Dear Parents/ Guardians
Since the “requires improvement” judgement by Estyn in the inspection of October 2014, Prestatyn High has been working hard to improve the school in 7 key areas/recommendations. These 7 key recommendations were:
- R1 – Raise standards in KS4 outcomes including English and Maths (L2+)
- R2 – To improve the accuracy and presentation of pupils’ writing
- R3 – To improve attendance rates and reduced persistent absenteeism
- R4 – To improve the behaviour of pupils
- R5 – To improve the quality and consistency of teaching and assessment
- R6 – To improve the accountability and consistency of leadership at all levels
- R7 – To improve self-evaluation and improvement planning
The school has worked tirelessly on improving these recommendations and we have made significant progress in all areas. Estyn have now judged the school to have made good progress, recognising all this hard work and the fantastic results the school, staff and most importantly our year 11s achieved last summer.
We are extremely pleased and proud that 53% of our cohort of 240 pupils achieved 5 high grade passes (grade C or above) including English language and maths. This bucked the national trend with many Welsh schools seeing a significant reduction. This outcome places PHS in the top 50% of school’s nationally. Pupils achieving A*-C in English language have risen by 20% to 69% which is unprecedented and is a real sign that the changes we are making are having a significant impact on improving the life chances of our young people.
Results in the 6th Form have also seen a significant improvement which has allowed more students than ever to not only access University, but access their first choice University. We are delighted that 70% of all A-levels taken at our 6th Form were graded at a C or above in 2017.
Improving attendance is still of major importance for the school and we have set ourselves a challenging target of 97% for all pupils. We are going to vigorously work through our attendance procedures to make sure we continue to make further progress in this area. We would like to achieve our new target within the next two years, but we will only achieve this with the help and support of all parents in all year groups.
This judgement by Estyn is a great endorsement of what the school is doing well and we will now have the time to make sure the school achieves its full potential, becoming the outstanding school the community, parents and most importantly the pupils and students of Prestatyn deserve.
Download the letter – Estyn ltr to parents v2