring that there were beneficial induction arrangements to support pupils’ well-being and implemented strategies to support pupils with additional learning needs (ALN). However, in many cases, and for a range of reasons, transition work is not effective enough in supporting the development of a continuum of learning for all pupils that ensures that they make systematic and continual progress in their knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours from primary into secondary school.

In a minority of cases, clusters have set up groups of teachers to consider examples of pupils’ learning, to help them begin to develop a shared understanding of progression across their schools. However, these practices are in their infancy and, in most cases, there is still not a strong understanding of what progression looks like in most clusters of schools. As a result, these practices have not improved how well learning progresses from primary into secondary schools strongly enough.

During our visits, leaders pointed to a range of issues that made cluster work on developing curriculum progression difficult, including co-ordinating the work of multiple primary schools with one secondary school, different interpretations of the curriculum within the same cluster of schools, or having the time and resources to release staff to work together. They identified the broad nature of the descriptions of learning as something that the staff in their schools were still grappling with. Secondary school leaders often identified that changes to GCSE qualifications were adding to the difficulty of making decisions about their curriculum, but in more effective schools they also recognised that improving teaching was vital to ensuring that pupils gained good qualifications.

In a few cases, clusters of primary and secondary schools have worked together positively to map out knowledge, skills and experiences across all areas of learning and experience (AoLE) and have used this to begin to develop a shared understanding of progression. However, even where this is in place, secondary schools do not always use it to take account of pupils’ prior learning well enough. As a result, learning in Year 7 and beyond did not always support pupils’ continuous and progressive development.

In all-age schools, despite the potential of the all-age approach to learning, curriculum coherence and planning for progression were not always strong. In the best cases, schools were working purposefully to develop one progressive continuum of learning from age 3 to 16 and were beginning to use this to ensure that they supported pupils’ progress. However, a minority of all-age settings had made limited progress on developing a coherent approach to the curriculum and still considered learning in separate primary and secondary phases.

Many schools have provided teachers with a range of professional learning to support the introduction of Curriculum for Wales. However, in only a few cases had clusters of schools shared approaches to teaching or considered how they could ensure that teaching strategies supported pupils to make effective and continuous progress from primary into secondary school. Many were embedding strategies to support pupils to be more effective learners and recognised the importance of ensuring that pupils developed skills to monitor, regulate and assess learning.
However, in only a few cases had schools considered how they could ensure that pupils continued to develop these skills and dispositions effectively when they move into secondary school.

In nearly all cases, primary schools passed on a broad and varied range of information about pupils’ learning and progress to secondary schools prior to transition. A minority of clusters were beginning to consider how to share information on pupils’ progress, in line with Curriculum for Wales. However, in nearly all cases, there was little clarity about what expectations of learning and progress were, even within the same cluster. As a result, these processes did little to support continuity in pupils’ learning. In nearly all cases, primary schools shared the outcomes of the
Welsh Government’s personalised assessments with secondary schools. However, nearly all schools focused on sharing the standardised score only. They were not considering well enough the wide range of information about pupils’ learning available from the assessment or how this might be used to further support teaching and learning.

In nearly all cases, schools supported pupils’ induction into secondary school well. They often arranged face-to-face meetings between leaders or teachers from primary schools and staff from secondary schools that allowed for a beneficial sharing of information. Primary and secondary schools worked together conscientiously to support the transition of pupils with ALN. Often staff with responsibility for pupils with ALN began working with their feeder primary schools when pupils were in Year 6 or in Year 5. These processes helped secondary schools understand and cater for
these pupils’ needs supportively.

In most cases, clusters of schools supported many aspects of pupils’ well-being effectively as they moved from primary to into secondary school. In many cases, staff from secondary schools visited their feeder primary schools to speak to pupils early in Year 6 and in a very few cases when they are in Year 5. In nearly all cases, clusters of schools identified pupils who could find transition more difficult than their peers and put in place a useful range of supportive activities and visits that helped these pupils transition to secondary school. In the best cases, schools worked
together to plan and put in place strategies based on individual pupils’ needs.

Many leaders were aware of the updated guidance on, and requirements of, transition planning, and used this to plan pupils’ induction into secondary school appropriately. However, in many cases, transition plans lacked clarity on how schools would support continuity in pupils’ learning, and how they would achieve this through curriculum design and planning for learning and teaching.

