St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy

About St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy

St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy sits in the Kirklees local authority, a Roman Catholic secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18. In terms of academic progress, it ranks 24th out of 24 schools of the same type in the borough, placing it at the very bottom of the local league table. The top-performing peers in the area are Heckmondwike Grammar School, Holmfirth High School, and Shelley College, A Share Academy, all of which achieve significantly stronger Progress 8 scores. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in March 2025, rated its overall effectiveness as not judged, but the graded inspection gave it a Requires Improvement rating. That said, the picture is mixed: behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and sixth-form provision were all rated Good, while leadership and management and quality of education were judged as Requires Improvement. This is a school that has clearly made some strides since its previous inspection in 2022, when it was rated Inadequate overall.

Academically, the data paints a challenging picture. St John Fisher’s Progress 8 score for the 2023/24 academic year was -0.99, which is well below average and significantly worse than the Kirklees local authority average of 0.07. The school ranks in the bottom 5% nationally on this measure, at the 96th percentile. Attainment 8 sits at 31.4, and only 36.4% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths, dropping to 17.1% at the higher threshold. The EBacc average points score is 2.79, and just 6.4% of pupils entered for the full EBacc. At A-level, the picture is similarly subdued: the average points per entry is 22.73, equivalent to a D+, and the value added score is -0.3, which is below average. The best three A-levels average out at a C- grade. The sixth form is small, with 37 pupils, and no pupils achieved AAB or higher in at least two facilitating subjects.

On a more positive note, the school offers a broad range of facilities, including a swimming pool, theatre, sports hall, astro turf, chapel, and a dedicated sixth form centre. There are also plenty of extracurricular options, from rowing and cricket to coding, chess, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. The school has a range of SEND provisions, covering moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health, speech and language, and physical disabilities. Parent View responses, collected between September 2024 and September 2025, show that 75% of the 51 respondents would recommend the school. Most parents felt their child was happy and safe, and 82% agreed that the school has high expectations. However, the school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26, there were 289 applications for 184 places, with 113 first-preference offers made. This suggests that despite the academic challenges, the school remains a popular choice for local families, particularly those seeking a Catholic secondary with a strong pastoral and extracurricular offer.

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