A SECONDARY school has been placed into special measures after a regulator found all aspects of its inspection to require urgent improvement.

An Estyn report following an inspection of Ysgol Bryn Alyn in Gwersyllt in December has concluded that special measures are needed in order to make improvements at the school.

In all five inspection areas - standards, wellbeing and attitudes to learning, teaching and learning experiences, care, support and guidance and leadership and management - were found to be unsatisfactory and in need of urgent improvement.

In summary, the report explains: "Ysgol Bryn Alyn has a supportive and caring ethos. Most pupils feel safe at school and many understand how to live healthy lifestyles.

"The majority of pupils are polite and courteous. However, around half of pupils show little interest in lessons and the behaviour in lessons of a minority disrupts their learning and that of other pupils.

"Many pupils enter the school with weak literacy and numeracy skills and a majority do not improve those skills well enough. Pupils’ performance at the end of key stage four is poor and generally pupils make much less progress from previous key stages than expected.

"Teaching is not effective and overall staff expectations of what pupils can do are too low. Furthermore, assessment does not improve pupils’ learning sufficiently.

"Since taking over her present role, the acting headteacher has developed a clear vision for the school. However, over a period of time senior and middle leadership have not been successful in improving the most important areas of the school’s work, such as raising standards, pupils’ behaviour and the quality of teaching."

The report sets out five recommendations for the school.

These include: Improve standards at key stage four and the progress that pupils make including the development of their skills, improve pupils’ attendance and behaviour, improve the quality of teaching and assessment so that pupils engage fully with their learning, strengthen leadership at all levels including the rigour and accuracy of self-evaluation and the precision of improvement planning as well as to provide robust financial management to eliminate the deficit budget.

Explaining the next part of the process the Estyn report adds: "In accordance with the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion, that special measures are required in relation to this school.

"The school will draw up an action plan which shows how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will monitor the school’s progress on a termly basis."

Describing the wellbeing and attitudes to learning findings, the report adds: "The majority of pupils are polite and courteous. However, the behaviour in lessons of a minority of pupils is disruptive and has a negative impact on their learning and that of other pupils.

"In the last year, the number of recorded behaviour incidents has escalated and is high. The number of permanent exclusions is high as is the number of fixed-term exclusions.

"These increased significantly in the last year. Around half of pupils show little interest in lessons. They lack ambition and enthusiasm for their learning and do not engage well in activities.

"These pupils are over-reliant on teachers, have very limited independent learning skills and lack resilience in their work."

Regarding the leadership and management at the school, the report adds: "The responsibilities of the senior leadership team have been revised recently, but are not distributed effectively. The acting headteacher has too many diverse responsibilities including line managing too many subject areas.

"This leaves too little time to concentrate on strategic issues. It is not clear within the leadership structure, who is responsible for ensuring the consistent application of policies. This has contributed to underperforming staff not being dealt with effectively."

Cllr Phil Wynn, lead member for education, said: "The inspection outcome for Ysgol Bryn Alyn is disappointing for the school community and the council.  Working in partnership with the school and GWE, our regional improvement service, the Education Department will provide support to the school to ensure a rapid improvement to the quality of education provided to the pupils."

Acting headteacher Alison Kipping, said: " Having just taken over responsibility for the school we welcome the opportunity to work with our staff, pupils and parents to improve out outcomes to become the school we can all be proud of. There are areas that we must improve and I am pleased that the pupils and staff have made a positive start on implementing the necessary strategies."