Brownedge St Mary’s Catholic High School Review 2026: Catholic community school with strong pastoral structures

A clear sense of belonging is one of the defining features here. The school’s Catholic mission, expressed through the phrase Let your light shine, is visible in day to day routines, a house structure that aims to ensure every child is known well, and a strong emphasis on service and social justice.

Leadership is stable. Mrs N Oddie has been headteacher since September 2019, following a long professional connection with the school, and the senior team is presented clearly on the school website.

The most recent Ofsted inspection (13 and 14 May 2025) confirmed that the school has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

The school’s culture is built around a family style model, with language and structures that emphasise closeness and responsibility. A key driver is the house system, which sits alongside year group forms. Each pastoral house is described as being around 150 students, with five year form groups per house. The practical point is simple, families have a consistent set of adults who track wellbeing and progress, rather than relying on a single form tutor relationship that can feel thin in a large secondary.

Faith is not confined to assemblies. Chaplaincy is positioned as part of the school’s wellbeing offer, with a chaplaincy team that includes staff, pupils and a lay chaplain, and with sacramental preparation available for students across Years 8 to 11, including Confirmation. For Catholic families, this level of integration can feel reassuring. For families who are supportive but less observant, the school’s approach can still work well, provided they are comfortable with prayer, liturgy, and a values language rooted in the Gospel.

A second, more outward facing dimension is the school’s stated focus on welcome and inclusion. The school explains that it is working towards becoming a School of Sanctuary, and sets out planned activities such as staff training, a Refugee Week, charity and inter house work, and curriculum links to human rights, migration and refuge. For many parents, this will be read as an explicit choice to educate students about contemporary moral questions, not just traditional Catholic practice.

This is an 11 to 16 school, so the headline outcome measures are at GCSE. The school’s Attainment 8 score is 44.1, and its Progress 8 score is 0.03, which indicates outcomes broadly in line with the national picture once prior attainment is considered.

A useful orientation point is the FindMySchool ranking, which is designed to help families compare results consistently across schools using official performance data. Brownedge St Mary’s is ranked 2,561st in England and 13th in Preston for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking). This reflects solid performance, in line with the middle 35% of schools in England (25th to 60th percentile).

One area parents often ask about is the English Baccalaureate. The school’s average EBacc APS is 3.75. Context matters here, because EBacc patterns vary significantly by school and locality, depending on language take up and option structures.

For families comparing local options, the FindMySchool local comparison tools are useful for viewing Progress 8, Attainment 8 and subject entry patterns side by side, without needing to cross reference multiple sources.

The school presents a curriculum model designed to keep breadth in Key Stage 3 while building towards Key Stage 4 choices. In Years 7 to 9, published curriculum time allocations include Religious Education (2.5 hours weekly in each year), English (rising to 4 hours by Years 8 and 9), mathematics (3 to 4 hours), science (3 hours), and separate allocations for geography and history (2 hours each). Modern foreign languages are taught as French and German in Years 7 and 8, with specialisation by Year 9. Learning for Life is positioned as an RSHE and citizenship programme, described as 20 hours per year group.

Literacy is treated as a whole school priority, with a specific intervention model that is unusually detailed for a mainstream secondary website. The Lexonic programme is described as a structured, research informed approach aimed at word recognition, decoding and vocabulary, with two delivery formats, Lexonic Leap (three 20 minute sessions per week) and Lexonic Advance (one hour per week). The implication for parents is that reading support is organised as a planned, timetabled intervention rather than an ad hoc add on, which is often what families mean when they ask whether a school “does anything” about literacy gaps.

Classroom quality is always the hardest area to convey without visits, but the school’s published materials and the latest inspection narrative align on a few points: clear explanations, steps that break down tasks, and a curriculum that aims to be ambitious for all pupils. Where families should probe, especially at open events, is how departments check understanding in real time and how they correct misconceptions, because this was flagged as an area where consistency can still improve.

Where Students Go Next

With no sixth form, the destination question is less about university pipelines and more about pathways at 16. The school’s messaging puts weight on preparedness for further education, technical routes and apprenticeships, consistent with provider access expectations for technical education information from Year 8 onwards.

For most families, the practical next step is understanding which colleges are most common locally, what entry requirements they set for specific courses, and how the school supports choices. The school’s wider personal development and careers framing, including structured enrichment and work experience references, suggests that planning for post 16 routes is treated as a core part of the programme, not an end of Year 11 add on.

Because published destination percentages are not available here, parents should use open evenings and Year 11 information events to ask three precise questions: which local providers most students move to, how the school supports applications for competitive courses, and what the school does for students whose plans change after mock results.

Year 7 entry is through Lancashire’s coordinated admissions process. For September 2026 entry, applications open on 01 September 2025 and the national closing date is 31 October 2025, with offers issued on 02 March 2026.

