YSGOL Aberporth has been rated as ‘good’ in all areas in its recent Estyn report.

The school has 152 pupils aged between three and 11, including five full-time nursery pupils and 17 pupils who attend Canolfan y Don, which is a unit for pupils with profound special educational needs.

Inspectors visited in March and rated the school good in all five categories – standards; wellbeing and attitudes to learning; teaching and learning experiences; care support and guidance and leadership and management.

In its reports, the inspectors said: “A caring and hard-working ethos permeates all of this school’s activities. The caring, enthusiastic and inclusive learning community ensures that pupils feel happy and safe attending school.

“The headteacher, teachers and assistants encourage all pupils, including those at Canolfan y Don, to apply themselves to their tasks and succeed in their learning. As a result, most pupils make good progress in their skills, and nearly all in the mainstream develop very polished Welsh oral skills, whatever their linguistic background.

“Nearly all pupils behave very well. They are polite and respectful towards each other and adults, and interact highly effectively.

“The completely natural way in which pupils at Canolfan y Don integrate with the mainstream pupils reinforces the strong principle of inclusivity that exists within the school. Nearly all are happy and proud to belong to its community and family.

“The headteacher and staff have a clear vision that is based on supporting pupils’ wellbeing, and ensuring that they are ambitious individuals who are proud of their community and their Welshness.”

Recommendations included raising pupils’ standards of reading in key stage 2 and also ensuring that key stage 2 teachers provide enough regular opportunities for pupils to apply their numeracy and extended writing skills across the curriculum.

The report adds: “Staff have revised their schemes of work recently in order to ensure that pupils develop their literacy, numeracy and ICT skills methodically and systematically.

“Although these schemes are rigorous and ensure that they include rich and creative learning experiences for pupils, it is too early to see their long-term effect on standards.”