Thwaites School

About Thwaites School

Thwaites School is a small primary in Cumberland with just 37 pupils, and its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2025 saw it jump from Requires Improvement to Good overall, with an Outstanding rating for personal development. That's a significant turnaround from its 2023 inspection, where it scored Requires Improvement across quality of education, early years provision, and leadership. The school now sits in a local authority where only five out of 144 primary schools are rated Outstanding, so this personal development grade is genuinely unusual for a school of this size. Compared with the Cumberland LA average for Key Stage 2, which sits at 54, Thwaites doesn't publish its own KS2 results in the data, so it's hard to say whether its academic outcomes match that benchmark. What is clear is that the school has made a marked improvement in leadership and behaviour, both now rated Good, and the early years provision has also climbed from Requires Improvement to Good.

Academically, the picture is mixed but improving. The school's most recent graded inspection in July 2025 rated quality of education as Good, up from a 3 (Requires Improvement) in February 2023. Behaviour and attitudes also improved from a 2 to a 2, so it held steady at Good, while leadership and management moved from a 3 to a 2. The early years provision, which covers the nursery-age children, similarly went from a 3 to a 2. Without published Progress 8 or KS2 SATs scores in the data, parents will need to rely on the Ofsted classroom-level judgements rather than headline numbers. The school is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, it had 8 applications for 5 places, with all 5 first-preference offers accepted, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.6. That suggests local families are voting with their feet, even if the academic data isn't fully transparent.

The school offers a nursery provision for children from age 3, and its facilities include a sensory room, music rooms, a chapel, and an outdoor playground. Sports on offer include cricket, swimming, rounders, dance, tennis, and football, while clubs cover chess, film club, and art club. For SEND, the school supports moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, and speech language and communication needs. With only 37 pupils and a capacity of 56, it's a very small setting where children are likely to be well known by staff. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 27%, which is above the national average and suggests a relatively disadvantaged intake. This school will suit families who value a close-knit, rural primary with strong pastoral care and a recent track record of improvement, particularly if they have a child with SEND needs that the school's provisions can address.

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