ESTYN bosses have acknowledged they plan to conduct a “monitoring visit” at a school set to be merged with another secondary next year.

The schools’ inspectorate said it would be at Llantarnam Secondary, which was put in “special measures” two years ago, next month.

Llantarnam School and Fairwater High are to be amalgamated to form a new secondary at the Fairwater site next September.

Estyn defended its decision to conduct the visit and stressed it was not a “full inspection”.

An Estyn spokeswoman said on Friday [October 24]: “Llantarnam School was inspected in autumn 2012.

“In accordance with the Education Act 2005, the school was judged to require special measures.

“Since then, each term, Estyn has monitored the school to assess progress against each of the recommendations from the 2012 inspection.

“The school has recently been notified that Estyn will carry out this term’s monitoring visit during the week beginning November 24.

“This is not a full inspection. Even though a school may be closing or being amalgamated, the staff of that school will be being re-deployed elsewhere and so any improvement to that school will not only maintain improvements for the pupils who will be educated there until amalgamation but should continue to benefit staff in the schools that they move to next.”

Estyn put Llantarnam School in special measures in autumn 2012 after finding that its performance and prospects for improvement were “unsatisfactory”.

The inspectorate found that GCSE pupils’ performance was lower than similar schools, pupil behaviour was poor and senior management roles were not defined.

The new merged school, provisionally called Cwmbran High, will open at the site of Fairwater school in September 2015.

It will be headed by the current Fairwater School headteacher Helen Coulson.

A Torfaen council spokeswoman said: "Estyn decide when schools are inspected and all schools, including those due to close are subject to the inspection process. The visit in November is a monitoring visit and is part of this process.”

The announcement of the plans to close Llantarnam School led to protests by hundreds of parents, residents and children earlier this year.