St Thomas' Church of England Primary School Stockport

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 19 September 2023

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 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. 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 the school should improve

• 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.

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