As a voluntary aided Catholic school, the admissions criteria are faith informed. The school publishes a determined admissions arrangements document for 2026 to 2027 showing a Published Admission Number of 160, with criteria that prioritise, in order, looked after and previously looked after children, then Catholic children from named Catholic feeder primaries, then Catholic children living in designated parishes, then Catholic children with siblings, and so on, before moving to non Catholic feeder primary children and siblings.

There is also a supplementary admissions form, and families seeking priority under faith criteria should expect to provide the supporting evidence described in the school’s documentation.

Two practical implications follow. First, families should be clear about where they sit within the oversubscription criteria, rather than assuming distance alone will decide outcomes. Second, Catholic primaries listed as feeders matter, so parents should read the admissions arrangements carefully if they are weighing multiple Catholic secondaries across the area.

Pastoral care is presented as a central feature, rather than a supporting service. The house system is the backbone, with heads of house and tutors intended to provide consistent relationships over a five year journey. The school explicitly lists benefits such as peer mentoring, leadership opportunities for older students, and a single consistent point of contact for parents and carers.

The school also describes a large Intervention and Support Team, including safeguarding leads, a mental health and wellbeing practitioner, SENCO leadership, behaviour mentors, a counsellor and a school nurse. Where this matters most is speed, families want to know whether concerns turn into action, and a multi role team structure typically allows for triage and referrals without relying on a single overstretched individual.

Mental health work is treated as a whole school priority, with the school stating it received the School Mental Health Award in September 2022, and with signposting to support such as Kooth alongside policies and parent guides. This is helpful for parents who want both in school support and clear routes to external help when needed.

Ofsted also confirmed that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Extracurricular and enrichment are unusually well documented. The school uses the term CASEO, meaning Curriculum After School Enrichment Opportunities, with a published schedule showing activities by term, day, year group and staff lead. Clubs and activities listed include Choir and Chamber Choir, Debate Club, Improv Club and production work, Music Tech, Keyboard Club, STEM Club, Science Club, History Club, Maths Challenge, Poetry Club, Foods of the World, Football, Netball and Trampolining. There are also faith and service activities such as CAFOD and SVP, plus an Equalities group.

The practical message is breadth with structure. Because clubs are listed term by term, families can see whether an interest is a one off or a recurring strand. This also helps students who need a nudge to join in, because staff can point to clear entry points by term.

Several wider projects reinforce the school’s emphasis on service and remembrance. Students have raised funds to create a memorial garden and purchase a “Tommy” figure as a focal point for commemoration, and the school describes the garden as something shared by both pupils and local community members. That kind of project matters in the secondary phase because it gives students ownership of shared spaces and shared rituals, not just one off charity days.

Environmental and social action also show up in school communications. The school has referenced Eco Group activity and a Green Week framed around environmental impact, daily habit changes, and stewardship language connected to faith.

Facilities strengthen the sport and activity offer. The school lists a sports hall with four badminton courts, a gym with a sprung floor, and a full size 3G astroturf pitch, with the pitch described as suitable for football, hockey and tag rugby. For sporty students, this often translates into more regular fixtures and training time, and for less sporty students it can mean more accessible entry points through mixed ability clubs and short units rather than only elite teams.

The school day is clearly published. Morning registration runs from 8:30 to 8:55, with Period 1 starting at 8:55. The formal day finishes at 3:00 after afternoon registration, and the school states this equates to 32.5 hours in school per typical week.

Open events appear to follow a predictable seasonal pattern. In 2025 the open evening ran on 01 October, suggesting early October is the most likely window in most years, but families should still check annually because timings can shift.

As a state school, there are no tuition fees. Families should budget for the standard secondary extras such as uniform, trips and optional activities, and use the school’s published payment and information systems for clarity on what is chargeable and when.

• Faith shaped admissions: As a voluntary aided Catholic school, the oversubscription criteria prioritise Catholic feeder primaries and designated parishes before moving to other groups. Families should read the determined arrangements closely and complete the supplementary form correctly, because small evidence issues can affect priority.

• Academic profile: The FindMySchool GCSE ranking places the school within the middle 35% of schools in England, with broadly average progress. This can suit many learners well, but families seeking a consistently high attaining peer group should compare local alternatives carefully using like for like metrics.

• Assessment consistency: External review points to strong teaching in many areas, but also highlights that checking understanding is not equally strong in every subject, which can leave misconceptions uncorrected. Parents of students who need very frequent feedback should ask how departments monitor learning and intervene.

• Enrichment is wide, but it rotates: The CASEO schedule suggests a strong offer, but clubs change term by term and some are year specific. Students who rely on a single activity for confidence should check which clubs run in which terms and what the entry points are.

This is a Catholic 11 to 16 school with a clearly defined mission and a pastoral model designed to ensure students are known well. Academic outcomes sit in a broadly typical England range, with a strong emphasis on personal development, structured enrichment, and wellbeing support. Best suited to families who want a faith shaped community culture, value a house system and service ethos, and are comfortable engaging carefully with admissions criteria. The main limiting factor is not what the school offers, it is understanding how the faith based oversubscription rules apply to your child.