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St John's Catholic Comprehensive 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
Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...
in the
English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...
of
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. It is 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 ...
in the trusteeship of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark The Archdiocese of Southwark () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in England. It is led by the Archbishop of Southwark. The archdiocese is part of the Ecclesiastical province, Metropolitan Province of Province of Southwark, ...
, and is maintained by
Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...
. Although the school has its own admissions procedure, it does coordinate with Kent County Council for admissions. St John's Catholic Comprehensive School offers
GCSEs 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 ...
, BTECs and
OCR Nationals OCR Nationals are vocationally related qualifications which were officially launched by the OCR Board in September 2004. The qualifications are designed to meet the needs of those seeking vocational education in place of the traditional, theory- ...
as programmes of study for pupils, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of
A Levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational a ...
and further BTECs.


Selection

Kent is a selective county, which means children at eleven must select whether to put themselves forward to take a competitive test.


Description

St John's Catholic Comprehensive is an 11 to 18 school in the Archdiocese of Southwark. It is larger than the average-sized secondary school. The executive headteacher and head of school have been appointed since 2012. The executive headteacher is the headteacher of an above average school in the Archdiocese of Southwark. About half the students are from White British backgrounds and the rest of the students come from a wide variety of minority ethnic groups, including Indian and Black African. The proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is significantly above the national average and the proportion of students eligible for the pupil premium (additional funding for students eligible for free school meals and those in the care of the local authority) is just above the national average. There were 54 students eligible for Year 7 catch-up funding in 2014: students who did not achieve Level 4 (the nationally expected level) in English and mathematics at the end of
Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when the pupils are aged between 7 and 11 years. England and Wales Legal definition The ...
. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is one-tenth of the school roll, which is just above the national average. The school holds the British Council International School Award.


Buildings

To the left of the three-storey high central atrium, known as the ''heart'', are three identical teaching blocks. To the right are the gyms, dance studios, changing rooms, DT rooms music and art.


Curriculum

Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with state or othe ...
, and are inspected by Ofsted on how well they succeed in delivering a 'broad and balanced curriculum'. The school has to decide whether
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 3 (commonly abbreviated as KS3) is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14. In Northern Ireland the ...
contains years 7, 8 and 9- or whether year 9 should be in
Key Stage 4 Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other examinations, in maintained schools in England normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 by August 31 ...
and the students just studying subjects that will be examined by the
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 ...
exams at 16. St John's makes year 9 a transition year where students opt for some of the subjects on which they will be examined in year 11. Year 7 students, coming from the primary sector, all do core subjects. Year 8 is similar. In Year 9 students study seven Core subjects including Religion and Double English. They choose one EBACC subject (that means History, Geography or Spanish) they then choose two Key Stage 4 Options that they can continue with through to 16, and two Key Stage 3 Options that are one-year un-certificated courses. In Year 10, they select two more Key Stage 4 options making four in all, They continue Core subjects and EBacc. In Year Eleven, most students will continue with Core and EBacc but drop 2 of their 4 Key Stage 4 Options. It is these subjects on which they will be tested.


References

This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright


External links


St John's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Catholic Comprehensive School Secondary schools in Kent Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Southwark Voluntary aided schools in England