St Johns the Baptist V.A. Primary School, Flintshire

St Johns the Baptist V.A. 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 108 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

Of its pupils, 8% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 12 pupils (Year 6) to 16 (Reception).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,743 per pupil, against £4,774 in 2021-22. It carried forward £8k of reserves at the end of 2024-25.

Estyn's report on its June 2025 inspection summarises St Johns the Baptist V.A. Primary School like this:

"Leaders and staff work diligently to create a school that is warm, welcoming, and supportive. This creates an environment where pupils grow as responsible individuals who impact positively on the school and the wider community. Teachers develop highly positive working relationships with pupils, and pupils are happy and value the respect and care shown by staff and their peers. Most pupils approach their learning enthusiastically. They work well in groups and respond positively to opportunities to take on leadership roles. In many cases, teachers use strategies, such as effective questioning, to encourage pupils to think more deeply and to make suitable progress in learning. Support for pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) is tailored carefully to help individuals make positive progress towards their personal targets."

"However, in general, teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough and lessons often lack challenge. This limits the progress that pupils make. The school’s curriculum combines Areas of Learning and Experiences (AoLEs) suitably, but the school is still developing its approach to ensure that learning experiences support pupils to build on their knowledge and understanding appropriately. Pupils share their ideas confidently, using a broad vocabulary and many develop their reading skills well. They write enthusiastically and plan their work carefully but do not develop the same level of fluency and sophistication in writing as they do in speaking. Many pupils make sufficient progress in developing their mathematical knowledge, but opportunities for younger pupils to lead their own learning are too infrequent. Leaders monitor the work of the school regularly."

"This helps them to identify suitably areas in need of improvement. However, leaders’ evaluations of teaching are not robust enough, such as in identifying where teachers have low expectations and do not challenge pupils well enough. School leaders and governors work together effectively to oversee the running of the school. Leaders use relevant information to shape improvement priorities, creating positive change in key areas like Welsh language development and cultural understanding. While staff engage well with improvement strategies, these strategies sometimes lack clarity, reducing their effectiveness in improving teaching and learning."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Strengthen self-evaluation processes and use the findings to provide support and appropriate challenge, to improve the quality of teaching and learning; (2) Increase teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve and ensure that learning activities challenge pupils more consistently and effectively; (3) Strengthen the curriculum so that it provides pupils with authentic and progressive learning experiences across all areas of learning.

The nearest other state primary schools to St Johns the Baptist V.A. Primary School are Ysgol Penyffordd (0.4 miles), Drury C.P. School (0.9 miles), Mountain Lane C.P. School (1.5 miles) and Westwood Community Primary School (1.8 miles).

The nearest railway station is Buckley Rail Station, about 940 metres away (roughly a 12-minute walk).

8 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Cross Farm (near), 50 metres away.