St Joseph's College 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 ...

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

located in Trent Vale,

Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire and one of the largest cities of ...

, Staffordshire. The school's oldest and original building in this location is a Grade II listed structure which was previously a residential property before it was bought by the Christian Brothers in 1931.

History

The school was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1932. It moved into the present buildings in 1936, and was recognised by the

Board of Education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

in the following year. St Joseph's was a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

until the 11-plus was abolished in Stoke in 1967, after which the grant was gradually phased out. The school re-opened as a fully independent school in 1980, and in the following years began to admit girls. In the early 1980s the school pulled out of the Catholic reorganisation of secondary provision and decided to stay private. When grant maintained schools were allowed it started to admit non-fee paying pupils. It is the only grammar school in the area as the council abolished the grammar system but as a private school it was allowed to continue. After many years as a Preparatory and Senior School, the Preparatory School split off to form a new independent school elsewhere on the site, while the High School became a state-maintained grammar school. The school achieved

Science College Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme (abolished in 2011) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathem ...

status in 2004. It is no longer a grammar-school however students must sit an entrance exam. Applicants to the school are required to take an entrance examination. Approximately 75% of applicants reach the school's qualifying standard, and places are allocated among these using other criteria (faith, siblings and distance). St Joseph's has Specialist Status for Science and Mathematics and is rated as Outstanding in all areas by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

. The college was amongst the first schools to convert to Academy status in 2011 and in 2012 became one of the country's first Teaching Schools.

School site

The school has an extensive program of rooms and labs, the biggest are SC2 and SC6 in the Science Wing. A new Science Wing was added to the old building, forming a quadrangle in the centre of the school, which contains a heart-shaped pond overlooked by a statue of the Virgin Mary, marking the end of the second millennium. A statue of Edmund Rice is located outside the Year 7 corridor. The Sixth Form Centre until 2008 was housed separately from the rest of the school in a Grade II listed building, which until 2001 was home to the

Congregation of Christian Brothers The Congregation of Christian Brothers (; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Edmund Ignatius Rice, Edmund Rice. Their first school opened in Waterford, Ireland in 1802. At the time of its ...

who founded the school. Since their departure from the school premises in the summer of 2001, the Brothers' House has undergone extensive renovations. From September 2008 onwards, 'Stone House' further down the A34 road towards Hanford took the Brother's House's place as Sixth Form Centre. In 2018 Stone House was sold and the Sixth Form Centre was relocated to the 'Fideliter Building' - a chapel across the road from the main school site with a recent extension added - and the 'Olsen Building'. The Olsen Building is on the main school site and was built for use by Sixth Form students. In 2019 a perimeter fence and gate system was built around the school site.

Notable former pupils

* Geoffrey Prime (b. 1938) - former spy, convicted of espionage and child sexual abuse *

Trevor Burton Trevor Burton (born Trevor Ireson; 9 March 1949 in Aston, Birmingham) is an English guitarist and is a founding member of the Move. Career Burton started playing guitar at a young age and was leading his own group called the Everglades by 196 ...

(b.1943) - Commonwealth Games athlete *

Kevin McDonald Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1 ...

(b. 1947) - Archbishop of Southwark * Terry Green (b. 1951) - businessman *

Dominic Cork Dominic Gerald Cork (born 7 August 1971) is a former English county and international cricketer. Cork was a right-handed lower-order batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium, and was renowned for his swing and seam control. In 1995, he took ...

(b. 1971) - cricketer,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

* Emma Jackson (b. 1988) - athlete, England 800m runner * Dan Croll (b. 1990) - singer-songwriter * Kian Emadi (b. 1992) - track cyclist, medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games * Harry McKirdy (b. 1997) - footballer, Hibernian F.C. * Ciaran Algar, Award-winning folk musician.

References

External links

St. Joseph's Preparatory School (3–11) website

St Joseph's College website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's College, Stoke-On-Trent Educational institutions established in 1932 Grammar schools in Stoke-on-Trent Academies in Stoke-on-Trent Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire 1932 establishments in England * Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham Congregation of Christian Brothers secondary schools