Thurstonland Endowed Voluntary Controlled First School

Overview

Thurstonland is described as an “inclusive school at the heart of the community” where pupils feel “happy and safe.” The report highlights a positive ethos built on core values like “self-belief and empathy,” with staff maintaining “high expectations” that pupils strive to meet. Overall, the school provides a good quality of education, with effective leadership and strong personal development for its students.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate “positive attitudes to learning” and behave well, with bullying incidents being “extremely rare.”
• The curriculum “builds progressively” and is enriched by experts, while phonics teaching ensures pupils “achieve highly” in screening checks.
• Staff are “quick to identify pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)” and provide effective support that helps them “grow in confidence and independence.”
• Attendance has improved significantly, with the school successfully leading to a “significant reduction in persistent absence.”
• The governing body holds the school to account effectively, and staff value the “professional development opportunities” provided.

Areas to improve

• In some subjects, assessment information is not acted upon quickly enough, resulting in “gaps in their knowledge” for some pupils.
• Some pupils lack a “secure understanding of fundamental British values” and cannot explain their relevance to everyday life.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”