Thomson House School

Together with the staff, our governing body, the parents and our links with the Mortlake and Richmond, London community we continue to drive the school forward and prepare your children for life in the 21st century. There is no room for mediocrity at Thomson House School – we have the highest of expectations and aim to excel in everything that we do.

Thomson House aims to cultivate the habits and arts of excellence and wellbeing, so that its pupils may flourish, achieving academic success and leading fulfilling lives. To achieve this, Thomson House anchors its curriculum on three fundamental qualities: curiosity, kindness and courage.

We offer a creative and challenging curriculum which incorporates varied and exciting learning opportunities for the children. Our school values of curiosity, kindness and courage weave through all areas of school life – very high expectations are present in learning, behaviour, appearance and academic rigour. We encourage our children to be well-mannered and respectful, with an empathy for those less fortunate than ourselves. We encourage competitiveness in sport, and aim for every child to fulfil their potential. Above all, we intend for the children to be motivated and enthusiastic in their learning journey – and to have fun and laughter whilst doing so.

Thomson House is a co-educational school open to children of all backgrounds and abilities. We are located in an area where the local schools are over-subscribed. Thomson House will give local families another choice of school providing an outstanding education for children in their own community.

We want to work as part of the local family of outstanding schools, and therefore our admissions process is run by the Local Authority of Richmond-upon-Thames. If you would like to apply to Thomson House, apply through the Local Authority's application process, selecting Thomson House as one of your preferences.
The Reception class is the first class of the main school, which children join when they are four going on five years old, i.e. the September before their fifth birthday.

All Reception class applications must be made using your home Local Authority’s common application form (CAF) and should be submitted to your Local Authority. You can apply for up to six schools on one application form, which should be listed in order of preference and you are advised to use all six preferences.Your preferences will be considered under an equal preference system; i.e all preferences are considered separately, regardless of their ranking on your form, therefore, if your application is successful for more than one school, you will offered a place at the school you ranked highest on your CAF.When considering your preferences, you will need to consider carefully the admissions process and the oversubscription criteria. You are strongly advised to ensure that you fully understand the admissions process and the oversubscription criteria before making your application for a place at any school.

If you are looking for a place mid-year please call us first to find out if we have available places. You will also need to contact the London Borough of Richmond’s admissions department. Richmond hold all information regarding waiting lists and school vacancies.

Thomson House combines the best traditions of the independent sector with those of the state primaries in Richmond. It offers excellent teaching, a curriculum underpinned by rigour and breadth, smaller classes and a strong community focus. We want Thomson House to be one of the most respected and admired schools in our Borough. Not only because our children make outstanding academic progress, but also because they develop the curiosity to ask questions, the self-belief and courage to seize opportunities, and the heart to do good to those around them.

Outstanding teaching and learning is the bedrock of our approach. Thomson House considers its community of learners to include teachers, pupils and their families. Each Reception class will have a full-time class teacher and teaching assistant.

Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum, enriched with components from other learning pedagogies we consider outstanding. Pupils will be given an excellent and rigorous grounding in the basics, which will allow them to learn confidently throughout the rest of their lives. Each child will have their own Individual Learning Profile that will track their progress throughout their schooling and provide a basis for continual target setting by pupils, parents and teachers. We are committed to small class sizes of no more than 24 pupils so that each child’s individual learning needs can be met.

We believe that young people find out who they are when they commit themselves to a range of academic, sporting, creative and service activities. By nurturing the individual talent within each child (and by celebrating excellence in pupils), Thomson House develops in its pupils confidence and love of learning, the motors to self-development.

The teaching team will work in close partnership with parents, carers and outside providers in identifying and addressing the particular needs of a child and ensuring that appropriate provision is made across the school, including addressing learning difficulties and stretching children’s abilities through a gifted and talented programme.

We have the most amazing staff who are all passionately devoted to providing the best for our children and, as part of our learning community, strive to be the best practitioners that they can be, constantly reviewing and improving through the sharing of good practice and attending high quality CPD (Continuous Professional Development). Our teachers, teaching assistants and support staff are all highly qualified professionals who take the business of learning very seriously. They all model the school values of Curiosity, Kindness and Courage.

The parents and carers play a huge part in their children’s learning journey too – not only do they commit to spending time supporting academic progress at home, but also support the school in many other ways - going on school trips, volunteering in school, offering gardens for gardening club, fund-raising through FOTH (Friends Of Thomson House), sharing their skills in theme weeks, running enrichment clubs (drama and football), donating financially, and attending social events. We would not be as successful as we are without them!
The Thomson House School PTA, known as FOTH, do a remarkable job welcoming new parents, organising social events and fund-raising for the school. All parents and staff are part of FOTH and work together to make the school a vibrant, warm and welcoming place.

Our school caterers (ISS) have the children’s healthy eating programme at heart.They cook delicious hot lunches, fresh every day and cater for a number of children who have allergies or are unable to eat certain foodstuffs for a variety of reasons. School lunch at Thomson House is mandatory – the children and staff eat together at lunchtimes.

Continuing along the healthy vein, Fit For Sport provide our children with a level of physical education which is second to none. FFS also provide multi-sport enrichment clubs for the children to enjoy at lunchtime.A number of external professionals come in to the school at lunchtimes to provide enrichment clubs for the children – Dance IT Team (Zumba for the children and staff); Young Yoga.