The Maelor School is an English-medium 11-18 mixed comprehensive school. The school is situated in the village of Penley to the south east of Wrexham and serves a wide geographical area which includes both rural and urban areas. Currently, there are 809 pupils on roll, including 146 in the sixth form. These figures are slightly higher than the numbers of pupils when the school was last inspected in 2014. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is 5%, which is lower than the national average of 16.4% for secondary schools. The school has about 12.4% of pupils on the special educational needs register, which is lower than the Wales average of 22.9% for secondary schools. The percentage of pupils with a statement of special educational needs is 0.6%, compared with the average of 2.2% for the whole of Wales. The school has a local authority special needs resource base for pupils with autism spectrum disorder and also those with dyslexia, with 12 pupils currently attending this resource as well as mainstream education at the school. Around 1% of pupils have English as an additional language. Most pupils come from a white British background. Only a very few pupils speak Welsh as their first language. The current headteacher was appointed in September 2011. The senior leadership team consists of the headteacher, one deputy headteacher and an acting deputy headteacher, three assistant headteachers, an associate headteacher and a business manager. The school is currently a curriculum pioneer school and is working with the Welsh Government and other schools to take forward developments relating to curriculum reform. 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 The Maelor School February 2019 Summary The Maelor School’s inclusive and supportive ethos has a beneficial impact on pupils’ wellbeing and personal development. Most pupils are well behaved and are courteous and respectful towards their peers, staff and visitors. Many pupils have good attitudes to learning and engage well in the wide range of extra-curricular activities offered by the school. Most teachers have purposeful and respectful working relationships with pupils, and teaching in many lessons is effective in ensuring that many pupils make suitable progress in their knowledge, understanding and skills. However, many teachers’ questioning does not probe pupils’ understanding or challenge them to develop their verbal skills well enough, and in a minority of lessons, learning activities do not always challenge pupils sufficiently to achieve their full potential. The headteacher provides assured and reflective leadership, and together with the senior leadership team, he fosters a supportive and caring ethos that creates an orderly and purposeful learning environment. Leaders have been successful in securing improvements in many aspects of the school’s work, such as improving behaviour, the quality of written feedback and the provision for Welsh. However, leadership at all levels has not had enough impact on improving the quality and consistency of teaching and in raising standards. Inspection area Judgement Standards Adequate and needs improvement Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Good Teaching and learning experiences Adequate and needs improvement Care, support and guidance Good Leadership and management Adequate and needs improvement 2 A report on The Maelor School February 2019 Recommendations R1 Improve standards, particularly at key stage 4 R2 Improve the quality of teaching R3 Improve leadership at all levels, including the rigour and effectiveness of quality improvement processes R4 Address the health and safety concerns raised during the inspection 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 3 A report on The Maelor School February 2019 Main findings Standards: Adequate and needs improvement In many cases, many pupils make suitable progress in their knowledge, understanding and skills. They recall prior learning appropriately and a majority can apply this to new situations. In a few particularly effective lessons, most pupils make strong progress, for example when developing their reasoning skills in relation to measures of average for data represented in tables. However, a minority of pupils do not make enough progress in lessons, and over the last two years the school’s performance at key stage 4 has been below that of similar schools in the majority of indicators. Many pupils listen with attention and respect to their teachers and peers. A majority of pupils speak clearly and make suitable contributions to small group or whole class discussions. A few offer well developed extended answers and explain their reasoning in detail, for example when discussing whether gender was an issue in recruiting people to join voyages of exploration in the fifteenth century. However, a minority of pupils are reluctant to offer their opinions during whole class discussions or when working in small groups. A minority of pupils are confident to speak Welsh in Welsh lessons and show good pronunciation, such as when discussing their views on sports and pastimes. Many pupils have sound basic reading skills. They locate facts and extract key information from a range of texts. For example, in science, Year 9 pupils skim and scan articles in order to identify the dangers of passive smoking. A majority of pupils have a clear understanding of persuasive techniques and use inference and deduction well, for example to enhance their understanding of characters in literary texts such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Martyn Pig’. A majority of pupils produce writing that is thoughtful, technically secure, and structured suitably, such as when writing about the development of gargoyles in art lessons. Many pupils write for a suitable range of purposes including literary essays on prose and poetry and opinionative pieces on challenging topics such as euthanasia, organ transplants and gun-crime. However, a minority of pupils make frequent, basic errors in their writing. They do not take enough responsibility for proof-reading their work before they hand it to the teacher. In Welsh, a majority of pupils write extended pieces that are suitably structured and include a wide range of vocabulary. They have a good understanding of tense and write well in the first, second and third person. Many pupils have a firm grasp of the main number skills. They apply these skills well when solving problems which are set in everyday life. For example, in mathematics, pupils solve problems that involve calculating household bills. Many have an appropriate understanding of measurement, such as when completing practical work in physics such as determining the density of different materials. These pupils draw graphs accurately and analyse data from various sources suitably to reach sensible conclusions.