Posted on: Wednesday 18 May 2022
A recent inspection conducted by Estyn, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales, on the council's education service during March 2022, provided an overall judgement on the service's current performance.
In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Estyn made the following recommendations:
- Improve outcomes for learners, particularly in secondary schools
- Strengthen performance management
- Strengthen self-evaluation and improvement planning processes and the link between them
- Improve strategic leadership of learning and Additional Learning Needs (ALN)
Estyn will now review progress through a post inspection action plan and continue to monitor the service.
The council's Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Vickers said: ‘We fully accept the report’s findings, and recognise the much needed improvements identified by inspectors. It is good that Estyn also recognise the ongoing investment and strong political leadership, our good work to deliver high quality school buildings and the very strong practice in our youth service and some aspects of ALN, however the pace of change in the areas outlined must increase quickly.
‘The council has already started a post inspection action plan to address the recommendations and we will work with Estyn, the regional consortium and school leaders to improve outcomes for pupils.
'Given recent appointments in the education service and the work already underway to improve performance, I'm confident that with continued political backing we will have significant progress to share when inspectors return to monitor the service's progress.’
Cllr Richard Clark, Torfaen’s Executive Member for Education, said: ‘Clearly there is a lot of urgent improvement needed and although Estyn recognise the progress that has been made, the pace of change, particularly in a number of secondary schools at the time of this inspection has not been quick enough. We must focus on improving our self-evaluation and performance management processes to demonstrably improve outcomes for learners.'
To view the full report visit www.estyn.gov.wales