St Thomas More Catholic School

Overview: St Thomas More Catholic School is a good school with a strong 'family' ethos, where pupils appreciate and embody the school's Catholic values. Pupils achieve well, are polite and courteous, and feel safe. The school has high expectations and aspirations for all pupils, including those with SEND.

Strengths:

• The school has planned an ambitious curriculum, with teachers presenting key concepts well and systematically revisiting them in lessons.
• Pupils are provided with opportunities to develop and stretch their talents and interests, including pupil leadership roles and community involvement.
• The school supports pupils with SEND well, working closely with their parents to identify needs and providing teachers with the training and guidance they need.
• Pupils who struggle with reading increasingly receive the help they need to become confident readers, with trained sixth-form mentors providing support.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders' high expectations for behaviour are not applied consistently by staff across the school and in the sixth form, resulting in some learning time being lost.
• Curriculum plans are more rigorous in some subject areas than others, resulting in pupils not experiencing a consistently high quality of education across the curriculum.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.