Featherstone Purston St Thomas Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 March 2024

The values of hope, love, respect and kindness are central to school life. Pupils welcome visitors to their school. Adults care about every pupil. There is a strong commitment to supporting pupils' emotional needs. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. The school's ambition for every pupil to do well is not realised. This is reflected in the poor outcomes that pupils achieve at the end of key stage 2. In some subjects, pupils do not acquire the knowledge and skills that they need to achieve well over time. Pupils know when and how to report any concerns that they have. Behaviour in lessons and in the school building is usually calm. This is not the case consistently when pupils are outside at playtime and lunchtime. Some pupils say that they do not feel safe at these times. Pupils learn about healthy relationships and online safety. They understand racism and homophobia. However, this knowledge is not applied in school life consistently well. The actions and language used by some pupils is unkind towards others. Pupils benefit from a range of extra-curricular clubs. They also take on positions of responsibility, including school councillors and reading ambassadors. Pupils understand their role and value the leadership skills that they are developing.

What the school should improve

• The activities and resources that teachers plan are not matched consistently to the knowledge that the school wants pupils to learn. This means that some pupils have gaps in their learning. The school should ensure that staff are given the Controlled Junior School 3 training and support that they need to select the resources and activities that will help pupils build their knowledge over time in each subject.
• Systems to check what pupils know and remember are not embedded in all subjects. This means that the school does not have a comprehensive understanding of how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum in the wider-curriculum subjects. The school should ensure that staff use effective systems to check what pupils know, remember and can do.
• The school's new approach to reading is not fully embedded. Beyond phonics, the school has not identified the most important knowledge that it wants pupils to learn by the end of each year group. This means that some pupils have gaps in their reading knowledge. The school should develop a clearly sequenced approach to teaching reading, beyond phonics, to ensure that all pupils learn to read confidently, fluently and accurately.
• The school does not have consistently high expectations of pupils' behaviour, during the more unstructured times of the school day. This means that some pupils do not feel safe consistently when they are playing outside. The school should ensure that all staff are trained to follow the agreed behaviour policy consistently so that behaviour improves further and all pupils feel safe.
• The procedures for analysing and monitoring attendance are not rigorous enough. This means that too many pupils do not attend school often enough and miss out on important learning. The school should review its systems for monitoring and responding to attendance concerns, ensuring there is a systematic approach to resolving attendance issues and making sure that pupils catch up on missed learning.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)