St Bede's and St Joseph's Catholic College

Our College and Our Mission

St Bede’s and St Joseph’s Catholic College is a highly aspirational learning community, striving to provide an outstanding 21st century education for all learners in a learning environment of the highest possible quality. We work constantly to promote a passion for learning, to create innovative ways of working and to nurture the talents and ambitions of all our students and staff. 

The College operates across the impressive former sites of its two foundation schools, St Joseph’s Catholic College and St Bede’s Grammar School – now known respectively as “Ignis” for Years 7–9 and “Ardor” for Years 10-13 – approximately one mile apart. The rich history and tradition of the two foundation schools stretches back over 100 years, with the originally stated mission to provide, 

“a thorough training in the knowledge and principles of the Catholic faith combined with a secular education equal in every respect to the best public schools in England.”

This is an exciting time to join the College as we continue to develop this mission and build on our tradition, with a determined focus on strong teaching, and wide-ranging co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. Our mission inspires the three elements of our College Diploma – Scholastica, academic achievement, Ecclesia, contribution to the Catholic life of the College, and Olympia, participation in activities outside the classroom. These elements of the College Diploma form the foundation of our newly implemented House system, with our 1500 lower school students divided into five Houses, each with three leaders who are responsible for the achievement, personal growth and well-being of students within their House. Each House is supported by a House Manager who upholds standards and expectations within the House, as well as playing a major role in clerical and administrative organisation to support students.

The College motto, Christus Lumen Gentium, Christ, Light of Nations, inspires the organisation of our subject areas into five Learning Divisions, again, each with three leaders: Ignite, the Division Leader, responsible for overall performance, Illuminate, responsible for quality of teaching and professional learning, and Shine, responsible for tracking student progress and organising intervention and support. Each Learning Division is complemented by a Division Manager who provides efficient and effective clerical and administrative support for teachers. As need arises, we also make temporary, fixed term appointments on TLR3 to enhance the professional development within specific Learning Divisions, to develop future leaders and to continue to improve attainment at GCSE.

After GCSE, the majority of students continue with us into St Benedict’s Sixth Form, our very successful Post-16 provision, where approximately 450 students enjoy fantastic study and social facilities and achieve excellent results. Ofsted’s most recent judgement concludes,

“As a result of strong leadership and consistently good teaching, achievement in the sixth form is good. Leaders know the priorities for improvement and take effective action to further improve students’ opportunities.”

We make every effort to secure and enhance the success of our sixth form students, through work experience, academic and pastoral support and an intensive focus on careers advice and guidance to steer them to the most appropriate Post-18 choices. 

Our Houses and Learning Divisions and our high-performing sixth form reflect our passion to achieve success for all and we want to appoint staff who share this passion and are committed to supporting the development of our mission. For every post, we seek staff who can inspire, have high expectations and raise the aspirations of young people. If this is you, we look forward to reading your application and welcoming you as a member of our community.