St Bede's Catholic School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

located in Peterlee,

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, England.

History

The school was officially opened in 1970 by Bishop Hugh Lindsay, but actually opened for staff and pupils in September 1969. Then only the first-year students, born in 1957-58, were a truly non-selective 'comprehensive' intake. These were the first Catholic pupils in the area not to sit the 11-plus examination. Second-year and upwards pupils were all pupils who had 'failed' the 11-plus and were thus taken from the various Catholic

secondary modern A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupils ...

schools in the area that had been closed and replaced by the new institution. Meanwhile, those older students who had passed their 11-plus in 1968 and earlier years continued to be educated at the St Francis RC Grammar School(boys) and at the Convent (girls) at

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

. When those schools closed in 1973, some of these pupils finally arrived at St Bede's as sixth-formers. The school was thus effectively a secondary modern for the first few years of its life. The school's founding head teacher was D Mylroi, a former teacher at St Francis. The first Deputy Headmaster was Cunningham. The school was organised on a 'house' system. Originally there were four of these, each named after the first bishops of Hexham and Newcastle: Hogarth, Chadwick, Bewick and O'Callaghan. Members of each house were supposed to wear braiding on their green uniform blazers to denote which houses they belonged to. Hogarth was red; Chadwick was yellow; Bewick was blue; and O'Callaghan was green. 4 more houses, Wilkinson, Collins, Thorman and McCormack were added later. Each house had its own dining hall where the housemasters conducted morning assemblies. Only very rarely, such as at the belated 'official' opening of the school in 1970, did the entire school assemble together. In the early years, most pupils left school as soon as they could, which in those days was at 15. 1972 was the last year that pupils were able to leave school at 15 (that is, at the end of the fourth year) and it was only after this date that appreciable numbers stayed on into the sixth form. Indeed, in the early years, even the fifth form was very small. A new purpose-built sixth-form block was opened in September 1973. In September 1974, true comprehensive school status was achieved when some of the first-year intake of 1969 entered the Sixth Form.

Corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...

, in the form of

caning Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts") with a single Stick-fighting, cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks (see spanking) or han ...

, was used in the early years of the school, but only the housemasters and headmistress were allowed to administer it. In summer 2006 it achieved its best-ever

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

exam results. The school then gained specialist

Humanities College Humanities Colleges are a type of specialist school introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary and primary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, humanitie ...

status. The school was rebuilt in 2010 and in 2017 the school was graded as 'Good' by Ofsted inspectors. Previously a

voluntary aided school 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 ...

administered by

Durham County Council Durham County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of County Durham (district), County Durham in North East England. The council is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, bein ...

, in January 2021 St Bede's Catholic School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by the Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.

References

External links

School Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Bede's Catholic School, Peterlee Secondary schools in County Durham Educational institutions established in 1970 Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Academies in County Durham 1970 establishments in England Peterlee