Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form
Laundry Lane, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, NR7 0XSOpen in maps (opens in a new tab)
Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form is a secondary school in Norwich for ages 11 to 18. It is one of the 453 schools in Norfolk. It ranks 9th of 22 secondary schools in Norwich. Its latest Ofsted inspection, in April 2025, graded each key judgement and gave no overall Ofsted rating.
Ofsted inspection
Inspected 29 April 2025, report published 15 June 2025
This inspection graded each key judgement and gave no overall effectiveness grade.
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Sixth form provision
- Good
- Safeguarding
- Met
What Ofsted said
From the inspection on 29 April 2025
Pupils at Thorpe St Andrew are proud of their school. Many pupils enthusiastically represent the school in competitions, where they are regular participants in regional and national finals. Pupils value the changes the school has made to the culture and behaviour since the last inspection. Pupils now enjoy learning in calm and purposeful classrooms. They socialise around the expansive site respectfully. There are warm relationships that foster trust and confidence. As a result, pupils enjoy coming to school, where they feel valued and safe. The school has high ambition for all pupils. Pupils respond to this ambition with positivity and a determination to succeed. They enjoy learning. Sixth-form students become passionate advocates for their subjects. Pupils' work is of high quality, and they can explain their learning in detail. They learn well and achieve highly in examinations. Pupils' access to a wide extra-curricular offer helps them foster existing talents and explore new ones. The impressive sporting offer gives pupils a chance to experience traditional sports like football and rugby, as well as new games such as pickleball. Pupils also keenly take up other interests. They learn how to crochet, tend an allotment or design and build their own model racing car.
What the school should improve
- Occasionally, the adaptations to teaching for pupils with SEND are not as refined and precise as they need to be. This means that sometimes pupils with SEND are not able to access the depth of learning they could. The school should ensure that staff have the expertise to adapt their teaching approaches to enable pupils with SEND to access the full richness of the curriculum.
- Sometimes, the programmes for those pupils who struggle with reading do not address their specific barriers to reading, or are not sustained for long enough. This means that some pupils do not catch up quickly enough to learn the curriculum as intended. The school should ensure that programmes to support those in the early stages of learning to read are designed and implemented to enable those pupils to quickly become confident and fluent readers.
Exam results
GCSE results (key stage 4), 2024/25
297 pupils in the year group
A level results (key stage 5), 2024/25
110 students
Average A level grade C+, England average B-
Pupil numbers and mix
1,830 pupils on roll, with places for 1,892
Schools near Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form
| School | Distance | Ofsted | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Open Academy | 1 mile | Ofsted: Good | Attainment 8: 36.7 |
| Sprowston Community Academy | 2 miles | Report card: Expected standard | Attainment 8: 45.0 |
| Norwich School | 2 miles | No Ofsted inspection | Attainment 8: 12.1 |
| Sewell Park Academy | 3 miles | Report card: Needs attention to expected standard | Attainment 8: 39.1 |
| Jane Austen College | 3 miles | Ofsted: Outstanding | Attainment 8: 53.7 |
School details
- School type
- Academy converter
- Sector
- Academy
- Trust
- BROAD HORIZONS EDUCATION TRUST
- Age range
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Headteacher
- Mrs Penny Bignell
- Phone
- 01603497711
- Address
- Laundry Lane, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, NR7 0XS
- Local authority
- Norfolk
- URN
- 143278
School details from Get Information about Schools, 17 September 2026. Ofsted outcomes published to 31 August 2026. Exam results for 2024/25 from the Department for Education. Pupil mix from the school census, 2025/26.