Pembrokeshire County Councillors have backed a call for long-term building improvements or a new school build at Greenhill School in Tenby.

Emergency works at Ysgol Greenhill commenced in May this year, with a contract of more than £0.5m awarded for urgent repairs after more than 700 building defects were found, to the concern of parents and carers.

A survey report by Trident identified cracks in concrete slabs, beams, columns and soffits, failed repairs, failed coatings, honeycombing to concrete, damaged panels and cracked brickwork. “Sizeable debris has been witnessed falling from the structure, endangering pedestrians and potentially damaging vehicles and surrounding infrastructure.”

At the September Schools & Learning Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, members were asked to scrutinise a July visit undertaken by the Schools Scrutiny Panel to Greenhill School, Tenby.

The condition of the school building was noted by both teachers and pupils during the panel visit, a report for members said, with it being recognised that building work was being carried out during the scrutiny visit.

The school has approximately 900 pupils and Head Teacher David Haynes has been in post since 2021 when the school was in special measures.

The report praised Mr Haynes’ “strong leadership” adding: “Cluster and partnership working has been a focus of the school since 2021; one of the recommendations from Estyn following their 2024 inspection was to improve Welsh Language teaching so work was ongoing with Narberth CP School to improve this.

“Pupils expressed that they would like the Welsh language to be more integrated in their lessons as it was not often spoken outside of Welsh Language classes.”

The report added: “It was noted that the Cluster had set two priorities focusing on improving attendance and reading.”

It said attendance was an ongoing issue following the Covid pandemic; the Senior Leadership Team working with the school cluster to improve this, and the relationship with the cluster has been strengthened and the school was working to improve reading standards of incoming Year 7s, and reading standards in general.

In the report, the panel said more work is needed with Welsh language education, but concluded: “The Panel was impressed by the significant improvements made by the school in the last two years since and praised the head teacher for the work he had carried out since his appointment in 2021.”

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Haynes pointed out the school was taken out of special measures in 2022, rather than a 2024 figure quoted in the report before thanking the council for the support around the repairs which had “a minimal impact of the running of the school”.

Members backed the recommendations before them that the director of education facilitates partnerships beyond the current cluster and provide resources for bilingual signage and Welsh language enrichment activities, school development advisors advocate for earlier reading assessments in primary schools and support transition programs focused on literacy, and for the council to prioritise funding and strategic planning for long-term building improvements or a new school build.