St Edmund's Catholic School

St Edmund's Catholic School is a highly inclusive secondary school in Dover, part of the Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership. It serves a community with above-average deprivation and a high proportion of pupils with special educational needs support and those eligible for free school meals. The school also has a specialist resourced provision for pupils with autism spectrum disorder and speech, language and communication needs. Inspectors found an open and positive culture of safeguarding, with standards met. The school's inclusion work is a standout strength: leaders are strategic, pupils' needs are identified quickly, and staff remove barriers to learning and wellbeing. Pupils feel safe, behave well, and benefit from strong pastoral care and a house system that ensures every pupil is known. Achievement is generally good and improving, with GCSE results typically above those of similar schools, though national attainment measures remain below average. Disadvantaged pupils perform comparably to their peers nationally, and the weakest readers are well supported. Pupils are well prepared for their next steps. There are areas for further development. Teaching is generally strong, but checks on learning are not consistently used to adapt lessons, so progress is not always rapid. Pupils' understanding of citizenship is less secure, and careers provision is stronger in Years 10 and 11 than in key stage 3. Attendance is a concern: overall absence and persistent absence are above national averages, and leaders are embedding strategies to improve this. Leaders are ambitious and well supported by the trust, and staff feel valued. The school has clear next steps to improve consistency in teaching, personal development, and attendance.

Strengths

• Highly inclusive culture with robust and strategic leadership
• Pupils' needs identified swiftly and accurately, with barriers removed effectively
• House system ensures every pupil is known and their aspirations are championed
• Expert support for pupils with SEND, including specialist resourced provision
• Effective use of pupil premium to improve achievement and attendance
• Strong support for weakest readers, boosting skills and confidence
• Excellent relationships with virtual school and local authority
• Pupils generally achieve well and increasingly so, with GCSE results above similar schools
• Disadvantaged pupils perform comparably to peers nationally
• Pupils are well prepared for education, employment or training
• Positive and welcoming culture with good attendance, especially for vulnerable pupils
• Pupils are kind, considerate and behave well; disruption and bullying are rare
• Broad, ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum
• Teachers are subject experts and receive effective professional learning
• Leaders are ambitious, passionate and act in pupils' best interests
• Strong pastoral provision and high-quality wellbeing support
• Coherent personal development programme preparing pupils for modern Britain
• Wide range of enriching opportunities, with barriers removed for vulnerable pupils
• Staff feel valued and proud to work at the school
• Safeguarding standards are met

Areas for Improvement

• Inconsistent use of checks on learning to inform next steps in teaching
• Pupils' knowledge of citizenship curriculum, such as UK politics and personal finances, is less secure
• Careers provision is less secure in key stage 3
• Overall absence and persistent absence are above national averages
• GCSE outcomes in English and maths and Attainment 8 are below national averages
• Disadvantaged pupils' attainment gap remains large in some measures
• Some pupils do not make rapid progress when teaching does not adapt to checks on learning
• Attendance strategy needs further embedding to improve all pupils' attendance and reduce persistent absence

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 Edmund's Catholic School attended 90.2% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 29.1% 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, 9.4% of pupils at St Edmund's Catholic 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 Edmund's Catholic School had 16.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 15.7% 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, 26.9% of pupils at St Edmund's Catholic School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 4.2% 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 2024–25 St Edmund's Catholic School received £8,404 and spent £8,130 for each of its 648 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £383,000 (£591 per pupil).

Across all 30 schools of Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership, income was £6,963 and spending £6,776 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). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Dover · Kent local authority: places and applications

St Edmund's Catholic School is part of Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership, which runs 33 schools. The nearest others:

• St Richard's Catholic Primary School Dover
• St Mary's Catholic Primary School Deal
• Stella Maris Catholic Primary School Folkestone
• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Aylesham Canterbury
• St Augustine's Catholic Primary School Hythe
• St Anselm's Catholic School, Canterbury Canterbury
• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Broadstairs Broadstairs
• Ursuline College Westgate-On-Sea
• St Gregory's Catholic Primary School, Margate Margate
• St Teresa's Catholic Primary School Ashford

What is St Edmund's Catholic School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for St Edmund's Catholic School is Expected standard, from an inspection in October 2026.

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

St Edmund's Catholic School was last inspected in October 2026.

How many pupils does St Edmund's Catholic School have?

St Edmund's Catholic School has 644 pupils on roll.

What age range does St Edmund's Catholic School cover?

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

What are St Edmund's Catholic School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 33.7, and 18% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is St Edmund's Catholic School?

St Edmund's Catholic School is at Old Charlton Road, Dover, Kent, CT16 2QB.