Thythorn Field Community Primary School

Inspection of Thythorn Field Community Primary School Bideford Close, Wigston, Leicestershire LE18 2QU

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Inspection dates: 29 and 30 October 2024

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 29 and 30 October 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Thythorn Field Community Primary School is a caring school where everyone is included in all that it has to offer. The school has high expectations of pupils to achieve well. These expectations are realised. Positive and friendly working relationships between pupils and adults are at the heart of everything. Pupils love coming to school and taking part in ‘enjoyable’ activities. For example, pupils said, ‘We get to do fun things like art projects and putting on ukelele shows for our parents and carers.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils know and live out the school’s high expectations for behaviour, and to be ‘ready, respectful, safe’. Pupils treat each other with courtesy and respect. This means that lunch and social times are calm and purposeful. Many pupils attend the ‘everyone’s welcome’ lunchtime club and a wide range of after school clubs.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The vast majority of pupils show high levels of engagement in lessons. Pupils are interested in their learning and want to do their very best. Some pupils struggle to manage their own emotions. The school’s emotional literacy support team provide these pupils with highly effective support so that they can return to their learning calmly.

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

Children get off to an ambitious start in the Reception Year. Children enjoy following their own interests and learning through play. Relationships between adults and children are warm and nurturing. The early years curriculum provides children with the knowledge and skills they need to access future learning. Adults support children to develop their early language and communication skills. Adults model new vocabulary and encourage children to use these new words in conversation. Children make strong progress and achieve well. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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

The school prioritises the teaching of early reading. The phonics programme is highly effective and published outcomes for phonics are above the national average. Pupils learn to identify sounds, blending them to decode and read new words. Pupils’ reading books are carefully matched to the level of phonics knowledge they have. Practising reading these sounds at both school and home helps pupils to develop their confidence and reading fluency. The school has chosen a range of high-quality whole-class texts for each year group. These include texts specifically chosen to promote equality. The reading curriculum which follows on from the phonics does not clearly identify what pupils should learn and when. This means that the school cannot check how much of the reading curriculum pupils know and remember.

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

The school’s wider curriculum is ambitious. Subject thinking identifies the important knowledge and skills that pupils should be taught in each year group. There is some inconsistency across classes in how well the curriculum is implemented. This limits what pupils know and remember. Staff check for gaps in pupils’ knowledge. They use a variety of ways to check what pupils remember over time. They use this information to build in opportunities to recap prior learning and address misconceptions. Pupils enjoy completing ‘flashback 4’ in mathematics and ‘quick quizzes’ in history. Pupils say this helps to refresh 29 and 30 October 2024

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their memory of what they have previously learned. Nevertheless, there is still some variation in the depth of what pupils know and remember across the different subjects.

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The school’s approach to identifying pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and the tailored support which follows are both effective. The school proactively engages with a range of external professionals to seek support and guidance. Pupils with SEND receive appropriate support and achieve well.

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The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development is a strength. Pupils are taught to be respectful and develop a secure understanding of equality. Pupils talk about the British value of tolerance as, ‘the need to respect difference such as someone’s race or religious beliefs’. Pupils are proud of the leadership opportunities they can hold such as being a ‘well-being ambassador’. These opportunities help pupils to develop their leadership skills and understand the importance of contributing to the community.

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The school is well led and managed. The school recognises its areas for development. The school carefully considers staff’s well-being and workload in all of its decision making. The vast majority of staff are highly motivated and proud to work at the school. Those with responsibility for governance are actively involved in the life of the school and provide leaders with the appropriate level of support and challenge.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The reading curriculum which follows on from phonics does not explicitly identify what pupils should know and remember. This means that what is taught in reading lessons is currently reliant on teachers’ individual skillsets. Pupils’ progress is therefore difficult for the school to track. The school should ensure that the reading curriculum builds pupils’ knowledge and skills progressively over time.  There is some inconsistency in the impact that subject monitoring has across the wider curriculum. Some subject leaders are less experienced than others. Some monitoring activities do not lead to necessary and timely action being taken. As a result, the quality of teaching and expectation across the wider curriculum is variable. The school should ensure that all subject leaders have the necessary skills needed to ensure that all subject monitoring activity has a purposeful impact on the quality of teaching and

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

expectation in all of the wider curriculum subjects. 29 and 30 October 2024

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How can I feed back my views?

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 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). 29 and 30 October 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Timothy James Ragan

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 11 and 12 October 2022, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 There have been some changes in governance since the last inspection.  The school currently uses one registered alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 29 and 30 October 2024

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 The inspection team carried out deep dives in reading, mathematics, history and art and design. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with leaders, visited lessons, spoke with teachers and pupils and reviewed samples of pupils’ work.  The inspection team carried out a wider curriculum review of science, geography and modern foreign languages. Inspectors reviewed samples of pupils’ work and reviewed curriculum thinking.  The lead inspector listened to some pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors met with leaders responsible for behaviour, personal development, the early years, and the provision for pupils with SEND.  The lead inspector met with members of the governing body and spoke with the local authority education effectiveness partner.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to

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which the school has created an open and positive culture of safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plan.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View and staff and pupil surveys.

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Inspection team

Luella Dhoore, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Lisa Atkins Ofsted Inspector 29 and 30 October 2024

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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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