St Joseph’s College

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. All members of the community of St Joseph's College share the commitment of the headteacher and governing body to provide the best possible education for all students. The drive to maintain high standards and make the school even better is impressive.

Students join the school with strong literary and numeracy skills. By the time they reach the end of Year 11, attainment is high. Achievement is outstanding because students make rapid progress in all subject areas.

Teaching is inspiring, exciting and creative. A challenging learning environment is created where students relish the opportunities to explore, investigate and develop t...heir skills. Students are eager to learn, proud of their school and ambitious to achieve well.

They are courteous, polite, respectful and highly effective communicators. They embrace the numerous opportunities to contribute to their school, local and wider communities. Students feel safe and nurtured in this school.

The sixth form is outstanding. Students follow mainly academic courses and most go on to university. They leave the sixth form ready to make a contribution to the world around them.

Outstanding leadership and management pervade the school. Leaders are never complacent, continually driving improvement. The school knows itself exceptionally well and its current improvement priorities, to develop better marking and further increase the proportion of students achieving the very highest grades at GCSE and at AS-level, are the right ones.

Information about this school

St Joseph's College converted to become an academy school on 1 February 2011. When its predecessor school of the same name was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be outstanding. St Joseph's is a slightly larger than average secondary school.

There is an entrance examination to gain admission and about three quarters of the students are practising Catholics. The rest are from other Christian denominations or other faiths. Most students come from White British backgrounds.

The proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average. Few students speak English as an additional language. The proportions of disabled students and those with special educational needs supported at school action and school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs are much lower than those found nationally.

A very small proportion of students is known to be eligible for the pupil premium. Pupil premium is additional funding for students known to be eligible for free school meals; those looked after by the local authority and those from service families. The school does not use alternative provision.

The sixth form is housed in its own building but many lessons take place in the main school. About half of all sixth formers join from other secondary schools. The school meets the government's current floor standards which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress.

The headteacher is a national leader of education (NLE) and the school has several specialist leaders of education. St Joseph's provides support for a number of other secondary schools in the area as well as one primary school. It is a teaching school and a Leading Edge school.