St Edmund's Catholic School
About St Edmund's Catholic School
St Edmund's Catholic School sits within Kent's large secondary landscape, where 16 out of 106 state secondaries hold an Outstanding rating from Ofsted. The school is one of them, placing it among a select group in the local authority. Kent's top-performing peers are all grammar schools — Dartford Grammar School, The Judd School, and Dartford Grammar School for Girls — which operate under selective admissions, whereas St Edmund's is a non-selective Roman Catholic comprehensive in Dover. That distinction matters when comparing outcomes, because the school's intake is entirely different from those grammars. Still, its Ofsted rating signals strong quality across the board. Headteacher Grainne Parsons leads a mixed secondary of 647 pupils aged 11 to 18, with a sixth form on site. The school's most recent graded inspection, in 2016, awarded Outstanding for overall effectiveness, leadership and management, and the ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed the school remains Outstanding. That consistency over time is notable in a county where most schools are rated Good or lower.
Key Details
Ofsted Inspection Breakdown
16 Jun 2022Latest monitoring visit (16 Jun 2022): School remains Outstanding
Source: Ofsted, 29 Feb 2016. Ratings: 1=Outstanding, 2=Good, 3=Requires Improvement, 4=Inadequate.
School day
Teaching hours
08:35 – 15:05
Source: st-edmunds.com. Extracted automatically — confirm with the school before relying on these times.
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