John Henry Newman Catholic College

About John Henry Newman Catholic College

John Henry Newman Catholic College in Solihull holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its two most recent inspections. The school’s most informative exam metric is its Progress 8 score of -0.25, which places it in the ‘Below average’ banding nationally. This means that, on average, pupils achieve about a quarter of a grade less per subject than students with similar starting points across England. Within Solihull local authority, the school ranks 11th out of 15 similar secondary schools on this measure, and sits below the LA average Progress 8 score of -0.12. The school’s Attainment 8 score stands at 47.1, and 64.7% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths. The EBacc average point score is 4.05, with 33% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects.

At Key Stage 5, the school has a sixth form with 60 pupils in the most recent data. The average A-level grade per entry is a C, with points per entry at 29.76. The best three A-levels average out at a C+ grade, and 19.2% of entries achieved AAB or higher. The sixth form’s value added score is -0.44, which is banded as ‘Below average’, meaning students here typically leave with slightly lower grades than their prior attainment would predict. Ofsted rated the sixth form provision as Good in the 2021 inspection, the same as the school’s overall effectiveness. Leadership and management were also judged Good. The school’s previous inspection in 2013 rated it Outstanding overall, so the current Good rating represents a step down from that earlier high point.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 722 applications for 234 places, a ratio of 3.09 applicants per place, with 284 first-preference applications and 215 first-preference offers. It is a Roman Catholic secondary for ages 11 to 18, with a current roll of 1,301 pupils against a capacity of 1,200, so it is operating above its official capacity. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 40.6%, well above the national average. Facilities include a chapel, theatre, sixth form centre, astro turf, sports hall, and science labs. The school lists a wide range of SEND provisions covering dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a large, faith-based school that suits families seeking a Catholic secondary with a broad curriculum and strong demand for places, but where academic outcomes are below the local average.

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