Last year this small school was congratulated by inspectors for a dramatic turnaround in its achievements

The school: St Cuthbert’s is a small school in Cardiff Bay. It currently has 131 pupils, the majority of whom are of black African, Asian or mixed-race heritage, with 24 different languages spoken in the playground. A higher than average number of pupils are eligible for free school meals, available to pupils from poorer backgrounds.

Challenge: The school was thrown into crisis in 2014 when seven governors, including the chairman, resigned over the school’s poor performance. The Welsh inspection board, Estyn, visited the following year and St Cuthbert’s was given notice that it must improve. School leaders were told they lacked a strategic overview, and the new governing body that it had failed to meet its responsibilities. Welsh provision and information and communications technology (ICT) classes were also criticised.

Top marks: In April last year, the school was congratulated by Estyn for achieving a dramatic turnaround in standards and expectations. It had made sufficient progress to be removed from Estyn’s list of schools requiring significant improvement. Both Welsh and ICT provision had improved and increasing numbers of pupils were achieving above the average.