An acting head teacher has been brought in to run Pen-y-Cwm special school in Ebbw Vale after its senior leadership took "temporary absence" following concerns over staff safety.
Blaenau Gwent council local education authority (LEA), which runs the school, said interim arrangements have been put in place to support the school. Mr Dash from The River Centre 3-16 Learning Community will undertake the role of acting head teacher during this period.
Leadership absence and interim arrangements
A spokesman for Blaenau Gwent Council said: "We can confirm that due to temporary absence within the senior leadership interim arrangements have been put in place to support the school. These arrangements will continue until those staff return to school."
A person connected to the school, who did not want to be identified, said the leadership absences have added to worry about safety among staff and pupils. They said bringing in the head of The River, also a special school, would also add to concerns for that school. The River, with a primary campus in Tredegar and a secondary campus also in Ebbw Vale, was in Estyn's highest monitoring category, special measures, until earlier this year.
Staff attacks and safety concerns
Earlier this month serious concerns were raised about safety at the school. A member of staff said three members of staff were attacked by pupils and two needed hospital treatment.
One member of staff, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their job, claimed violence and aggression are a daily occurrence at the school, which takes pupils aged three to 19. The member of staff said the incident, on the school's post-16 site, resulted in a number of staff being injured, including one who was bitten, and that two needed hospital treatment. A pupil was excluded, they said.
They described "longstanding safeguarding concerns" at Pen-y-Cwm and said "staff are at breaking point". The member of staff said: "There are violent and aggressive instances every day on both sites. This has been going on for years. Pupils are increasingly needy and the site is not appropriate."
Council and union response
After the attacks on staff were reported, Blaenau Gwent council said it had supported staff following the incident. Staff union Unison also said it was working with the local authority and the school to address what it described as "concerns about staff safety".
Asked about the incident, and whether it could confirm the injuries and concerns raised by the member of staff, the council said in a statement at the time that it was aware of the incident. "Pen-y-Cwm is a school for children and young people with additional and complex needs. It can often be a challenging environment and our staff do an exceptional job supporting pupils and their families," the statement said.
"The safety and wellbeing of staff is a priority, risk assessments are in place, and we take any incidents at our schools extremely seriously. All reported incidents of violence and aggression in schools are reviewed and appropriate interventions put in place where required. We are aware of an incident last week and have been supporting the staff involved. We have worked with the school to establish the full circumstances of the incident and are reassured that measures have been put in place as a result."
The council added that it has a violence and aggression working group which works to identify any support or training required by schools, and that work is ongoing to raise awareness of reporting procedures and reinforce the importance of reporting all incidents consistently and promptly.
School context and monitoring
The school, which had 167 pupils at the time of its last Estyn report in 2024, takes children and teenagers with speech, communication, and language difficulties and/or a learning difficulty. A majority of pupils with a learning difficulty have a severe learning difficulty and around a fifth have a moderate learning difficulty, the inspectorate said.
A follow-up visit by Estyn in July this year found that since the core inspection in 2025 Pen-y-Cwm "has made worthwhile progress in strengthening leadership, governance, and improvement planning". The letter to the school after that visit, published by Estyn, added: "Leaders demonstrate a clear understanding of the school's context and the challenges associated with a growing population of pupils with increasingly complex needs. Despite significant ongoing pressures relating to accommodation, capacity and finance, leaders maintain a strong focus on improving outcomes and provision for pupils."
The River Centre 3-16 Learning Community takes children with special needs and was removed from Estyn's highest level of monitoring earlier this year. Estyn said at the time that health and safety issues at The River had been addressed.
There is ongoing concern about high levels of violence and abuse towards teachers in schools across Wales, and elsewhere, with problems getting worse in recent years. Unions and staff have blamed a number of factors including children and teenagers with more complex needs as well as a lack of both funding and staff. The lingering effects of the Covid pandemic, social media, and the cost of living have also been blamed for bringing social and emotional problems into schools.
