St Thomas à Becket Catholic Secondary School, A Voluntary Academy

About St Thomas à Becket Catholic Secondary School, A Voluntary Academy

St Thomas à Becket Catholic Secondary School sits within the Wakefield local authority, where it ranks 4th out of 18 state secondary schools by Progress 8 score. That puts it comfortably in the top quarter of its local peers, though it sits behind three higher-performing schools: Castleford Academy, Trinity Academy Cathedral, and Horbury Academy. The school is a Roman Catholic voluntary academy for pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form, and is currently oversubscribed — for 2025/26 entry it received 423 applications for 143 places, with 136 offers going to first-preference families. Its oversubscription ratio of nearly 3 to 1 suggests strong local demand. The school is led by headteacher Patrick Caldwell and has a capacity of 750, with 763 pupils currently on roll, meaning it is operating slightly above its official capacity. Around 26.5% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average and gives some context to the school's intake.

Academically, St Thomas à Becket performs well above the Wakefield average. Its Progress 8 score of 0.29 means pupils achieve nearly a third of a grade more per subject than similar pupils nationally, and well above the local authority average of 0. The Attainment 8 score sits at 46.5, and 62.1% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, with 49.7% reaching grade 5 or above. The EBacc entry rate is 27.6%, with 17.2% of pupils achieving the EBacc at grade 4 or above. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2023, the school was rated Good across all five categories: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. This is consistent with its previous inspection in 2014, which also rated it Good overall. The school does not have a sixth form, so all results reflect GCSE performance only.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a sports hall, gymnasium, swimming pool, astro turf, playing fields, art studios, music rooms, and a chapel. Sports on offer include football, rugby, netball, basketball, gymnastics, athletics, tennis, rounders, and swimming. Clubs range from drama, choir, and orchestra to debate, Model UN, coding, science club, and gardening. SEND provision is well developed, covering specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, and social and emotional mental health needs, with a resourced provision on site. The school is a Catholic faith school, but its admission data shows it is heavily oversubscribed, so families applying from outside the faith or catchment should be aware of the competition. It suits families looking for a strong academic record within a faith-based environment, particularly those who want a secondary school that ends at Year 11.

Key Details

Frequently Asked Questions About St Thomas à Becket Catholic Secondary School, A Voluntary Academy

Helpful Guides for Parents