Austin Friars

The Order of St Augustine opened Austin Friars in 1951, and more than seventy years on it remains Carlisle's only Catholic independent school, teaching around 323 pupils from the age of 3 through to the sixth form on a single 25-acre site. It is co-educational, non-selective, and genuinely all-through: pre-school, junior school, senior school and VI Form share the same grounds and the same Augustinian motto, In Omnibus Caritas (In all things, charity). Headmaster Chris Hattam leads a school whose sixth form ranks first in Carlisle for A-level results and sits in the top 14.8% in England. A 2025 inspection flagged safeguarding and governance paperwork, since resolved, but never questioned the teaching. For Cumbrian and border families who want a small, faith-rooted school that carries a child from Kindergarten to A-level, it is a distinctive option.

Austin Friars is small by design, and that shapes everything. With roughly 323 pupils spread across four phases, cohorts are tight, staff know families by name, and the pre-school child and the sixth former walk the same grounds. The senior building began life in 1892 as Saint Anna's House, and the school has grown outward from it. For its first decades this was a boarding school for Catholic boys; St Monica's Junior School opened in 1985, and the following year Austin Friars became co-educational. The boarding has gone, but the founding purpose, a Catholic education rooted in the Augustinian tradition, has not.

The Augustinian identity is not decorative. The Order founded the school, and its three guiding principles, unity, truth and love, run through daily life, from the chapel used for Monday and Friday assemblies to the house activities built around it. Leaders promote these values effectively, and the community is held together by respectful relationships rather than rigid discipline. Behaviour is calm and orderly, and the Catholic ethos is embedded rather than bolted on. The alumni network reaches back to the 1960s and includes Augustinian clergy such as Father Paul Graham OSA and Fr Gabriel Daly, a reminder of the religious order that still shapes the place.

This is a faith school with a serious religious character, and families should expect that. Worship, service and reflection are woven into the week, and charity is not just the motto but a habit: pupils raise money and give time to local causes through structured service learning as a matter of routine. What it is not is austere. The junior end of the school runs a Forest School among the grounds, and the whole place has the feel of a compact, busy village rather than a large institution. Small does not mean sleepy here; it means visible, where a child is known across every year they spend on the site.

Because Austin Friars spans every stage, its results need reading phase by phase. As an independent, it has no published Key Stage 2 rankings, so the academic picture begins at GCSE and sharpens at A-level.

At GCSE, the senior school sits 1,012th of 3,895 schools in England for academic results, which places it in the top 26.0% (ranked against every school in England with published secondary results, state and independent). That is a proprietary FindMySchool ranking built from official data, and it puts the school in line with the stronger half of the middle of English schools. On the blended overall measure, which combines results with our inspection score, the school ranks 1,525th of 3,887, and within Carlisle it stands 2nd. The GCSE cohort is small, around 39 pupils at the end of Year 11, so a single year group can shift the numbers. GCSE results are consistently above the England average, and fluent written and spoken communication is a recognised strength of the school's leavers.

The sixth form is where Austin Friars is at its strongest. It ranks 380th of 2,562 schools and colleges in England for A-level results, putting it in the top 14.8% and well above the England average. On the overall measure it ranks 612th of 2,561, and across Carlisle it is 1st for A-level results, again a proprietary FindMySchool ranking built from official data. The grade profile backs this up. About 39% of entries reach A* or A, comfortably ahead of the England average of roughly 24%, and around 67% reach A* to B against an England figure near 47%. For a school of this size, a first-in-Carlisle A-level standing is the headline a prospective family should hold on to.

The contrast between the solid GCSE position and the strong A-level one is worth understanding. It reflects a sixth form that consolidates a non-selective intake and lifts it, rather than a school that cherry-picks high performers at 11. Parents weighing Austin Friars against larger colleges can use the FindMySchool local hub to see how those A-level and GCSE positions compare side by side across Carlisle.

Teaching is the school's steadiest asset. Most lessons are well planned and taught, and pupils make typically good progress, and that held firm even while the school was addressing separate governance concerns in 2025. The curriculum is thoughtfully built for a non-selective, mixed-ability intake: recent additions include new GCSE courses in psychology and agriculture, Cambridge Technical courses in the sixth form, and a revised junior mathematics scheme. Agriculture is a telling choice in a rural county, and it signals a school willing to shape its offer around the families it serves rather than a fixed template.

Not every lesson lands equally. Some teaching is less successfully planned, occasionally leaving pupils to lose focus and make limited progress. In a school this small the variation is felt quickly, and it is the sort of unevenness that comes with a modest staff rather than a systemic weakness. It is a fair question to put to the school on a visit: how consistent is the teaching across the subject a particular child cares about.

