Gladstone Primary School, Barry

Gladstone 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 415 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

31% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 12% have additional learning needs (23% in 2020/21); 4% are learning English as an additional language; and 14% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 42 pupils (Year 2) to 59 (Year 3).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,227 per pupil, against £4,093 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £1,100k.

Estyn's report on its September 2025 inspection summarises Gladstone Primary School like this:

"Gladstone Primary School is a nurturing and inclusive community that recognises the individual needs of pupils and their families well. Leaders ensure that all school improvement activities are backed by appropriate evidence, gained through ongoing enquiry and research. The headteacher and governors engage staff at all levels in the ongoing evaluation of teaching and learning across the school. Staff take part in a range of research activities to help them reflect upon and improve the quality of their teaching. Well-designed learning areas enable pupils of all ages to develop and apply skills through a range of engaging activities. Teachers’ use of the outdoor learning environment across the younger classes is innovative and highly effective."

"In combination, the quality of teaching and the learning experiences provided support most pupils to make good progress in many aspects of their learning whilst at the school. Staff provide high quality support for pupils and their families. Leaders ensure that all staff receive suitable training that is responsive to and closely matched to the needs of all pupils, including those with additional learning needs (ALN) and those from low-income households. Through a wide range of partnerships, leaders and staff build effective teams around pupils and their families, breaking down barriers to learning successfully. Leaders have introduced a new approach to teaching mathematics that is beginning to have a positive impact on the ability of younger pupils to understand and use number. In the older classes, teachers do not consider the individual abilities of their pupils well enough and as a result, many older pupils do not receive the appropriate level of challenge or support during mathematics lessons."

"Most teachers model spoken Welsh appropriately and provide pupils with regular opportunities to rehearse Welsh words and sentence patterns. However, opportunities for pupils to apply this learning in conversation are limited and as a result, most pupils across the school, lack confidence when speaking Welsh. Currently, the school is in a very difficult financial situation. The school is in the process of developing a financial recovery plan to present to the local authority."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Work with the local authority to address the school’s financial challenges; (2) Improve mathematics teaching for older pupils; (3) Improve pupils’ Welsh oracy skills.

The nearest other state primary schools to Gladstone Primary School are Ysgol Sant Curig (0.2 miles), High Street Primary School (0.3 miles), St Helen's Catholic Primary School (0.4 miles) and Holton Primary School (0.5 miles).

The nearest railway station is Barry Docks Rail Station, about 910 metres away (roughly a 11-minute walk).

22 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Butt Lee Court (before), 130 metres away.