Our Lady & St. Bede Catholic Academy Review 2026: Faith-led secondary with structured routines and a wide enrichment menu

A calm, routine-driven school day is a recurring theme here. Reading is deliberately protected with daily time set aside for pupils to “drop everything and read”, and lessons use a structured “Golden Time” segment intended to build independence and resilience.

The most recent graded inspection (10 to 11 June 2025) reported a school that feels welcoming, with respectful conduct and strong relationships between staff and pupils. It also described ambitious curriculum changes that are beginning to show impact, alongside the practical reality that some classroom activities are not consistently matched to intended learning, and that persistent absence remains a priority area.

This is a Catholic academy serving students aged 11 to 16, within the Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust. The headteacher is Mrs Maureen Wilkinson.

The school’s Catholic identity is not an add-on. It is woven through expectations, language, and leadership roles, and it shows up in visible opportunities for worship, service, and reflection. Mass is offered on every Holy Day of Obligation, with students invited to sign up from across year groups.

Service and social action are made practical. The St Vincent de Paul (SVP) society is not presented as a token club; it is described as a route for volunteering and local support, including activities such as helping in care homes and delivering food parcels.

The tone is also shaped by routines that make the day feel predictable. “Golden Time” is built into lessons, and the daily reading habit is framed as a whole-school norm rather than an intervention for a few. That kind of consistency tends to suit students who do best when expectations are explicit and repeated across subjects.

There is also a clear environmental strand within the faith life. The Laudato Si Prayer Garden is described as being prepared by the SVP group and used during form times for prayer and reflection, explicitly linking care for creation to spiritual practice.

On FindMySchool’s GCSE outcomes ranking (based on official data), the school is ranked 1,895th in England and 9th in Stockton-on-Tees. This places outcomes in line with the middle 35% of schools in England (25th to 60th percentile).

The attainment picture in the latest dataset shows an Attainment 8 score of 45.5. Progress 8 is -0.4, which indicates students, on average, made less progress than similar students nationally from their starting points.

Subject mix matters here. The proportion of pupils achieving grades 5 or above in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is 18.8%, and the average EBacc point score is 3.98.

For parents, the key implication is to look beyond raw attainment and ask how the current curriculum changes and classroom practice are landing for different learners. The latest inspection describes ambitious curriculum revision and improving impact, but also highlights inconsistency in how learning activities are adapted to need, which is often where progress gaps open up, especially for students who require clearer scaffolding or higher stretch.

Parents comparing local secondaries can use the FindMySchool local hub and comparison tools to view GCSE measures side-by-side, including how progress compares across nearby schools.

Curriculum intent is clearly communicated on the school site in subject areas, with departments outlining what students will learn and why. For example, Performing Arts emphasises practical skill, confidence, and creative thinking across Key Stage 3 foundations that connect to Key Stage 4 expectations.

Personal development is treated as timetabled learning rather than a “theme week” approach. Holistic Development (Relationships, Sex and Health Education) sets out an explicit model for teaching wellbeing, online safety, health, and relationships, aligned to statutory guidance and presented as part of forming students for adult life.

The strongest teaching signal from external evidence is around subject knowledge and questioning. The most recent inspection describes teachers as having strong subject knowledge, supported by professional development, and using probing questions to check understanding. The improvement priority, however, is consistency in choosing tasks that match the intended learning, so that knowledge becomes secure and cumulative rather than superficial.

Reading is treated as a foundation skill. Daily dedicated reading time, plus an emphasis on the library as a welcoming resource, indicates a strategic attempt to build vocabulary and fluency across the curriculum, not simply within English.

As an 11 to 16 school, the key destination question is post-16 progression. The most recent inspection reports that students move on to a wide range of destinations in further education, employment, or training, supported by a structured careers programme.

In practice, families should plan for an active Year 11 transition, including early engagement with sixth form colleges, FE colleges, and apprenticeship providers. The Provider Access legislation is referenced in the inspection evidence base, which matters because it places a duty on schools to give pupils access to technical and apprenticeship pathways, not only academic sixth form options.

Year 7 entry is coordinated by the local authority, with the academy trust as the admissions authority. For September 2026 entry, the school’s published admissions number for Year 7 is 210.