Learning support is handled personally. Pupils who need it work to Individual Provision Maps, targets set jointly by the pupil, class teacher, the SENCO and support staff, which suits a school that trades on knowing children individually. In the early years, the junior Forest School turns the outdoors into a classroom, and LAMDA speech and drama examinations for the upper juniors add another strand of individual challenge and formal accreditation. The senior library, running on a proper cataloguing system and housing a dedicated careers collection, doubles as a space for both taught lessons and independent study.

The VI Form deserves its own focus, because it is both the academic high point and the reason many families choose the school. It offers a broad menu of around 23 A-level subjects for a school its size, spanning the sciences, mathematics and further mathematics, humanities such as history, geography, economics and religious studies, classical civilisation and psychology, modern languages and English literature, and creative and applied routes including fine art, drama, music, business, design and technology, IT and physical education. An Extended Project Qualification lets students pursue an independent piece of research, and Cambridge Technical courses give a vocational alternative alongside the traditional A-levels.

Entry into Year 12 is based on projected GCSE grades rather than a competitive external sift, and most students continue from the school's own Year 11, though the sixth form also recruits externally. That breadth of subjects for a small cohort is the trade the school has chosen: option blocks can be tight and some sets are small, but the range on paper is genuinely wide, and the A-level results suggest students are well served by it. Careers guidance and university preparation are strongest here, and this is where the school's post-16 support is most developed.

The exit points are staggered across the school. Most junior pupils move up into the senior school, and senior students who meet their projected grades continue into the VI Form, so the sixth form is fed largely from within while remaining open to external applicants. This continuity is one of the quieter advantages of an all-through school: a child can settle once at 3 or 5 and stay put.

Post-18 destinations tilt firmly towards higher education. Of the 2023/24 leaving cohort of 34, 56% went on to university, with a further group moving into employment. The school does not publish a Russell Group breakdown or Oxbridge figures, so parents wanting named destinations should ask the sixth-form team directly, but the direction of travel is clear: for most sixth formers, Austin Friars is a route to a degree. Careers guidance is well established in the sixth form, though it is less consistent lower down the senior school, in Years 7 to 11, which is one area the school itself acknowledges it is still tightening.

Austin Friars admits at four natural points: pre-school at age 3, the junior school at 5, the senior school at 11, and the VI Form at 16. It describes itself as not academically selective, and the assessment reflects that. Prospective senior pupils sit short papers in maths, English and non-verbal reasoning during taster days, which are used to place children and identify support needs rather than to screen them out. Sixth-form entry is based on projected GCSE grades, and pre-school places are reserved with a booking fee. There is a non-refundable registration fee of £75 for junior and senior entry and a £250 deposit on acceptance.

As a Catholic independent school, admission does not hinge on a family's religious practice: there is no Certificate of Catholic Practice or parish reference to produce, and entry runs through taster days and assessment. Families should nonetheless expect a school where the Catholic character is real and present, so the fit matters more than the paperwork.

There is no local-authority coordination and no distance-based catchment here, so the FindMySchool map and saved-schools shortlist are more useful for weighing travel time and comparing Austin Friars against nearby options than for gauging your odds of a place. Individual tours run year-round, and an Open Week in October offers scheduled group tours. Because published event dates move year to year, contact the school for current times rather than relying on last year's schedule.

Pastoral care is a genuine strength. Standards for pupils' physical and mental health and emotional wellbeing were fully met at the most recent inspection, as were those for their social and economic education. The PSHE and relationships and sex education programmes are comprehensive and age-appropriate, and physical education is used deliberately to support healthy living and mental resilience alongside competitive sport.

The house system anchors senior pastoral life. Clare House, led by Mrs Evans, Lincoln House under Ms Cantley and Stafford House under Mrs Boyling give students a smaller unit to belong to, with the chapel a shared focal point for reflection and celebration. Service runs through the culture: pupils contribute to the local community through charity initiatives and structured service learning, which is the motto made practical rather than merely displayed.

There is one important point of honesty on the safeguarding record, because it is the area the school had to put right in 2025 and did. It sits in Things to Consider below, and any family should read it before deciding.

For a small school, the co-curricular menu is unusually full, and music is its centre of gravity. The senior school runs an orchestra, a swing band and separate boys' and girls' choirs, alongside a cluster of smaller ensembles: a flute ensemble, a string ensemble, a guitar ensemble, a brass group and a wittily named chamber group, Some Strings Attached. The junior choir performs at assemblies, church services and concerts, so children are drawn into performance early. That density of ensemble for a roll of around 300 tells you music is a priority, not an afterthought, and it gives even beginners somewhere to play.

