Councillor confident school placed under Estyn special measures can turn things around

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter 

A senior councillor expects that a primary school, put into Estyn special measures, will be able to make a quick turnaround.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Children, Young People and Families scrutiny committee on Tuesday, November 3, councillors received a report on the council’s improving schools programme covering March to September.

Councillors were told that Rhos-y-Fedwen Primary School in Ebbw Vale had been put into special measures following an inspection by Estyn in June.

It is the only one of Blaenau Gwent’s 25 schools that is in an Estyn follow-up category.

Head of school improvement, Eurig Towns, said: “Rhos-y-Fedwen is receiving intensive support to address those areas that have been highlighted not only by Estyn but by the local authority.

“The school has been in a team around the school since 2024.”

This means that the school has been given extra support due to issues around behaviour, school attendance, and emotional health and wellbeing.

Mr Towns continued: “In 2026, myself and Jo Sims (chief education officer), during a team around the school meeting, were concerned with the progress being made and we had a meeting with the chair of governors to share those concerns with him.

“That took place before Estyn visited the school.

“We agree with Estyn’s position and the school does need to make significant improvements in its teaching, learning and leadership to ensure all the pupils there receive a quality education.”

Right support

Committee chairman Cllr Wayne Hodgins (Independent – Brynmawr) said: “I don’t think this is insurmountable, this can be turned around relatively quickly with the right support.”

Cllr Haydn Trollope (Labour – Tredegar) brought up an issue with the school governors at Rhos-y-Fedwen.

Cllr Trollope said: “We’re struggling to get LEA (Local Education Authority) governors on that school.

“I think it’s a duty of all councillors to do their best to become a governor, to improve the school they need a full body of governors.

“It’s a bad show if we can’t recruit LEA governors.”

Governor resignation 

Mr Towns explained that there had been a governor resignation following the publication of the report in August and the council was working with the school to identify a replacement.

Mr Towns said: “What the local authority did as well was to insert an additional governor with significant experience of running governing bodies onto the governing body.

“We can see there is a need for that and tried to address it.”

Cllr John Hill (Independent – Brynmawr) said: “It’s good to see this.”

Councillors voted to approve the report.

Estyn had given four recommendations for the school to address, which are:

• Address the safeguarding concerns identified during the inspection.
• Improve the strategic leadership of teaching by using evaluation processes and professional learning more effectively to address shortcomings.
• Ensure that all pupils receive the right level of support and challenge in their learning
• Ensure the progressive development of pupils’ reading, writing and mathematical skills.
• The school needs to produce an action plan which shows how it is going to address the recommendation.

Estyn will monitor the school’s progress usually every four to six months.