ERW – the school improvement service for South and West Wales - has been recognised for the good work which is being done in the region in a report published today by Estyn.

In its report, Estyn - the inspectorate for education and training in Wales – states that support for school improvement; leadership, partnership working and resource management are all classed as ‘Good’.

The report states that ERW’s framework for supporting schools to improve sets out clearly how it works with schools to help them improve and this is understood by the schools.

ERW works with six local authorities – Powys, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea covering over 500 schools.

Inspectors said the six local authorities have established a strong identity and “as a consequence of this joint working, there has been improved support and challenge to schools within the region, with more consistent collection and analysis of data and better evaluation of provision and leadership in schools”.

ERW’s lead director, Aled Evans, said: “We are very encouraged that Estyn has acknowledged the positive impact ERW is having on pupil outcomes in the region and that ERW uses its knowledge of good practice well to broker a significant amount of school-to-school support often resulting in schools making good progress.

“We are also pleased that Estyn has judged the leadership of the regional school improvement service to be good and that ERW is an effective alliance of six local authorities. There is no doubt that this year’s excellent GCSE outcomes across the region already demonstrate our commitment to build on this constructive report and maintain ERW’s momentum.”

The report supports the improving performance on outcomes, stating: “In 2015, at Key Stage 4, the proportion of pupils achieving the level 2 threshold including a GCSE grade A*-C in English and Welsh first language and mathematics is the highest across the four regional consortia.”

In its report Estyn found that the region has additional work to do with planning for improvement.

Since the inspection however, the region’s continued progress and the improvement in improving outcomes for learners demonstrates that strategies are successful but nevertheless can always be improved.

This year, unverified data for Key Stage 4 indicate a marked improvement on last year’s figure, once again continuing with the upward trend in recent years with 64.1% of pupils attaining 5A*- C GCSEs including Welsh/English and Maths.

ERW managing director, Betsan O’Connor, said: “As a region this improved picture as presented by Estyn reflects the views of headteachers of ERW and our own self evaluation.

“We know that we can further improve the support we give schools, however, we are very content that this approach reflects the consistently high performance of pupils and the hard work of teachers across the region.”

Lead leader for ERW, Cllr Alun Thomas added: “We are proud that across the six local authorities in ERW our collaboration and co-operation has lead to not only the best outcomes for pupils yet again, but also recognition from Estyn for the dedication from staff in schools and those supporting schools.”

ERW’s inspection took place for two weeks in June. It was the last of the four education consortia to be inspected by Estyn.