St Thomas' Church of England Primary School Stockport

Inspection of St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School Stockport Marriott Street, Stockport, Cheshire SK1 3PJ

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Inspection dates: 19 and 20 September 2023

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 19 and 20 September 2023

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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.

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What is it like to attend this school?

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.

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What is it like to attend this school?

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 adults, 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.

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What is it like to attend this school?

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.

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What is it like to attend this school?

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.

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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.

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better?

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.

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better?

In some subjects, including in the early years, teachers use the school’s assessment systems appropriately. In these subjects, teachers typically identify the knowledge 19 and 20 September 2023

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that pupils have retained from the school’s curriculum. They use assessment information to think carefully about the next steps in pupils’ learning.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 19 and 20 September 2023

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

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(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

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

read. The school should ensure that pupils read books that are well matched to the sounds that they have learned.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any 19 and 20 September 2023

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point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 19 and 20 September 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 17 and 18 September 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this school

 Leaders do not make any use of alternative provision.  A new headteacher has joined the school since the previous inspection.  Some new governors have been appointed since the previous inspection, including the chair of governors.  This Church of England school is part of the Diocese of Chester. The last section 48 inspection took place in March 2020. The next section 48 inspection is likely to take place before 2026.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision. 19 and 20 September 2023

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, they met with subject leaders, visited lessons, talked to pupils and looked at pupils’ work. They also examined pupils’ learning in other curriculum subjects.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other senior leaders. They met with the leaders for attendance and behaviour.  The lead inspector met with a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body. He also spoke with a representative of the local authority, and he spoke with a representative of the Diocese of Chester.  The lead inspector observed some pupils in Years 1 to 3 reading to a familiar

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adult.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at lunchtimes and as pupils moved around the school building. They scrutinised leaders’ records of pupils’ behaviour.  Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at the school. They spoke with staff about their workload and well-being.  Inspectors spoke with a group of parents while pupils were arriving to school.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses. There were no responses to Ofsted’s staff or pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Stuart Perkins, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Alex Farrow Ofsted Inspector 19 and 20 September 2023

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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