Pencoedtre High School, Barry

Pencoedtre High 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 991 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

40% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 17% have additional learning needs (33% in 2020/21); 2% are learning English as an additional language; and 12% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 45 pupils (Year 12) to 203 (Year 11).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £7,076 per pupil, against £4,851 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £301k.

Estyn's report on its November 2022 inspection summarises Pencoedtre High School like this:

"Pencoedtre High School is a caring school where most teachers nurture positive relationships with pupils. The headteacher and senior leadership team managed the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic well. However, there is a lack of clear, strategic direction from senior leaders and too much confusion over roles and responsibilities. Consequently, their work is not having enough impact on improving important aspects of the school’s work. These aspects include attendance and behaviour, the quality of teaching and assessment, the provision for skills, as well as the provision for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) and others in need of additional support. Leaders do not evaluate the impact of their work well enough, particularly in relation to teaching and assessment. As a result, their improvement planning is not sufficiently precise and therefore is not effective enough. Pupil attendance is a significant cause for concern and leaders lack a comprehensive understanding of the issues affecting attendance."

"A majority of pupils are friendly and welcoming and enjoy positive relationships with staff and peers. However, minority of pupils are late to lessons, easily distracted and do not engage constructively in their learning. A few pupils do not behave well enough in lessons and around the school and this is impacting on their own progress and that of others. In a majority of lessons, teachers plan a range of useful activities and provide helpful support that enables pupils to make broadly suitable progress. A few of these lessons are particularly effective and ensure that pupils make secure progress. In a minority of lessons, teachers do not plan well enough and often do not allow pupils to develop and learn independently. These teachers’ expectations are too low and pupils make limited progress in their lessons. The school’s general approach to assessment does not enable teachers or pupils to understand what they are doing well and what they need to improve well enough."

"The school’s broad and balanced curriculum is enhanced by a range of valuable extra-curricular activities and a variety of academic and vocational options. However, there are insufficient opportunities for pupils to develop and apply their skills across the curriculum. For example, across all subjects, pupils produce relatively little written work. Leaders and staff have a clear aspiration to support pupils’ well-being. The school works well with external agencies and offers a wide range of provision to address pupils’ needs. However, leaders’ quality assurance of this provision is not sufficiently robust and the reasons why pupils are selected for different provisions are not clear enough. The school has started to address the requirements of the Additional Learning Needs Education Tribunal (Wales) Act, but the provision and strategic oversight of this area of work is underdeveloped and only a few pupils have individual."

Estyn made 6 recommendations: (1) Improve strategic leadership and accountability at all levels, including the school’s approach to self-evaluation and improvement planning; (2) Improve the provision and strategic approach to supporting pupils’ attendance and behaviour; (3) Improve the quality of teaching and assessment; (4) Improve the strategic leadership and quality of the provision for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN), and the general oversight of the range of provisions offered to all pupils in need of additional support; (5) Improve the provision to develop the standards of pupils’ skills; (6) Address the issue regarding site security at the front entrance of the school.

Estyn follow-up status: Special Measures.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Pencoedtre High School are Whitmore High School (1.1 miles), St Richard Gwyn R.C. High School (1.1 miles), Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Morgannwg (1.1 miles) and Mary Immaculate R.C. High School (2.8 miles).

The nearest railway station is Cadoxton Rail Station, about 1.2 miles away in a straight line.

2 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Merthyr Dyfan Road (before), 270 metres away.