����ý

A team of education experts has been expanded to help two troubled Powys secondary schools on their “journey to improvement”.

Brecon and Gwernyfed high schools received further Estyn reports in 2022, which saw them placed in special measures.

Director of education Lynette Lovell told councillors there is work to do "and that’s why we’ve extended the secondary school improvement team".

Both schools will need to draw up an action plan to show how they will address several recommendations made by inspection body Estyn.

The county's draft council budget will see an extra £4.5m given directly to schools with a further £1.1m for the education department.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the work on improving secondary schools used to be provided by a consortium called Education through Regional Working (ERW), of which Powys was a member. But that group is now defunct.

The secondary school improvement team will save on a contribution of £50,000 for the next two years to ERW, members of the Powys learning and skills scrutiny committee have been told.

A further £50,000 would also have otherwise gone to consultants.

Ms Lovell said: “We measure our success on Estyn inspections, and we have a strong primary sector.

“We have work to do with our secondary schools and that’s why we’ve extended the secondary school improvement team. We recognise there’s work to do in terms of standards and budgets.”

Head of education Georgie Bevan said: “I’m really confident in the team we’ve got to provide that bespoke support that individual secondary schools need on that improvement journey for them.”

Late last year both schools were the subject of follow-up Estyn reports.

Inspectors judged that they had made “insufficient progress in relation to the recommendations following the most recent core inspection”.