Because this is a Catholic school, oversubscription criteria prioritise Catholic children, with Catholic looked-after and previously looked-after children first, then Catholic feeder primary children, then other Catholic children, before wider categories (including other Christian denominations, other faiths, and finally any other children).

The tie-break is distance to the main school gate using a shortest walking route approach measured through the local authority’s distance methodology. If two or more applicants are equidistant for the final place, the policy provides for random allocation supervised independently.

For September 2026 entry in Stockton-on-Tees, the coordinated timetable shows applications opening in early September 2025, closing on 31 October 2025, with offers issued on 1 March 2026 (or the next working day).

For future cycles, families should expect a similar pattern and confirm the current year’s dates on the council site.

A practical tip: because distance is a tie-break within categories, parents often find it useful to use FindMySchool’s Map Search to check their home-to-gate distance and to sanity-check travel options, particularly if applying under a category where distance is likely to matter.

The school’s wellbeing model links routine with personal development. Daily reading time, structured lesson segments, and the explicit Holistic Development curriculum signal an approach that aims to reduce ambiguity for students while still teaching independence.

The most recent inspection describes calm, purposeful classrooms and orderly social times, and notes that bullying is reported as rare by pupils. It also flags persistent absence as an area requiring further improvement, particularly for some groups including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils, with strategies in place that were too early to fully evaluate at the time.

Enrichment is not treated as a single weekly club list. The school publishes a structured enrichment timetable with activities before school, at lunchtime, and after school, and it uses named spaces such as the Library, Sports Hall, and music rooms.

Examples help show the range and the “shape” of participation:

• Creative and performance: Pop Choir and Worship Choir sit alongside drama activity such as Roald Dahl On Stage.

• Clubs that suit quieter interests: Board Games, Chess Club, Dungeons and Dragons, and library-based Student Librarians create low-barrier ways for students to connect socially.

• Wider world and values: Geography Sustainability Club and Social Justice Club match the school’s faith-linked emphasis on service and responsibility.

• Sport and activity: football, rugby, netball, badminton, volleyball, and boxing appear across the week, alongside Sports Leaders opportunities.

Trips add another layer of breadth. The school describes pilgrimages to Rome, study visits to cities such as Barcelona and Paris, ski trips to France, and retreats at the Youth Village in Consett.

For many families, the implication is that cultural and faith-based experiences are not reserved for a small group. They are positioned as whole-school opportunities, with the expectation that students can find an entry point that fits them.

The published information confirms the school day starts at 8.40am, with students encouraged to arrive by 8.35am for punctuality.

The enrichment timetable references Breakfast Club from 8.15am and after-school activities running from 3.20pm, which gives a useful indication of wraparound touchpoints for working families.

As a large secondary on Bishopton Road West, drop-off and pick-up planning matters. Families should review transport options early and allow for peak-time congestion.

• Inspection outcome has shifted. The June 2025 graded inspection recorded Good across quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management, with no overall effectiveness grade under the post-September 2024 approach. Families who remember an older Outstanding judgement should read the latest evidence and ask what has changed and what is now improving.

• Progress measures are a watchpoint. Progress 8 is -0.4 in the latest dataset, suggesting the school’s work is as much about improving progress as it is about maintaining attainment. This can be manageable for many students, but families should ask how teaching is being adapted to help different learners secure deep understanding.

• Faith criteria are meaningful. Catholic children receive priority under oversubscription criteria, and applications may require evidence such as a baptismal certificate to be treated in the correct category. This is a strength for many families, but it does require alignment and preparation.

• Post-16 transition is inevitable. With education ending at 16, students will need a clear Year 11 plan for sixth form, college, or apprenticeships. The careers programme is intended to support this, but families should still engage early to avoid rushed decisions.

Our Lady & St. Bede Catholic Academy is best understood as a faith-led 11 to 16 school that relies on routine, explicit structures, and a broad enrichment framework to support student development. The strongest fit is for families who want a Catholic ethos integrated into daily school life, value service and community action, and appreciate clear expectations around reading, conduct, and personal development. The key decision points are the recent inspection profile, the trajectory of progress measures, and how comfortably a student will handle the post-16 move into college, sixth form, or training.