A headteacher has been hailed as a “fantastic leader” for the way she is driving up standards at the school.
Ann Webb says she is determined to ensure all the pupils at Ysgol John Bright in Llandudno have the “best possible life chances” whatever they choose to do after leaving.
Mrs Webb, who was appointed in 2016, was speaking after an extremely positive meeting with inspectors from Estyn and representatives from the education consortium, Gwe, and the local education authority.
It came in the wake of an inspection earlier this year which concluded the school needed “significant improvement”.
According to the chair of governors, solicitor Carla Forfar, the inspectors’ report was based on out-of-date information and the three inspectors had spent only a “very small amount” of time observing lessons.
The improvements being introduced by the head, she said, were being implemented and bearing fruit long before they visited in January.
Mrs Forfar said: “It comes as no surprise that at her previous school in Cheshire, Ann’s leadership as the headteacher was described as outstanding by inspectors from Ofsted, England’s equivalent of Estyn.
“She is a fantastic headteacher and she has laid firm foundations to continue with the huge improvements taking place at Ysgol John Bright and our school’s internal tracking data clearly show significant and verifiable improvements.
“Rather than going for superficial quick fix, she has implemented root and branch changes that are leading to long-term, sustainable improvement.
“She has widened the leadership team and is developing managers within the school, while a number of staff have been given the opportunity to go on an outstanding teacher programme.”
Mrs Webb said: “We have strengthened teaching and learning by investing in highly qualified, well trained teachers.
“We have also made sure we have stronger behaviour teams in school so the conditions and climate are right for young people in the classroom.
“We now have 10 people in the well-being and behaviour team, with each year group having a dedicated behaviour and wellbeing manager who is a member of the support staff and is there to support the young people throughout the school day and is very accessible to parents.
“We also have another member of staff who tracks the learning of the students in each year group and proactively informs parents if there are any concerns about learning.
“We also have two further behaviour and safeguarding leads for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 and an Assistant Head who is in charge of behaviour and wellbeing.
“This has never been about just looking at year 11 and what’s going on at the top end of the school. This is about looking at long term sustainable improvements.
“As a result, I think the school is where I would have anticipated it would be after the three years I’ve been in the school and I want to see the exam results continue to improve.
“I’m ambitious that young people get the best life chances they can to enable them to progress.
“We had an incredibly positive meeting with Gwe, the local consortium and Estyn, all together, looking at plans that we have going forward to continue this improvement journey.
“We have very robust strategies in place and the local authority are going to be working with us in monitoring those very closely over the next 12 months.
“I’m incredibly optimistic about the future of Ysgol John Bright.”
