St Richard's Catholic College

About St Richard's Catholic College

St Richard's Catholic College is rated Good overall by Ofsted, following its most recent inspection in 2021, but the detail tells a more nuanced story. The school was previously rated Outstanding in 2006, and while the overall grade has dropped, inspectors awarded top marks in three of the four graded categories: personal development, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management all received Outstanding. The only area judged Good was quality of education. The single most telling exam metric is Progress 8, which measures how much pupils improve between the end of primary school and GCSEs compared with pupils nationally. St Richard's scores 0.65, which is well above average and places it first among the five state secondaries in the Rother local authority area. Nationally, it ranks in the top 11 per cent of all schools, and in the South East region it sits in the top 13 per cent. That is a strong academic story for a school that has clearly maintained high standards even after losing its Outstanding badge.

Digging into the GCSE results from 2023/24, the school's Attainment 8 score is 56.4, meaning pupils achieve nearly six grades higher across their best eight subjects than the national average. The basics measure shows 85.4 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, and 71.2 per cent reached the higher grade 5 threshold. The English Baccalaureate entry rate is 64.4 per cent, with 59.5 per cent of pupils achieving a strong pass in the EBacc subjects. The Progress 8 breakdown reveals particularly strong progress in EBacc subjects (0.75) and maths (0.68), with English slightly lower at 0.49. For context, the average Progress 8 score across all East Sussex state secondaries is -0.16, so St Richard's is performing well above the local norm. The school's closest competitors in the area are Beacon Academy, Priory School, and Seaford Head School, but none come close to St Richard's ranking score of 0.65.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 476 applications for 199 places, a ratio of 2.39 applicants per place, with 253 first-preference applications and 197 first-preference offers. That tells you demand is high, and families should be prepared for a competitive admissions process. Facilities include a theatre, chapel, music rooms, art studios, science labs, astro turf, tennis courts, and a sixth form centre, though the school only goes up to Year 11. SEND provision covers a wide range of needs, including dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. There is a strong extracurricular offer with clubs like Model UN, Young Enterprise, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, choir, drama, and a newspaper club, plus sports including rugby, netball, football, swimming, and martial arts. This is a Catholic secondary that suits families who want strong academic outcomes in a faith-based setting, with a clear emphasis on personal development and behaviour.

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