St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School Stockport

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend St Thomas' Church of England Primary School.

From the start, in early years, children foster warm, friendly relationships with the adults in school. They know that adults will support them if they have any worries or concerns. Pupils feel safe in this small school community.

Pupils have a wide range of enrichment opportunities outside of lessons, which they enjoy. This includes attending a variety of clubs, including chess, gardening or taking part in debates at the local town hall.

Pupils respond well to the rules and routines set out by the school.

They behave well. They are polite and courteous to fellow classmates and a...dults, as well as visitors. Overall, in lessons, pupils focus well on their learning.

They listen carefully to the teacher. The school is a calm environment for pupils.

Expectations for pupils' achievements are increasingly high.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Current pupils are achieving better than previously in some subject areas. This is because the school has established a more well-thought-out curriculum.

At present, however, there are still some pupils who do not achieve what they should in some other areas of the curriculum. These pupils have gaps in their knowledge, which are sometimes not identified closely enough by teachers to ensure that they are successfully addressed. This affects how well pupils learn in these subjects.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

From the early years to Year 6, there is an increasingly ambitious curriculum for pupils. The school has successfully ensured that reading is a priority within the curriculum. Staff ensure that high-quality texts link well to the different curriculum topics that pupils study.

The school also ensures that staff have thought carefully about what knowledge pupils will learn in different year groups and in different subjects. Nevertheless, there is still some way to go to ensure that pupils achieve consistently well across all subjects.

Teachers are receiving regular, ongoing training to improve their curriculum knowledge and skills.

In many lessons, teachers use their subject knowledge to explain new learning with increasing success. In some instances, teachers also choose activities that appropriately support pupils' learning. However, at other times, the activities that teachers choose limit pupils' ability to clearly demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of topics and concepts.

In some subjects, including in the early years, teachers use the school's assessment systems appropriately. In these subjects, teachers typically identify the knowledge that pupils have retained from the school's curriculum. They use assessment information to think carefully about the next steps in pupils' learning.

In other subjects, however, teachers do not use assessment information precisely enough. This means that, sometimes, pupils do not have the prior knowledge that they need when they encounter new content. Pupils do not have secure enough foundations on which to build new learning.

As a result, some pupils continue to have gaps in their subject knowledge.

Leaders' approach to teaching reading has changed for the better. In the main, this is having a positive impact on improving current pupils' achievement.

In the Nursery class, children successfully learn different rhymes, songs and poems, which exposes them to a wide variety of words. They also begin to learn some initial sounds, which helps pupils to make a positive start to learning phonics in the Reception Year.

Despite these emerging strengths in reading, some pupils have gaps in their reading knowledge.

Some teachers do not use assessment information in relation to pupils' reading knowledge consistently well. This hinders some pupils from catching up as quickly as they should. Furthermore, pupils sometimes read books that contain sounds they do not confidently know.

Staff identify and assess pupils with SEND effectively. Pupils with SEND are achieving more highly than they have done previously. They, too, are benefiting from leaders' ongoing improvements to the curriculum.

The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour, and staff manage pupils' behaviour consistently well. In the early years, children learn how to share equipment with each other and they work cooperatively. At social times, pupils play well together.

They enjoy the different sports that they can play at lunchtime, such as football.

The school caters for pupils' personal development well. Pupils learn about different religions and faiths.

They often visit the nearby church for different religious services. They learn about how to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy. For example, pupils learn different mindfulness techniques.

The school engages well with parents and carers. Parents said that the school supports them with relevant information about what their child is learning. They are positive about how well pupils behave.

Governors, leaders and staff form a cohesive team, which wants the best for pupils. Staff report with positivity that leaders support their workload and well-being. This is because leaders take account of the pressures on staff's time when deciding on new initiatives.

Governors and leaders recognise that pupils' achievement is not as high as it should be. Their actions are beginning to bring about change and improve outcomes for pupils. However, the full impact of these actions cannot be seen in enough subjects across the curriculum.

There are still some key areas that require further improvement to ensure that pupils achieve all that they should.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, staff design activities that do not allow pupils to successfully learn and retain new subject content.

This contributes to pupils' underachievement in some subjects. The school should ensure that teachers are well equipped to design learning activities that support pupils to learn and remember the intended curriculum. ? The school does not ensure that teachers use assessment information, including in phonics, consistently well.

This means that, in some subjects, teachers do not identify with sufficient precision where pupils have gaps in their subject knowledge. As a result, pupils underachieve. The school should ensure that teachers are well equipped to use assessment information to identify and address the gaps in pupils' knowledge.

• The school does not ensure that pupils read books that are consistently well matched to the sounds that they know. This hinders how well pupils learn to read. The school should ensure that pupils read books that are well matched to the sounds that they have learned.