A north Ceredigion village primary school has scooped an award for its excellent inspection results.

Ysgol Mynach, a 33-pupil school which serves Devil’s Bridge and the surrounding area, was honoured at an awards ceremony hosted by Estyn last week.

The school, when it was inspected in May this year, was held up by inspectors as an example to other small rural schools of successfully integrating mixed age classes with a wide range of ability levels.

Estyn said: “The school created strategies to nurture independent learning and encourage pupils’ confidence.”

The school also developed a ‘Dysgu Dawnus’ scheme in Key Stage 2, which gives pupils opportunities to guide learning each week.

In pairs, pupils plan, prepare and deliver lessons.

“This role-reversal gives pupils the motivation to prepare rigorously in order to explain and convey information effectively to their peers,” Estyn said.

“Dysgu Dawnus has been a great success and is now one of the learning highlights of the week.”

Estyn asked the school to share its good practice across similar schools, and said “a number of primary school teachers within the authority are beginning to emulate Dysgu Dawnus in their own schools”.

Ysgol Mynach was recognised at the awards evening on 11 October as a primary school that achieved ‘excellent’ in the majority of their inspection judgements.

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