Tenby’s Greenhill School have stated that it is confident that the commitment of all staff and governors will improve standards quickly enabling education and training inspectorate Estyn to remove the school from Special Measures.

The school located at Heywood Lane has been put in the most serious category by Estyn after a follow-up inspection last month to monitor the progress that the school had made since the last main inspection.

Recommendations included in the Estyn report state that the standards of pupils’ work in lessons must be improved; as well as students’ attendance.

The reports also highlights that the quality of teaching at Ysgol Greenhill needs improving; while the inconsistency in middle leadership across the school to ensure that all middle leaders lead their departments effectively also needs reducing.

The school has also been told to improve the quality of self-evaluation and improvement planning processes to impact on the standards of pupils’ work in class.

“Since the time of the core inspection, there has been insufficient improvement in the standards that pupils achieve,” states the Estyn report.

“In general, the majority of pupils make suitable progress in developing their knowledge, skills and understanding. However, in a minority of instances, pupils make little or no progress in lessons.

“When given the opportunity, the majority of pupils make suitable verbal contributions to lessons, such as when they discuss the key features of a successful presentation as part of the skills challenge. A few pupils express themselves articulately and respond to the ideas of their peers maturely, for example when they explore abstract philosophical questions.

“However, overall, pupils do not develop their verbal skills across the curriculum well enough. In particular, a minority of pupils do not listen attentively or respectfully enough to their teachers or each other.

“The school has deployed suitable strategies to improve attendance and reduce fixed term exclusions. It has continued to use the range of beneficial actions identified in the previous monitoring visit. This has helped to improve attendance and punctuality and lower the number of exclusions. Rates of attendance are now higher than at the time of the core inspection.

“Whilst the majority of pupils behave well in lessons and around the school, a minority demonstrate a poor attitude to their learning.

“These pupils do not listen well enough, and often talk over their teachers and their peers. They do not maintain concentration, complete insufficient work, and disrupt the learning of others. A few pupils demonstrate immature and disrespectful behaviour, both in lessons and around the school.”

The report goes on to state that since the last monitoring visit, the school has used a range of suitable approaches to improve the quality of teaching.

“In particular, leaders have developed a strong focus on collaborative working both within and between areas of learning. However, since the core inspection there has been insufficient overall improvement in the impact that teaching has on pupils’ learning.

“In a minority of cases, teaching is not sufficiently effective. In these lessons, teachers do not make clear enough their expectations regarding pupils’ attitudes to learning.”

In a letter sent out to parents and carers last week, Greenhill’s chair of governors Heulwen Lear said that with the commitment of all staff and governors and the additional support being provided by the Local Authority, the Governing Body are confident that examination outcomes and standards will improve quickly, enabling Estyn to remove the school from Special Measures.

“The report from the visit, which is available on the Estyn website, confirms that there have been a number of positive changes implemented at the school but felt that progress in improving outcomes has been too slow and, as a result, the school requires Special Measures,” she stated.

“We are all very disappointed by this decision but accept and acknowledge that standards and performance are not good enough and that not enough progress has been made in improving these quickly enough.

“I would however strongly recommend that parents read the report in full as this will make it clear that appropriate systems, processes and line management arrangements are in place and what is needed now is for these to have an impact on classroom practice, which in turn will improve standards and outcomes.

“The Governing Body have already met to discuss the report and the implications of the school being placed in Special Measures. We will be working very closely with the Headteacher and the Leadership Team to ensure that a robust and fast-paced improvement plan is implemented and acted on.

“Governors will actively monitor progress and support implementation of improvement measures. A governor will be part of the Post Inspection Action Plan oversight and scrutiny work taking place shortly with the support of the school’s Challenge Advisor and the next Full Governors meeting, in spring, has been brought forward to enable all Governors to take ownership and contribute to improving the school’s performance,” she continued.

Mrs. Lear went onto say that the governors are committed and determined that Greenhill should be a school which is known to support every pupil to flourish, to understand their own worth and that of others and to feel valued and achieve their potential; focus on education for wisdom, knowledge and skills; have the community at the heart of the school and the school at the heart of the community.

“These are our core values - we are not currently achieving them well enough but we are determined to do so,” added Mrs. Lear.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet member for education and lifelong learning, Clr. Guy Woodham, said he was disappointed to learn of the decision to place the school in special measures.

“I am particularly concerned in view of the high level of support that has been offered by the local authority since the previous core visit,” he said.

“It is clear that the school has not made the progress that might reasonably have been anticipated given the quality of that support. We will continue to work with the school to ensure that rapid progress is made.”