Gelli Primary School, Pentre

Gelli 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 196 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

17% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 3% have additional learning needs (6% in 2020/21); and 5% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 19 pupils (Year 1) to 33 (Year 5).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,016 per pupil, against £3,533 in 2021-22. It carried forward £30k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its October 2023 inspection summarises Gelli Primary School like this:

"Gelli Primary School is a nurturing place for pupils, staff and visitors. All pupils and their families receive a warm welcome. Pupils enjoy coming to school and are proud to be a part of such a reassuring learning environment. Teachers and support staff are always there to help when needed. The headteacher, teachers and support staff take extremely good care of the pupils and want them to thrive in learning and in life. The headteacher provides strong and compassionate leadership and knows the school well. She is ably supported by the deputy headteachers and all staff. Staff and senior leaders trust each other to form an effective, successful team."

"The team work purposefully alongside the governing body to secure improvements for the school. Together, they understand school strengths and areas for development and plan appropriate strategic actions to secure improvement. Pupils know that staff expect them to behave well and respect everyone in the school and the community. Nearly all pupils behave well and participate enthusiastically in opportunities to improve aspects of the school. Staff offer pupils a variety of school experiences, all of which help to keep pupils interested and make learning exciting. As a result, most pupils, including those with additional learning needs, engage well in their learning, make good progress and achieve well. The engagement of pupils in their learning, and their excellent behaviour, are notable strengths of the school. However, in a few instances teachers do not monitor pupils’ progress and address any uncertainties of what to do quickly enough."

"The school’s curriculum takes account of pupils’ interests. Teachers and support staff are skilful and support pupils to develop a range of skills across the curriculum well. However, provision to develop pupils’ writing is less well developed. The school places strong emphasis on supporting the well-being of all. Leaders and staff adopt a beneficial community focused approach, providing a range of support for individual pupils and their families. Provision for pupils with ALN is comprehensive and leaders ensure that provision is suitably adapted to meet pupils’ needs. There is a strong culture of safeguarding."

Estyn made 2 recommendations: (1) Share the effective practice that exists within the school to improve the consistency of provision overall; (2) Improve the provision for pupils to write at length and improve the quality of their writing.

The nearest other state primary schools to Gelli Primary School are Ysgol G.G. Bronllwyn (0.4 miles), Bodringallt Primary School (0.4 miles), Ton Infants School (0.4 miles) and Ysgol G.G. Bodringallt (0.5 miles).

The nearest railway station is Ystrad Rhondda Rail Station, about 670 metres away (roughly a 8-minute walk).

9 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Glandwr Hotel (outside), 140 metres away.