Penarlag C.P. School, Flintshire

Penarlag 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 159 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

19% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 9% have additional learning needs (6% in 2020/21); 7% are learning English as an additional language; and 13% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 10 pupils (Year 2) to 29 (Year 6).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,218 per pupil, against £3,745 in 2021-22. It carried forward £51k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

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

"Pupils who attend Penarlag Primary school receive a high level of care, support and respect. Pupils are proud of their school and speak highly of the experiences they have. Across the school, pupils are friendly, welcoming, and behave well. They have good manners, are polite and inquisitive and enjoy learning new things. They develop valuable relationships with their peers and staff, which have a positive impact on their learning and well-being. Most pupils begin school with skills that are appropriate for their age."

"As they move through the school, most pupils make strong progress in their learning and do so with confidence and enjoyment. Pupils with additional learning needs benefit from valuable support, and as result they also make good progress by the time they leave the school. Staff make skilful use of the learning spaces both within and outside of their classrooms to develop pupils’ independence and to provide them with opportunities to carry out interesting practical activities. The headteacher and governors work together well to ensure that pupils are safe and happy in school. Generally, leaders identify what the school is doing well and what it needs to do to improve. They take suitable steps to make the improvements needed."

"However, the school has not yet developed a curriculum that enables pupils to make constructive links between their own lives and their learning. Staff have not been given enough opportunities to undertake professional learning to support curriculum development and are not empowered to lead the necessary improvements themselves. During their time at Penarlag, most pupils gain good Welsh, digital, literacy and mathematical skills and they learn to use these well in a range of contexts. The school has a clear Welsh identity. Throughout the school, staff model the Welsh language passionately and it has a high profile in many aspects of the school’s work. The Criw Cymraeg pupil group plays an integral part in the school’s Welsh language provision and a good range of other groups enable pupils to positively influence the life of the school."

Estyn made 2 recommendations: (1) Strengthen distributed leadership to develop a coherent and progressive approach to curriculum and assessment; (2) Ensure that professional learning is strategically planned to meet the needs of the school’s immediate improvement priorities.

From the headteacher's welcome: "We are a primary school situated just outside the village of Ewloe and we have approximately two hundred and twenty pupils from Nursery to Year 6. We have one class per year group. Our staff our experienced and dedicated to the school and work hard to ensure pupils enjoy learning and do their best."

The school runs after-school care.

The nearest other state primary schools to Penarlag C.P. School are Ewloe Green C.P. School (0.6 miles), St Ethelwold's Primary School (0.7 miles), Hawarden Village Voluntary Aided C.I.W. Primary (1 mile) and Queens Ferry C.P. School (1.1 miles).

The nearest railway station is Hawarden Rail Station, about 1070 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).

5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Crown and Liver (before), 320 metres away.