Presteigne C.P. School, Powys

Presteigne 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 174 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

7% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 6% have additional learning needs (15% in 2020/21); and 7% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 20 pupils (Reception) to 33 (Year 5).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £4,888 per pupil, against £4,456 in 2021-22. It carried forward £23k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its June 2025 inspection summarises Presteigne C.P. School like this:

"Presteigne Community Primary school is an inclusive and nurturing environment where all pupils are valued. Most pupils behave well, attend regularly and show high levels of respect for staff and visitors. While relationships between adults and pupils are strong and nearly all pupils feel safe, procedures for reporting safeguarding concerns are not suitably robust. The school has designed a broad and interesting curriculum that supports pupils’ knowledge of their local area, Wales and the wider world. The school has built positive relationships with its community and pupils benefit from an interesting range of visits, visitors and regular opportunities to discuss moral and social issues. This helps to ensure that most pupils participate in lessons with enthusiasm and are eager to learn."

"Whilst the school benefits from an extensive outdoor environment, it is not currently utilised well enough. Pupils generally make suitable progress in developing their speaking, reading and digital skills. However, the quality of teaching is inconsistent and, in around half of lessons, expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low. While staff promote calm learning environments and use a beneficial range of questions during lessons, the level of challenge is variable, and feedback does not support pupils to improve their work. Consequently, they do not always make sufficient progress in their learning and do not develop their writing, mathematical and numeracy skills well enough over time. In younger classes, activities do not reflect the ethos of foundation learning well enough and, across the school, experiences do not always match the full range of pupils’ needs effectively."

"As a result, pupils do not always develop as effective independent learners or have suitable opportunities to develop their leadership skills. Leaders and staff have worked hard to strengthen provision for pupils’ well-being and to promote the Welsh language and culture. As a result, many pupils have positive attitudes to Welsh and are enthusiastic when learning the language. The school’s self-evaluation processes do not provide leaders with a clear enough understanding of weaknesses in teaching and learning. Whilst governors are highly supportive and manage resources well, their role in evaluating the school’s performance is underdeveloped."

Estyn made 4 recommendations: (1) Address the safeguarding concern identified during the inspection; (2) Improve leadership and strengthen the quality of self-evaluation to identify, prioritise and address the areas most in need of improvement; (3) Improve the quality of teaching to ensure that pupils are provided with effective challenge and feedback to help them make stronger progress in their learning; (4) Improve pupils’ writing and mathematical skills.

Estyn follow-up status: Significant Improvement.

Clubs and activities named on the school's website include football, netball, rugby, running, choir, recorder, coding, Lego, gardening and art.

The nearest other state primary schools to Presteigne C.P. School are Kington Primary School (4.8 miles, 62% reading, 62% maths); and Knighton C.I.W. School (5 miles).

There is no railway, tram or Underground station within about three miles of Presteigne C.P. School.

5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Radnorshire Car Park (opposite), 290 metres away.