St Bonaventure's RC School

About St Bonaventure's RC School

St Bonaventure's RC School in Newham holds an Ofsted Outstanding rating from its most recent inspection in 2022, with every graded category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision — all judged Outstanding. That consistency is rare, and it backs up the school’s academic story. The most telling single metric is Progress 8, which measures how much pupils improve between the end of primary school and GCSEs compared with pupils nationally. St Bonaventure’s scores 0.17, meaning its boys achieve nearly a fifth of a grade more per subject than the average student in England. That puts the school comfortably above the Newham local authority average of 0.13, and ranks it 10th out of 21 secondary schools in the borough. It also sits in the top 50 nationally by Progress 8, and within London it ranks 304th out of 487 schools — solidly above the median for the capital.

At GCSE, 77.7 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, and 62.2 per cent hit the higher grade 5 threshold. The average Attainment 8 score is 53.4, and just over half of pupils entered the English Baccalaureate suite of subjects. The EBacc average point score sits at 4.73. In the sixth form, where 144 students take A-levels, the average points per entry is 36.16, equivalent to a B- grade, and the best three A-levels average out at a B- as well. The sixth-form value-added score is 0.1, which is positive but within the average band, and the progress banding for the sixth form is also rated Average. The school’s Progress 8 breakdown shows strongest gains in open subjects (0.32) and maths (0.19), with English also positive at 0.15, while the EBacc element is exactly zero.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 199 places in the 2025/26 intake, it received 470 applications, with 164 first-preference applications and 149 first-preference offers — an oversubscription ratio of 2.36. It is a Roman Catholic boys’ secondary with a co-educational sixth form, and it operates above its official capacity of 1,300, with 1,348 pupils on roll. Nearly 40 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is high for a school with such strong outcomes. Facilities include a sixth-form centre, theatre, chapel, sports hall, astro turf, music rooms, and an ICT suite. The school supports a wide range of SEND needs, including dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language difficulties, and social, emotional and mental health needs. Clubs range from coding and Model UN to gardening and Young Enterprise, and sports include martial arts, hockey, dance and football. This is a school that delivers strong academic progress for a diverse, largely non-selective intake, and its Catholic character and boys-only structure will appeal to families seeking that specific environment.

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