St Thomas Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

St Thomas Community Primary School is warm and welcoming.

The senior leadership team, staff and governors share a clear vision and work well together to ensure that the school is an inclusive learning community that promotes positive opportunities for pupils. The headteacher is a strong role model and provides effective and purposeful leadership. They are highly committed to the well-being of their pupils and the wider community.

They work alongside the leadership team to carefully consider ways to combat disadvantage and to provide outstanding support for pupils and for families in the local community. The headteacher effectively leads a team of dedicated staff who work hard to ensure that the needs of pupils are met. As ...a result, pupils demonstrate a strong readiness to learn and a desire to achieve the best they can.

Pupils enjoy coming to school and are proud to be a part of such a reassuring learning community. They feel safe and listened to, and nearly all show a positive attitude towards their learning. They develop high levels of respect for the staff that take care of them and trust that they will always act in their best interests.

They behave well and engage positively with the varied range of learning experiences and opportunities that the school provides. Many pupils make good progress and achieve well across all curriculum areas. Provision for pupils with additional needs is well planned.

The school involves parents, staff and outside agencies to ensure that planning for individual needs is effective. Many pupils with additional needs make good progress in their learning and improving their well-being. Teachers plan literacy, numeracy and other skills through well-established routines and structured sessions to support pupils to make progress.

However, these sessions can sometimes be over-directed and a greater emphasis on the provision for purposeful independent learning and more meaningful teacher feedback would further challenge pupils of all abilities. Overall, leaders keep the work of the school under review appropriately. They evaluate lessons and the pupils' learning in books.

However, self-evaluation does not always identify areas that need improving, for instance on the way teachers support pupils to improve their work or how their planning might improve pupils' numeracy skills. Recommendations R1 Sharpen self-evaluation to focus more clearly on improving teaching and pupils' learning R2 Ensure that feedback and assessment support pupils to make meaningful improvements to their work R3 Refine the provision for independent learning across the school to challenge pupils suitably What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the inspection. Estyn will invite the school to prepare a case study on its work in relation to building a culture of well-being within the whole school community.