Tebay Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 June 2025

Pupils are proud to attend Tebay, a school that sits at the heart of its rural community. Staff care deeply for pupils and relationships are positive. Despite this, pupils receive a mixed quality of education. There is no doubt that the school has high expectations of pupils' achievement. By the end of Year 6, most pupils are prepared for the next stage of their education. However, this is not consistent throughout the school. Some pupils do not learn as well as they should. Typically, pupils are polite and behave well. They are happy and enjoy school. Staff encourage pupils to develop the three values of the school: 'respect, responsibility and resilience'. This helps pupils to be kind to one another and try their best in class. The school provides pupils with a range of wider opportunities. Pupils enjoy learning new skills by attending clubs, such as film, cooking and music. In gardening club, pupils grow and sell their own vegetables. Explorer club is especially popular. Pupils relish the opportunity to build dens, make campfires and toast marshmallows at the end of a busy school day.

What the school should improve

• The phonics programme is not consistently well matched to the needs of pupils. This is because some staff lack the expertise needed to adapt activities appropriately. As a result, some pupils struggle to become competent readers by the end of Year 2. The school should ensure that staff are equipped to deliver the phonics programme as intended and to promote a love of reading across the school.
• The mathematics curriculum is not implemented well enough. This is because some staff have not identified or addressed the gaps in learning that some pupils have. As a result, some pupils do not have a secure foundation on which to learn new mathematical knowledge and skills. The school should ensure that staff are supported to implement the mathematics curriculum effectively so that pupils' learning is secure.
• Sometimes, in the wider curriculum, staff do not ensure that connections are made to concepts that pupils already know. This means that some pupils find it difficult to build new knowledge and remember it over time. The school should ensure that staff are supported to develop their pedagogical knowledge, so that they can better consider how to support pupils' long-term retention of learning.

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