Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen, Gwynedd

Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is a Welsh-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 822 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

15% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 15% have additional learning needs (19% in 2020/21); and 3% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 54 pupils (Year 13) to 151 (Year 9).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £7,185 per pupil, against £5,181 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £495k.

Estyn's report on its April 2024 inspection summarises Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen like this:

"Pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen are welcoming and warm, engage enthusiastically with visitors and are proud members of their local community. Many behave well in lessons and around the school and are respectful of others. Most say that they are not bullied and many say that they feel safe at school. Pupils’ attendance has improved this year but continues to be a cause for concern, particularly for vulnerable pupils and those who are eligible for free school meals. In a majority of lessons, pupils make at least suitable progress. In these lessons, teachers plan useful activities and provide an appropriate level of challenge. However, in a minority of lessons, pupils do not make enough progress due to shortcomings in teaching. In these cases, planning is not secure enough and the level of challenge is not suitable. The curriculum is broad and balanced and there is a clear vision for Curriculum for Wales."

"Provision to provide experiences and opportunities for pupils is a clear strength. Pupils benefit from a myriad of cultural, social, creative and sporting opportunities. They also benefit from useful provision for making decisions about the next stages in their lives. Provision to develop pupils’ literacy and digital skills is developing well. Provision for their numeracy skills is beginning to develop but interventions for pupils with weak basic numeracy skills are limited. Staff demonstrate obvious care for pupils and focus on supporting their well-being. Although there are strengths in provision for supporting pupils’ well-being, oversight of this area is not sufficiently robust. In particular, provision to support pupils with additional learning needs has not been developed sufficiently, particularly in terms of tracking their progress. In addition, the whole-school overview of provision for well- being is not sufficiently incisive to be able to identify areas for improvement specifically enough."

"As a result, support for a few pupils is not effective enough and the work of leaders does not have enough of an impact on improving aspects such as attendance. Leaders are successful in promoting a strong sense of Welshness and a feeling of belonging to the local area, together with providing rich experiences for pupils. They also respond firmly to a number of national priorities. The senior management team works conscientiously, but there is too much of an overlap in terms of their responsibilities and it is not always clear who has strategic responsibility for particular areas. Although there is a suitable system for self-evaluation activities, leaders do not always triangulate findings from these activities or analyse evidence from these processes well enough. As a result, they do not identify the exact aspects that need to be addressed and implementation of actions is not effective enough to ensure improvement. Governors are very supportive of the school and work diligently to fulfil their role, but the information they receive does not always enable them to challenge the school fully. The school shares information about its arrangements appropriately, but parents and staff do not always feel that the communication is adequate."

Estyn made 5 recommendations: (1) Improve provision for pupils with additional learning needs and vulnerable pupils, along with strategic overview of that provision; (2) Improve self-evaluation and planning for improvement; (3) Strengthen strategic leadership to cover all of the school’s key work; (4) Improve pupils’ attendance, including that of groups of pupils, and the strategic work to do so; (5) Improve the quality of teaching and assessment.

The nearest tram or metro stop is Caernarfon (Welsh Highland Rly-Caernarfon), about 1080 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).

23 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Ysgol Sir Hugh Owen (outside), 50 metres away.