Perthcelyn Community Primary School, Mountain Ash

Perthcelyn Community 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 120 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

45% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 23% have additional learning needs.

Year groups range from 10 pupils (Year 4) to 21 (Year 6).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £8,339 per pupil, against £5,897 in 2021-22. It carried forward £25k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its January 2026 inspection summarises Perthcelyn Community Primary School like this:

"Perthcelyn Community Primary has a strong nurturing culture that promotes pupils’ well- being and sense of belonging well. Staff foster positive relationships with pupils and the school’s inclusive ethos help nearly all pupils to feel safe, happy and valued. Pupils are polite, courteous and develop good social skills. Teachers provide pupils with an appropriate range of activities to support them to develop their skills. Most pupils develop good speaking and listening skills and enjoy reading, with many showing a genuine love of books. Many pupils, including those in the local authority specialist classes (LASC), make suitable progress as they move through the school."

"Where teaching is strongest, staff plan learning carefully to meet pupils’ individual needs and provide meaningful contexts for learning. However, the quality and effectiveness of teaching are inconsistent. Teachers do not build learning consistently from pupils’ starting points or provide sufficient challenge, particularly for more able pupils. As a result, pupils have too few opportunities to work independently and do not always make the progress of which they are capable, especially in writing and mathematics. Leaders, governors and staff work well together and are committed to improving the school. Self-evaluation informs improvement priorities suitably."

"Leaders have introduced clearer routines and improved systems that support the smooth and safe running of the school day. The school has implemented useful attendance procedures which are having a positive impact overall, though persistent absenteeism rates remain too high. Leaders have worked with staff to improve the curriculum. This has helped staff gain confidence and begin to improve their understanding of curriculum design. Overall, there are appropriate processes in place to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and curriculum provision. However, actions taken to improve their quality are not always timely or precise enough and the role of the wider leadership team in contributing to this work is at an early stage of development."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Strengthen the wider leadership capacity at the school and sharpen improvement processes to address inconsistencies in the quality of teaching; (2) Improve the quality of teaching and the curriculum to ensure that pupils are challenged appropriately and develop as confident, independent learners; (3) Decrease the rate of persistent absenteeism.

The nearest other state primary schools to Perthcelyn Community Primary School are Penrhiwceibr Primary (0.2 miles), Pengeulan Primary School (0.6 miles), Miskin Primary School (0.8 miles) and Ynysboeth Community Primary (0.9 miles).

The nearest railway station is Penrhiwceiber Rail Station, about 520 metres away (roughly a 6-minute walk).

6 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Infants School (outside), 70 metres away.