St Thomas Moorside CofE (VA) Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are well cared for and are happy at school.

They learn how to be healthy in mind and body. For example, many pupils take part in a wide range of sporting activities outside of the school day. Pupils are entrusted with a range of leadership roles.

They relish these opportunities. Pupils who help to look after Tia, the school's therapy dog, carry out this role with gentle respect. They know that Tia plays a part in helping them to stay mentally well.

Pupils understand how they are expected to behave. Reception-age children act as positive role models to children in the Nursery Year. They learn cooperatively alongside one another.

Across the scho...ol, pupils do their best to treat others in the same way that they would like to be treated. They value earning rewards for their positive behaviour. For example, pupils wear their 'always' badges with genuine pride to show that they uphold the school's golden promises consistently well.

The school has high expectations for pupils' academic achievement. It has made positive changes to many subject curriculums, including mathematics. Pupils typically achieve well across a broad range of subjects.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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

The school's 2023 published data shows that a significant proportion of pupils did not meet the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. In response to this data, the school has acted decisively to improve its early reading curriculum.

It has introduced a new phonics programme and made sure that staff are trained to deliver this programme well. Children in the Reception class now build their phonics knowledge securely. Pupils in key stage 1 also learn the sounds that letters represent in a more consistent way than they did previously.

However, weaknesses in earlier phonics teaching mean that some pupils have gaps in their reading knowledge. This means that, despite effective support from staff, these pupils struggle to read with fluency and accuracy. On occasion, this hinders how well they access the wider curriculum.

In most other subjects, the school has improved and refined its curriculum over a period of time. It has designed a suitably broad and ambitious curriculum. In doing so, the school has carefully considered staff's workload and well-being, for example by trialling and evaluating the impact of new initiatives before rolling them out to all classes.

The school has set out clearly the knowledge that pupils should learn, and the order in which this should happen. This allows pupils to build their knowledge seamlessly from the early years to Year 6 in most subjects. In the main, teachers carefully introduce, check and revisit the knowledge that pupils should know and remember.

Pupils typically achieve well as a result. However, in one or two subjects, improvements to curriculum design are more recent. Pupils have had less time to develop and connect their learning in these subjects.

Consequently, their knowledge is not as secure.

Teachers benefit from high-quality training to deliver most subject curriculums effectively. However, the school has not developed the expertise of some staff who teach and support children's learning in the early years sufficiently well.

This means that there is an unevenness in some children's development. This is because some staff are not clear about how to build children's knowledge from the Nursery Year to the Reception Year.

Staff throughout the school identify pupils who may have SEND accurately.

This starts in the early years, where children's needs are quickly identified. Staff are skilled at giving pupils with SEND the support that they need so that they can access the same curriculum as their classmates.

The school provides impressive support for pupils' wider development, including their well-being.

For example, many pupils start the school day at the breakfast club. This club brings members of the school community together and ensures that pupils arrive on time and are ready to learn.

Pupils benefit from a wide range of experiences, including valuable opportunities to work with pupils from other schools.

They learn how to keep safe when they are online. Pupils are well prepared for the changes that will happen to them as they grow up.

Children in the early years listen carefully to adults and follow instructions closely.

Older pupils consolidate this positive start and behave well.

The governing body's ambition for all pupils to succeed is palpable. Governors provide insightful challenge and support, to ensure that the school keeps improving.

For example, governors make sure that the school takes reasonable steps to improve the attendance of the small number of pupils who do not attend school regularly. These pupils' rates of attendance are improving as a result.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Weaknesses in the delivery of the previous phonics programme mean that some pupils have gaps in their reading knowledge. This hinders how fluently and accurately these pupils read and how well some older pupils keep pace with the other subjects that they study. The school should ensure that, where there are gaps in pupils' reading knowledge, these are quickly remedied so that pupils read with fluency and accuracy.

In one or two subjects, the curriculums have been recently refined. Pupils have had less time to secure the essential knowledge that they need to build new learning on. The school should ensure that newly revised curriculums are implemented fully so that pupils further strengthen their knowledge in these subjects.

• The school has not ensured that some staff in the early years have the expertise to build on what children already know and can do. This means that some children are not as well prepared for their next steps as they could be. The school should ensure that staff are provided with suitable guidance so that they can build children's knowledge across the early years equally well.