St George Catholic VA College (formerly known as St George Catholic School for Girls & Boys) is a Catholic

voluntary aided A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...

comprehensive secondary school for girls and boys in

Swaythling Swaythling is a suburb and electoral ward of the city of Southampton in Hampshire, England. The ward has a population of 13,664. Swaythling is predominantly residential in character, and noted for its large student population due to its proxi ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. The college became a mixed school in September 2013 and is operated under the auspices of the Diocese of Portsmouth.

History

St George was founded as a coeducational school and opened its doors to students on 8 September 1958. It was officially opened on

Saint George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sai ...

1959 by the Bishop of Portsmouth

John Henry King John Henry King (1880–1965) was an English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Portsmouth from 1941 to 1965. Life John Henry King was born in Wardour on 16 September 1880. He was ordained at St H ...

, Bishop of Portsmouth. The number of students rose to over 600 over the next decade. During the 1970s, St George was a boys-only school. In March 2012, it was announced that St George would go coeducational in 2013 due to overwhelmingly popular demand. The move was backed by its feeder schools, parents and the Diocese. In 2018, the school had over 800 pupils.

Academics

In 2010, Saint George was listed as one of the nation's top 100 improving schools in the

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

s. The percentage of candidates achieving 5 or more A*-C grades increased by 30%. In 2020, 87% of Saint George students received grades 9–4 in their subjects and 63% achieved 9–5, with all students gaining places in further education or training. In 2022, 86% of students achieved grades 9-4 or above in Maths and English, and 73% achieved 9-5.

Notable former pupils

Manny Andruszewski Emanuel Franciszek Andruszewski (born 4 October 1955) is an English former footballer who played for Southampton. He played at full back and centre back during the late 1970s. Southampton He joined Southampton as an associate schoolboy in Nov ...

, footballer for

Southampton F.C. Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

David Henson David Henson, MBE (born 15 September 1984) is a British parasport athlete competing mainly in T42 classification sprint events. He has represented Britain at the Invictus Games, World and European Championships and in 2016 he was selected fo ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, parasport athlete * Roger Whiteside OBE, chief executive officer of Greggs

References

External links

The school's website

The school on Ofsted's website
Secondary schools in Southampton Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Portsmouth Boys' schools in Hampshire Voluntary aided schools in England {{Hampshire-school-stub