Staff at an Aberystwyth secondary school are celebrating a turnaround in fortunes after inspectors removed it from monitoring.

Last year, Ysgol Penglais headteacher Mair Hughes – who took over in September 2017 – admitted to the Cambrian News that turning the fortunes of the school around “will take some time” after inspectors found that “insufficient progress” had been made against a slew of recommendations in a 2014 report which left the school in constant yearly monitoring amid concerns over the performance in key subjects for boys, the quality of teaching, and low standards.

But now the hard work of Ms Hughes and staff has paid off after Estyn said it was “removing the school from the list of schools requiring significant improvement”, thanks to the progress made in the past 12 months.

Inspectors visited the school in March, and chair of governors Richard John said he was “delighted” with the outcome.

The report found that “since the core inspection, and particularly since the appointment of the new headteacher, the school has worked well to address shortcomings in teaching and the impact on pupils’ standards”.

Inspectors found that “performance in key stage 4 has improved in the majority of indicators”, while “the school has introduced a range of beneficial strategies that have led to considerable improvements in the attendance of all groups of pupils”.

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