Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form is a large 11-18 secondary academy within the Broad Horizons Education Trust. Since its previous inspection, the school has secured significant and sustained improvement, and inspectors judged all key areas - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision - to be good. Pupils are proud of their school, feel safe and valued, and learn in calm, purposeful classrooms with warm relationships and high expectations. The curriculum is ambitious and logically sequenced from Years 7 to 13, supported by strong subject expertise and an effective focus on reading and subject-specific language. Teachers check understanding well and address misconceptions quickly. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are identified promptly, and the new SAIL centre is already helping pupils catch up before returning to mainstream learning. However, some teaching adaptations for pupils with SEND lack precision, meaning a few do not access the full depth of the curriculum. Reading interventions can also lack sharp focus or be removed too soon, so some pupils do not become fluent readers as quickly as they could. Behaviour is typically calm and disruption rare, personal development and careers provision are strong, and trust and governor oversight are effective. Safeguarding arrangements are effective. The main areas for further improvement are refining SEND teaching adaptations and making reading support more sharply targeted and sustained.

Strengths

• Ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum from Years 7 to 13
• Strong subject knowledge and clear explanation, including in the sixth form
• Effective reading and language focus builds rich subject vocabulary
• Well-designed exemplar responses help pupils structure their work
• Accurate checks for understanding address misconceptions quickly
• Quick identification of SEND and bespoke support through the SAIL centre
• Calm, purposeful classrooms with consistent behaviour expectations
• Wide extra-curricular and sporting offer
• Strong personal development, careers and pupil leadership opportunities
• Effective trust and governor support drives sustained improvement
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• Teaching adaptations for pupils with SEND are not always precise enough
• Some pupils with SEND do not access the full depth of the curriculum
• Reading interventions sometimes lack sharp focus on individual barriers
• Reading support is sometimes removed too soon, slowing fluency
• Some pupils do not catch up quickly enough in reading

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form attended 92.1% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 19.6% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 3.3% of pupils at Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). One pupil was permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form had 18.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 7.3% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 11.5% of pupils at Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 2.9% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form received £7,121 and spent £6,648 for each of its 1,834 pupils. It ended the year with a deficit of £127,000 (-£69 per pupil).

Across all 18 schools of Broad Horizons Education Trust, income was £8,232 and spending £8,091 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Norwich · Norfolk local authority: places and applications

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form is part of Broad Horizons Education Trust, which runs 18 schools. The nearest others:

• Dussindale Primary School Norwich
• Hillside Avenue Primary and Nursery School, Thorpe Norwich
• Sprowston Community Academy Norwich
• St. Clements Hill Primary Academy Norwich
• Sewell Park Academy Norwich
• Edith Cavell Academy and Nursery Norwich
• Tuckswood Academy Norwich
• Hemblington Primary School Norwich
• Eaton Hall Specialist Academy Norwich
• Bluebell Primary School Norwich

What is Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form is Good, from an inspection in June 2025.

When was Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form last inspected by Ofsted?

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form was last inspected in June 2025.

How many pupils does Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form have?

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form has 1,830 pupils on roll.

What age range does Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form cover?

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 47.9, and 47% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form?

Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form is at Laundry Lane, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, Norfolk, NR7 0XS.