FOLLOWING a damning report, a school near Newtown has been placed in special measures by school inspectorate, Estyn.

Brynllywarch Hall Special School at Kerry teaches pupils from the age of eight to 19 who have social, emotional behavioural difficulties and additional learning needs.

The school was inspected in January and inspectors judged the “care, support and guidance” and “leadership and management” inspection areas of the school to be “unsatisfactory and need urgent improvement”.

The report by Estyn indicates that truancy is a problem at the school and that procedures to deal with this are “not effective in tackling the persistent absence of a few pupils”.

The report goes on to say: “The headteacher provides strong day-to-day operational leadership,

“However, the strategic role of the leadership team in improving pupils’ standards, the quality of teaching and the provision for pupil well being is under developed,” said the report.

Powys County Council’s education department will work with the school to try to improve its performance.

Cllr Myfanwy Alexander, Cabinet Member for Education, believed that the report provided a “clear blueprint for the improvements” and was “confident that the team there will be able to make these necessary changes”.

Cllr Kath Roberts-Jones, chair of governors, said: “Providing the children with the best possible educational experiences is a key aim of the school and the governors will support the school in every way possible to achieve this.”