School Morriston Comprehensive School is an English-medium 11-19 school in the north of Swansea. There are currently 972 pupils on roll, which is lower than at the time of the last inspection in 2015. The school receives pupils from local primary schools and hosts a local authority specialist resource base catering for around 30 pupils with moderate to severe learning difficulties. Around 24% of the pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average of 16.4%. Approximately 37% of pupils live in the 20% most deprived areas in Wales. A very few pupils come from minority ethnic groups. Most pupils speak English as their first language and only a very few pupils speak Welsh at home. Close to 28% of pupils have a special educational need, which is above the national average of 22.9%. Just over 5% of pupils have a statement of special educational needs, which is also above the national average of 2.2%. The current headteacher took up post in May 2015. The senior leadership team consists of the headteacher, one deputy headteacher, three assistant headteachers, and the business manager. Further information is available from the Welsh Government My Local School website at the link below. http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/Schools/SchoolSearch?lang=en 1 A report on Morriston Comprehensive School February 2020 Summary Morriston Comprehensive School has a caring and inclusive ethos where many pupils feel safe and consider themselves to be valued members of the school community. These pupils make suitable progress and have positive attitudes to learning. However, a minority of pupils do not engage fully in lessons and make insufficient progress as well as disrupting the learning of others. The majority of lessons are planned well and enable pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding suitably. Conversely, in a minority of cases, learning activities and assessment practices do not challenge pupils well enough. The school provides all teachers with beneficial professional learning opportunities to prepare them to deliver a curriculum for Wales in the future. However, the school does not have a sufficiently co-ordinated approach to the progressive development of pupils’ skills across the current curriculum. The headteacher demonstrates reflective leadership and his vision for all pupils to engage and achieve is communicated widely. He is supported appropriately by a committed team of staff and together with the governing body they have tackled the budget deficit robustly. However, self-evaluation processes do not focus well enough on key aspects of the school’s work. As a result, leadership has not led to sufficient or sustained improvements in the quality of teaching and assessment, attitudes to learning and the standards achieved by all pupils, including the development of their skills. Inspection area Judgement Standards Adequate and needs 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 Adequate and needs improvement 2 A report on Morriston Comprehensive School February 2020 Recommendations R1 Improve teaching and assessment R2 Strengthen provision for the progressive development of pupils’ skills R3 Embed strategies to improve pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to learning R4 Strengthen the quality and impact of leadership at all levels R5 Improve pupils’ standards and progress in lessons What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will review the school’s progress.