A BLAENAU Gwent head teacher has vowed his school’s summer exam results will show an improvement after a damning Estyn report deemed standards ‘unsatisfactory’ yesterday.

Abertillery Comprehensive School has 45 days to draw up an action plan after it was placed in the inspectorate’s ‘significant improvement’ category, one belowspecial measures.

The county’s education department was placed in special measures in January 2012 and a joint education officer was appointed for both Blaenau Gwent and Newport councils in February.

Last summer the pass rate for GCSE grades A* to C at Abertillery Comprehensive was 39 per cent, down from 49 per cent the year before.

Head teacher Paul Stock said the inspectors reflected the optimism in the school, which merged with Nantyglo Comprehensive in August 2010 when 150 pupils joined Abertillery.

“We had low results last summer, the worst we have ever had,” said Mr Stock, head teacher at the 732-pupil school for three years.

“But it was the first year of the merger and inspectors recognised that, and changes we have introduced will bear fruits in this summer’s exams.”

The school has already written the report and is currently refining details, he said.

“All the recommendations Estyn made support the school’s development plan, so there were no surprises in what they said,” said Mr Stock.

“Education in Wales has changed dramatically over the last three years and the changes in approaches to education are something we’re beginning to address.

“What was good three years ago is no longer good.”

The school is tackling attendance and has seen a one per cent rise from last year’s result of 89 per cent attendance to 90 per cent last month, which Mr Stock said was “huge” in relative terms.

The Welsh Government is currently undertaking a review into how education is delivered in Wales.

Worries over progress

YESTERDAY’S Estyn report said that in half of lessons, pupils do not make enough progress at the school.

Boys do less well than girls, written work for a majority of pupils is untidy and incomplete, and teaching was repeatedly criticised for not being challenging.

The report said: “Teaching is good or better in around half of lessons.

In a minority of lessons teaching is not as effective. The pace of teaching in these lessons is often too slow and questioning does not sufficiently extend pupils’ understanding.

In a few lessons the level of challenge provided by activities is very low. In almost all of these lessons teachers have not established good working relationships with pupils.

“As a result, there is low level disruption that is not effectively managed and pupils make very little progress.”

However, the school was praised for its Welsh second language provision in Years 7 to 9, with performance deemed to be the best in its family of schools in 2012, and in 2012 no pupil left without qualifications.

Attendance has dropped since 2010 and unauthorised absences have “increased significantly” over the last three years.

Standards and resource management were deemed unsatisfactory.

Care, support and guidance, the learning environment and partnership working were praised as good.

Despite slashing its deficit to a quarter of a million pounds, the school offers “unsatisfactory value for money” and does not provide an act of collective daily worship.

ARGUS COMMENT: Another poor report

IT IS very worrying that yet another Gwent secondary school has received a less than positive school inspection report.

This time, the performance of Abertillery Comprehensive School in Blaenau Gwent, has been described as unsatisfactory.

Unfortunately such a picture seems to be part of a trend.

Blaenau Gwent Borough Council itself is still reeling from the damning audit report into its own performance and potential for improvement.

Meanwhile its education service, alongside Monmouthshire and Torfaen, is already on the critical list having been placed in special measures.

The one glimmer of hope for Abertillery is that Estyn inspectors say there is an adequate prospect for improvement at the school.

And the head teacher Paul Stock is vowing that results will show an improvement as early as this summer.

But we cannot get away from the fact that too many of our schools in this corner of Wales, and the authorities which run them, have been letting down our children.

This is a fundamental failing which needs to be addressed with some urgency by an Assembly which needs to look closely at its own performance.

When compared to so many other countries,Wales just does not come out well and that should worry us all.