Thomasson Memorial School

Overview

Thomasson Memorial School continues to be a good school, providing a welcoming community where pupils feel "safe, accepted and valued." The inspection confirms that the school’s high expectations and expert support are "transformative" for deaf pupils, enabling them to communicate effectively and access a broad curriculum.

Strengths

• Pupils arrive "smiling and happy," behaving in a "patient, kind and respectful way" towards one another.
• The curriculum is "broad and ambitious," including specialist lessons in British sign language and deaf studies to help pupils explore their identity.
• Staff use their expertise well to adapt teaching, ensuring pupils can "engage with the world around them" and make choices for themselves.
• A successfully introduced phonics programme, adapted with visual cues, enables pupils to read with "increasing confidence and fluency."
• Pupils benefit from extensive enrichment opportunities, such as residential trips and work experience, which help them develop "confidence and social skills" for independent living.

Areas to improve

• In a small number of subjects, the school must ensure teachers are clear about the essential knowledge pupils should learn to help them "deepen their subject specific knowledge."
• Assessment strategies in some subjects are not effective enough to identify gaps in learning; the school should ensure teachers are equipped to "spot and then address gaps in pupils’ learning."

Safeguarding

The report states that "the arrangements for safeguarding are effective."