Leighton C.P. School, Powys

Leighton C.P. 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 38 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

20% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 22% have additional learning needs (19% in 2020/21).

Year groups range from 3 pupils (Year 1) to 8 (Year 4).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £7,434 per pupil, against £4,721 in 2021-22. It carried forward £64k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its June 2023 inspection summarises Leighton C.P. School like this:

"Leighton Community Primary is a welcoming school where pupils and their families are supported and nurtured. Leaders, including governors, have positive working relationships with the whole-school community and place a high priority on developing well-being. However, leaders do not evaluate the school’s work robustly enough and as a result they do not always address important areas in need of improvement. Staff have close working relationships with all pupils."

"They provide an engaging environment for pupils, which includes well-planned indoor and outdoor areas. Teachers plan a broadly suitable curriculum, which includes a range of experiences, including opportunities to enable pupils to develop an understanding of their community and what it means to be Welsh. However, teaching does not always engage all pupils successfully, and teachers do not always plan well enough to improve pupils’ writing, numeracy and digital skills. Most pupils are respectful towards staff and show courtesy to each other."

"Many work hard and have a positive attitude towards learning, although a few do not always listen attentively. The majority of pupils develop their literacy and numeracy skills suitably, but generally the pace of teaching does not challenge all pupils well enough. As a result, pupils’ progress as they move through the fluctuates too much and many do not achieve their full potential. The school’s systems for safeguarding pupils are not robust enough and there are important shortcomings in the school’s culture of safeguarding."

Estyn made 4 recommendations: (1) Address the safeguarding concerns identified during the inspection; (2) Improve leadership and self-evaluation in order to identify and address areas for improvement more accurately and promptly; (3) Improve the pace and challenge of teaching; (4) Improve pupils’ progress within and across year groups, particularly their digital and numeracy skills across the curriculum.

The nearest other state primary schools to Leighton C.P. School are Ysgol Gymraeg y Trallwng (1 mile), Welshpool Church in Wales Primary School (1.2 miles), Buttington Trewern C.P. School (3.3 miles) and Forden C.I.W. School (3.3 miles).

The nearest railway station is Welshpool Rail Station, about 1 mile away in a straight line.

2 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Leighton School (before), 80 metres away.