St Benedict's Catholic High School

St Benedict’s Catholic High School continues to perform effectively since its last inspection, maintaining good standards and fostering a positive learning environment for its pupils. Everyone at the school contributes to a supportive atmosphere where pupils are engaged, polite, and happy. The school has made noteworthy strides in its curriculum design and the current cohort of students is benefitting from these improvements, exhibiting strong understanding and quality of work across various subjects. However, the outcomes from examinations in 2024 do not yet reflect these substantial advancements in education quality due to former cohorts not receiving these benefits in time.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes towards learning and participate actively in lessons.
• The curriculum has been redesigned to provide a stronger educational foundation, especially in key stage 3.
• Teachers effectively address misconceptions and support pupils' understanding of subject-specific vocabulary.
• The school promotes a range of extracurricular activities that foster pupil talents and interests.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective and pupils feel safe.
• Staff enjoy a positive community atmosphere and feel valued, benefiting from communication with leadership.

Areas for Improvement

• Some learning activities chosen by staff do not effectively help pupils to secure knowledge.
• The adapted curriculum for some pupils with SEND is not ambitious enough, limiting their potential.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at St Benedict's Catholic High School attended 91.5% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 24.5% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 7.9% of pupils at St Benedict's Catholic High School were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 St Benedict's Catholic High School had 15.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 9.1% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 12.0% of pupils at St Benedict's Catholic High School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 6.8% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2025–26 St Benedict's Catholic High School received £8,477 and spent £9,053 for each of its 990 pupils. It ended the year with a deficit of £402,000 (-£406 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24).

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Whitehaven · Cumberland local authority: places and applications

What is St Benedict's Catholic High School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for St Benedict's Catholic High School is Good, from an inspection in July 2025.

When was St Benedict's Catholic High School last inspected by Ofsted?

St Benedict's Catholic High School was last inspected in July 2025.

How many pupils does St Benedict's Catholic High School have?

St Benedict's Catholic High School has 990 pupils on roll.

What age range does St Benedict's Catholic High School cover?

St Benedict's Catholic High School for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are St Benedict's Catholic High School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 43.8, and 40% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is St Benedict's Catholic High School?

St Benedict's Catholic High School is at Red Lonning, Hensingham, Whitehaven, Cumbria, CA28 8UG.