Borthyn V.C. Primary School, Denbighshire

Borthyn V.C. Primary School is an English-medium school in Wales. Welsh schools are inspected by Estyn rather than Ofsted, and its latest report is published on Estyn's website.

It had 97 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

26% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 11% have additional learning needs (36% in 2020/21); 11% are learning English as an additional language; and 15% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 7 pupils (Year 2) to 15 (Year 1).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £6,201 per pupil, against £5,407 in 2021-22. It carried forward £19k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its October 2022 inspection summarises Borthyn V.C. Primary School like this:

"Borthyn VC Primary School is a happy, hardworking school where leaders and staff have cultivated strong relationships with the community to support pupils to become aspirational and ambitious learners. As a result, most pupils, including those with additional learning needs, make strong progress across the curriculum. Leaders, staff, and governors have worked together to create a clear vision for the school. Pupils understand the ‘Borthyn BATS’ ethos and use it to support them in their learning. This is evident in the positive attitudes they show when approaching challenge. Nearly all pupils behave well across the school and demonstrate good manners, humour and kindness to each other and adults."

"Staff work diligently to listen to pupils and use their ideas to improve the school. Most pupils take part in a class ‘Senedd' and many have regular opportunities to influence what and how they learn. Teachers know their pupils well, and during lessons, give useful support, guidance and feedback to help them improve their work. They plan carefully for pupils’ learning and have clear expectations for the progress they want their pupils to make. In a minority of instances, pupils do not have enough opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills in maths and the overuse of worksheets sometimes restricts their creative thinking. Staff are working well together to develop and refine their approaches to the Curriculum for Wales."

"They place the four purposes at the heart of their curriculum planning and developing their approaches to effective teaching. Leaders ensure that nearly all staff collaborate well to influence the school’s priorities for improvement and have relevant opportunities to improve their practice through engaging professional learning. A particular strength of the school is the strong relationships with parents and the wider community. Parents feel well-supported by staff and are encouraged to be involved in the work that their children are doing. As a result, there is a shared commitment across the school community to support its children to be curious and excited by learning, to treat others well and endeavour to do the best that they can."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Reduce the over reliance on worksheets to provide pupils with better opportunities to present and redraft their work; (2) Improve pupils’ problem-solving skills in mathematics; (3) Refine and embed approaches to teaching and assessment that are having the most impact on pupils’ learning and share this good practice across the school.

The nearest other state primary schools to Borthyn V.C. Primary School are Ysgol Pen Barras (0.6 miles), Rhos Street C.P. School (0.6 miles), Ysgol Reoledig Llanbedr (1.8 miles) and Ysgol Reoledig Llanfair D.C. (2 miles).

There is no railway, tram or Underground station within about three miles of Borthyn V.C. Primary School.

13 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Borthyn School (outside), 30 metres away.