Staff at Gilwern Primary School were delighted to see a positive result from their Estyn report, published earlier this week, with the school attaining an overall mark of 'good' from the inspecting body.

Headteacher, Mr Roger Guy said, "We are delighted with the results of the Estyn report, and are glad to see such positive remarks about our school."

The report comments on the good literacy levels of the children at the school, with almost all reading at a level expected for their age, the successes of the pupils number skills and their use of mental strategies, as well as pupils having effective ICT skills.

The report also comments on the equal standards of teaching towards those with additional learning needs to all other students, highlighting their capabilities for appealing to all levels of education and all learning needs.

The teaching was also highly commended, with the report stating, "All staff have good working relationships with pupils. Teachers plan interesting lessons that have appropriate pace and engage pupils in their learning successfully."

The only aspect of the school which reached a standard below good was under the heading of 'learning experiences', due to the fact that the school do not teach Welsh consistently for enough time each week to enable pupils to make sufficient progress and that there are too few opportunities for pupils to use their Welsh language skills outside of Welsh lessons.

The headteacher took these comments on board, and said that the school would now be working hard to improve these provisions for students, and increase their standards in the Welsh language.

Mr Guy said, "We are aware that our standards of the Welsh language do not stand up nationally to those in area like Carmarthen, but take Estyn's comments on board, and we will work hard to increase this.

"Overall we are delighted with the report, and feel it really shows how much we have progressed as a school, and we will continue to work to the highest standard in all of these areas."

To see the full Estyn report for Gilwern School, and other schools across the country, visit estyn.gov.uk