The quality of teaching and assessment in schools across Wales is not good enough and a lack of teachers in key subjects also hampers progress, the chief inspector of education has warned. In just under a half of schools and pupil referral units there are shortcomings in teaching that directly impact learners’, Owen Evans says in a report out today (WEDS FEB 12).

The head of Estyn’s annual report warns of “notable gaps” in how schools develop children’s crucial literacy, numeracy, and digital skills. Failure to recruit teachers in the key subjects of maths, science and Welsh language is affecting children’s education too.

“In schools, the provision for developing basic numeracy and literacy skills has strengthened, with learners making good initial progress. However, learners do not always make enough progress in the latter years of the primary phase and beginning of the secondary phase to ensure that they develop more advanced literacy and numeracy skills,” the chief inspector said as the report was launched, adding: “It’s worth remembering that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests for higher level numeracy and literacy skills is an area in which Wales has under-performed.” You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

For secondaries, the report says that, “in the very few schools with consistently high-quality teaching, thoughtful planning led to excellent pupil progress”. Around a third of primary schools inspected received a recommendation to address inconsistencies in the quality of teaching.

On other key issues the work to improve stubbornly low attendance since the pandemic is also too slow, Mr Evans’ report makes clear. At the current rate of improvement it will take 10 years to recover attendance at secondaries to pre-pandemic levels, he estimates.

Meanwhile implementation of the cornerstone of Welsh education reforms, the Curriculum for Wales, has progressed but “many schools still do not align curriculum development with effective teaching and assessment strategies well enough”. The inspectorate also found “substantial variation” in how well schools had developed their curriculum while curricular transition “remains an issue” as children move from primary to secondary.

In some cases, schools’ planning for progression is “underdeveloped and teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low”. Schools self evaluation, another key reform, is also not good enough.

Giving more details on tackling absence, which the Welsh Government has said is a priority, the chief inspector warns “schools and local authorities do not have the capacity to cope with the substantial increase in persistent absence”. He highlights the wide variations of success between local authority areas and schools in getting children to classes with older secondary age children and those eligible for free school meals least likely to attend.

The report shows the national attendance rate in secondaries fell by 6.3% points between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023. This equates to each pupil, on average, attending school for 12 days less in 2022-2023 than they did in 2018-2019. For primary-age pupils, attendance fell by 3.2% points over the same period.

“Attendance remains substantially below pre-pandemic levels. It showed slight improvement, increasing from 88.5% to 89.0% during 2023-2024. But pupils still, on average, lost more than one day per fortnight of school,” the report adds.

Mr Evans describes corresponding ”substantial increases” in home-educated children in Wales as a “concern”. In the 2023-24 academic year 13 in every 1,000 pupils were in elective home education with the rate increasing every year since 2009-10 when it was 1.6 in every 1,000.

On a more cheerful note, early years provision has continued to perform well and the majority of primary and secondary schools demonstrate a strong focus on pupils' well-being, care, support and guidance. Mr Evans says this had “led to positive pupil attitudes to learning”.

He notes that school leaders continue to raise “challenges” that hamper progress such as finance, pupil behaviour and the availability of support services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) or pupil referral services.

The report shows that at August, 2024, seven of Wales’ 176 secondary schools were in special measures, the highest level of Estyn monitoring, four were listed as needing significant improvement and nine were under Estyn review. For Wales’ 29 all-age schools in the same period one was in special measures, none were in need of significant improvement and three were in Estyn review, while for the 1,216 primary schools, 17 were in special measures, 10 were in need of significant improvement and 31 were under Estyn review.

Publishing the findings the inspectorate, which carries out more than 400 inspections each year, described it as “a mixed picture for Wales’s education and training provision” . While there was “much to celebrate” only “a minority of providers demonstrate strong practice that drives improvement, while others do not evaluate the impact of teaching on learning closely enough”.

It added that: ”The Chief Inspector highlights the need for a clear focus on basic skills across the curriculum. There are notable gaps in how providers plan for the development of learners’ literacy, numeracy, and digital skills currently.”

In other areas the report highlights “commendable efforts” by schools to integrate anti-racism into their ethos and practices, as well as promoting Welsh language and culture.

“We are acutely aware of the pressures and challenges facing education providers currently but self-evaluation in schools and other providers needs to improve to strengthen the system,” Mr Evans said, adding: “We need strong leaders to drive this improvement as the failure to do so is holding back progress for too many learners.”

In response, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Estyn’s report provides an important, independent view on our education system and we will carefully consider the findings. Estyn is clear there are significant strengths to celebrate but there are also challenges.

"We have already begun to tackle areas where we need to see improvement backed by an additional £230.5m in funding over the next two years to help improve education outcomes, improving literacy, numeracy, and attendance”.

On the specific issues of attendance and home education the spokesperson added: "Improving attendance remains a national priority and we have announced £8.8m in funding to support schools with this work over the next two years. Whilst school attendance has increased by 0.5% this year, we are focused on raising levels back to where they were before the pandemic. The work of the National Attendance Taskforce has underpinned our thinking on how to target investment and action.

“Since the pandemic there has been an increase in parents/guardians choosing to home educate their children. Home education should be a positive choice, and we have been working with local authorities to understand the reasons for the increase in parents deciding to home educate.

“Whilst the majority of children are best served by attending school, we recognise the right of parents/guardians to home educate. Where families decide to home educate their children, local authorities have a legal duty to ensure that all children receive a suitable education.”

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