Improvement Resource Type: Thematic Report

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Executive summary

Following the publication of a report on pupils’ English reading skills from 10-14 years of age by Estyn in May 2023, we set out to produce a report on how Welsh and bilingual schools develop pupils’ Welsh reading skills across the curriculum. In autumn 2023, we visited twenty Welsh-medium and bilingual primary, secondary and all-age schools, in addition to a few immersion units, to evaluate pupils’ Welsh reading skills across the curriculum in Year 6 and Years 7-9 and look at what schools were doing to develop these skills. Schools were selected based on their size, type, geographical location and socio-economic context to provide a cross‑section of schools in Wales. In each school visited, meetings were held with senior leaders, literacy co-ordinators, teachers and pupils. We observed sessions where reading skills were being developed or consolidated. We looked at pupils’ work and any documents the schools had on developing reading skills and on transition arrangements. A pupil survey was carried out in the Urdd Eisteddfod in June 2023 and a pupil questionnaire was distributed to those schools within the sample and over two thousand pupils responded. We also drew on evidence from primary, secondary and all-age inspections of schools outside the sample during 2023-2024.

Our report on Welsh reading skills highlights a number of strengths and areas that need to be addressed to ensure improvements. In addition to the examples of good practice in schools, we have included suggestions within each chapter to help schools strengthen their practices in developing pupils’ reading skills. The first chapter, ‘Pupils’ standards and attitudes’ focuses on the development of pupils’ reading skills across the curriculum and pupils’ attitudes to reading. The second chapter has two parts. The first part, ‘Teaching and learning experiences’ considers the offer provided by schools to strengthen pupils’ reading skills whilst ‘Leadership and planning for improvement’ notes how leaders prioritise reading in their schools. The report also looks at provision within immersion units. The third chapter, ‘Promoting a reading culture’ describes the way in which effective schools create a reading culture successfully and engage pupils’ interest in full. Appendix 1 lists the responses to the pupil questionnaire that was distributed to those schools within the sample and over two thousand pupils responded.

It is unsurprising that the negative impact of the pandemic remains clear on the standard of pupils’ Welsh reading skills in general, with a minority of pupils having lost the confidence to communicate and read in Welsh. Nearly all pupils from the sample of schools visited and who responded to our survey understand the importance of reading to support their learning and future life chances. However, for a majority of pupils, their enjoyment of reading decreases from the age of 10 to 14.

Many young people from 10 to 14 years of age used basic reading skills, such as annotating, locating and scanning information successfully to find the main messages and key information. Overall, a higher proportion of Year 6 pupils are making good progress in developing their advanced reading skills than in Years 7-9. This is partly because of the challenges of co-ordinating the progressive development of reading skills consistently across the range of subjects and teachers in the secondary phase. Our findings show that the most beneficial opportunities to develop reading skills could be seen in Welsh lessons or language sessions and within the humanities subjects. However, the advanced reading skills of a majority of pupils in Years 7-9 did not develop as well due to the lack of purposeful opportunities to develop their reading skills across the curriculum.

Many of the strengths and shortcomings we found in the English reading thematic were also evident in Welsh medium and bilingual schools. Whilst leaders in nearly all schools visited recognised the importance of prioritising the development of pupils’ reading skills, often this didn’t translate into effective provision across the curriculum, particularly in the secondary sector. Coordinating provision to develop pupils’ reading skills was in its early stages in a majority of secondary schools. Leaders in a minority of primary schools and a majority of secondary and all-age schools did not use a wide enough range of evidence to identify the exact aspects that need to be improved and plan relevant actions. They were over-reliant on data only, rather than combining it with first-hand evidence of pupils’ progress from lessons and books. Only a minority of leaders monitored and evaluated the effect of reading strategies across the school robustly enough. There were very few reading schemes or platforms available through the medium of Welsh compared to English to help schools to monitor pupils’ progress in reading.

Our findings show that very few clusters of primary and secondary schools planned together effectively to develop pupils’ reading skills from Year 6 to Year 7. This was also the case in many all-age schools, which teach pupils from both the primary and secondary phases. A barrier to this planning is the size of the cluster and the fact that a number of primary schools are within the catchment area of more than one secondary school or, at times, are cross-county.

The immersion units and Welsh language centres we visited worked effectively in developing the Welsh skills of pupils who transfer from English medium‑ education at a late stage. Teachers used subject terminology and vocabulary correctly and consistently which allowed pupils to develop as fluent speakers. These pupils made swift and successful progress in their Welsh reading skills.

Many primary schools and a few secondary schools promoted reading for pleasure successfully. However, overall, experiences to promote reading outside the classroom were seen to have decreased significantly since the pandemic, particularly in the secondary sector.