St Thomas Catholic Voluntary Academy

Overview: St Thomas Catholic Voluntary Academy continues to be a good school, with pupils enjoying coming to a welcoming school where they have strong, positive relationships with staff. The school operates as one cohesive community, with leaders having woven the school's five gospel values into the curriculum and all parts of school life.

Strengths:

• Pupils enjoy coming to a welcoming school with strong, positive relationships with staff.
• Pupils feel safe and happy, with a trusted adult they could speak to if they had a problem.
• The school operates as one cohesive community, with leaders having woven the school's five gospel values into the curriculum and all parts of school life.
• Pupils behave very well, with high expectations from staff.
• The curriculum encompasses a broad range of subjects that give pupils the knowledge and skills they will need for the next phase of learning.

Areas to improve:

• Teachers do not always use the most effective activities to help pupils learn the curriculum, resulting in some pupils not learning as quickly as they could.
• In a few foundation subjects, teachers do not teach the essential knowledge that is set out in curriculum plans explicitly enough, resulting in some pupils struggling to recall the important, fundamental building blocks that they need for the next stage of learning.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with leaders ensuring that they frequently brief all staff on safeguarding issues and how to respond to these, and staff being highly vigilant and knowing the signs pupils may show when they are at risk.