Sport makes the most of the 25-acre site, which includes a floodlit all-weather pitch that keeps fixtures and training running through Cumbrian winter evenings. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is popular, with a large number of students taking part, and junior pupils can begin working towards it at Bronze level alongside a Bronze Arts Award. Clubs stretch from a running club and gymnastics to tennis across several year groups, so a child who is not a natural team-sport player still has a route into staying active.

The junior Forest School is a distinctive draw and hard to replicate in a town-centre school. Younger pupils learn outdoors around a genuine working set-up: a fire pit for gathering, a pizza oven for outdoor cooking, a chicken coop for animal care, a mud kitchen, an amphibian pond for studying aquatic life and a bug hotel for observing insects. It is hands-on, seasonal and rooted in the grounds, and it does real work in building confidence and curiosity in the early years before formal lessons take over.

Elsewhere the clubs reward curiosity across the arts and sciences. The Chadwick Historical Society, a STEM club, a chess club, a cookery club, gaming, craft and an art open studio fill lunchtimes and after-school slots, and drama runs from junior LAMDA work up to senior performance. The point is not the length of the list but that a school this size sustains real depth in music, outdoor learning and sport at once, which is where a lot of larger schools spread thin.

Austin Friars is fee-paying, and the 2026/27 fees are published inclusive of VAT on a per-term basis. In the junior school, termly fees run from £4,973 in the lower years to £6,518 in the upper years; in the senior school they are £8,266 in the first two years and £8,568 through the upper school and VI Form. A 5% sibling discount applies, and a non-refundable registration fee of £75 and a £250 deposit on acceptance are payable. Pre-school and Kindergarten fees are set separately; for those, and for the current funded early-years hours position for eligible families, see the school website and government funding guidance rather than any figure quoted second-hand.

The school does not publish details of bursaries or scholarships, so families who would need means-tested help or a merit award should ask the admissions office directly about what, if anything, is available rather than assume a formal scheme exists. That absence of published financial aid is worth weighing against the fees, particularly for a family committing to as much as fifteen years of independent education across the phases.

Austin Friars runs a network of named coaches that reach well beyond Carlisle, which matters in a rural county. The Brampton route serves Brampton, Heads Nook, Corby Hill, Wetheral and Scotby; the Penrith route covers Penrith, Stoneybeck, Plumpton and the Heskets; the West Cumbria route reaches Aspatria, Thursby and Baldwinholme; and the Dumfries route crosses into Scotland via Annan and Gretna. That last detail is telling: the school genuinely draws from both sides of the border, and for many families the coach is the deciding practicality.

Daily hours and any breakfast or after-school wraparound care are not published in detail, and provision varies by phase, so confirm exact timings with the school before committing. For international students only, the school arranges homestay accommodation with carefully selected host families; there is no boarding for domestic pupils, despite the school's boarding origins.

The 2025 inspection standards, and the fix. In October 2025, ISI found that Austin Friars did not meet all the required Standards, with the shortfalls confined to safeguarding record-keeping, staff training and complaints handling rather than to teaching or wellbeing. Leaders responded quickly, and a progress-monitoring visit in March 2026 confirmed that every relevant Standard was again being met, after the school introduced systematic training records, a proper low-level-concerns log and a rebuilt complaints process with termly governor oversight. The episode is worth knowing about, and so is the speed and completeness of the remedy.

A pervasive Catholic character. The Augustinian ethos is genuine and runs through worship, assemblies and service. Families who would be uncomfortable with regular Catholic worship and an explicit faith framing should look elsewhere, even though entry itself does not require religious practice.

Small cohorts cut both ways. With around 39 pupils finishing Year 11 and a compact sixth form, results can swing year to year, and some subject sets and option blocks are small. The upside is individual attention; the trade-off is less peer breadth than a large school offers.

Financial aid is not published. With no advertised bursary or scholarship scheme, the fees are close to the full cost of attendance for most families, which narrows access and is a real consideration across an all-through commitment.

Austin Friars is a small, warm, faith-centred all-through school with a genuinely strong sixth form: first in Carlisle for A-level results and in the top 14.8% in England, with a GCSE record consistently above the England average beneath it. Teaching is typically good, pastoral care is a real strength, and the co-curricular life, led by an unusually rich music programme and a working Forest School, punches above the roll. The 2025 inspection exposed governance and safeguarding paperwork that has since been put right in full, and parents should read that history honestly rather than ignore it.

It is best suited to Cumbrian and border families who want one Catholic school to carry a child from age 3 to 18, who value small classes and individual attention over the scale of a large independent, and who are comfortable with a real, embedded faith identity. The main caveats are the pervasive religious character, the volatility that comes with small cohorts, and the absence of published financial aid. For the right family, the continuity and the sixth-form record are the reasons to look closely.