St Leonard'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 ...

. It is located in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

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 founded in 1936 as the St Leonard's Catholic Central School in the former Springwell Hall, a coalmine owner's house acquired in 1935 by the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church, centred on St Mary's Cathedral, in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, in England. The diocese is one of the six suffragan sees in the ecclesiastical provi ...

. During the era of the

tripartite system The Tripartite System was the selective school system of State school#United Kingdom, state-funded secondary education between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 onwards in Northern Ireland. It was an administrative implementa ...

, the school became a

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 ...

and turned comprehensive in 1970 when the system was abolished by the LEA. The

was opened that same year. 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 November 2016 St Leonard's Catholic School converted to academy status. The school is now a part of the Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust.

New School Building

In November 2024 BAM signed a £71million pound contract with the Department for Education for a new school build for St Leonard's that will open in Easter 2026. The 110,000 sq ft three-storey school will include sports, assembly and dining halls and a wide range of departments, including specialist teaching spaces for art, technology and music at ground floor level. The existing Springwell Hall will be reconfigured, refurbished and utilised as part of the redeveloped campus. The existing Sixth Form building will also be retained.

Ofsted judgements

The school had been judged Good 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 ...

in 2019. In 2022 it was inspected again and judged to Require Improvement. The school was judged Outstanding in all 5 areas of the Ofsted Framework in 2024.

The Prime Minister's Global Fellowship

The school has a record of students attaining places on the

Prime Minister's Global Fellowship A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

programme. The school achieved its first student in the inaugural year of the programme, 2008, and in 2009 had 3 successful applicants.

Sport

The school has a rowing club, the St Leonard's School Boat Club.

Notable former pupils

* Stephen Cantwell (born 1996), cricketer * Elliot Embleton, footballer * Paddy and Martin McAloon, founders of the pop group

Prefab Sprout Prefab Sprout are an English pop/rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham who rose to fame during the 1980s. Formed in 1978 by brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon and joined by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Wendy Smith in 1982, t ...

* Jessica Eddie, Olympic medal-winning rower

Sources

External links

St Leonard's School website

School history

BBC: League tables
Secondary schools in County Durham Educational institutions established in 1936 Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Schools in Durham, England Academies in County Durham 1936 establishments in England {{CountyDurham-school-stub