St Joseph's Catholic High School

About St Joseph's Catholic High School

St Joseph’s Catholic High School in Slough is a mixed secondary that is significantly oversubscribed, with 398 applications for 160 places in the 2025/26 admissions round, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.49. Of those, 170 families put it as their first preference, and 133 first-preference offers were made. The school currently has 992 pupils on roll, well above its official capacity of 800, which suggests a school in high demand and running at full stretch. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 11.7%, which is broadly in line with the national average for secondary schools and indicates a reasonably mixed intake. As a Roman Catholic school, its admissions criteria will prioritise faith-based applicants, but the sheer volume of applications shows it draws families from across the local area. The school is led by headteacher Kelly Riddles and was rated Good by Ofsted in its most recent graded inspection in 2022.

Academically, St Joseph’s performs well above the Slough local authority average. Its Progress 8 score of 0.45 is comfortably ahead of the LA average of 0.32, placing it 7th out of 12 schools in the borough and in the top 25% nationally. In English, pupils achieve a Progress 8 score of 0.47, and in maths it is 0.27, while the EBacc element comes in at 0.49. Attainment 8 sits at 50.5, and 70.4% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths. The EBacc entry rate is high at 77%, though only 38.2% achieved the full EBacc at grade 4 or above. In the sixth form, the school’s value-added score is 0.23, rated above average, with an average points per entry of 29.82, equivalent to a grade C. The best three A-levels average out at a grade C as well, and 70 pupils took A-levels in the 2023/24 academic year.

The school offers a strong range of facilities, including a swimming pool, sports hall, gymnasium, theatre, astro turf, tennis courts, science labs, chapel, and a dedicated sixth form centre. Sports provision covers basketball, football, rugby, hockey, cricket, swimming, and martial arts, while extracurricular clubs include the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Young Enterprise, debate, chess, and a newspaper club. SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder. For families considering St Joseph’s, the key takeaway is that it is a heavily oversubscribed Catholic comprehensive with strong academic outcomes, particularly in terms of pupil progress, and a wide array of facilities and support. It will suit families who value a faith-based environment and want a school that consistently delivers above-average results without being a grammar school.

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