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St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School

Secondary · Rochester · ME1 2FA

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Requires improvement

SchoolFacts estimate: Ofsted awarded no overall grade at this inspection

We show the lowest of the four areas Ofsted did judge, listed below. Why some schools have no overall grade →

Quality of education: Requires improvementBehaviour & attitudes: Requires improvementPersonal development: GoodLeadership & management: Requires improvementSafeguarding effective: Yes

Inspected 29 October 2024

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

1,084 pupils · 91% of 1,185 capacity

School type
Voluntary aided school
Age range
11–18
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Admissions
Non-selective
Free school meals
36.4% of pupils
English as additional language
21.7% of pupils
SEN support
16.6% of pupils
EHC plan
1.3% of pupils
Sixth form
Yes
Website
http://www.stjohnfisher.school
URN
118908

Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026

0.59 first-choice applications per place

174 places offered · 102 first-choice applications · usually has places

First-choice applications per place, by entry year

19/20
20/21
21/22
22/23
23/24
24/25
25/26
26/27

Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.

Admissions cutoff distance: Year 7

Every applicant was offered a place for 2025 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.

How safe is a place here? Check your postcode

One free check a month, no account needed. No cutoff distance applied in 2025, so there is no boundary for your address to be inside of. The check shows how far you live from the school and how many rounds running it has placed every applicant. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools that do ration places by distance and whether you are inside them, and the address check across every school at once.

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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.

GCSE results (2024/2025)

179 pupils at the end of key stage 4 in 2024/2025

Attainment 8 score
40
England 46.1
Grade 4 or above in English & maths GCSEs
50.3%
England 64.8%
Grade 5 or above in English & maths GCSEs
32.4%
England 45.4%
EBacc average point score
3.3
England 4.1

Progress 8 is suspended nationally for 2024/25 and 2025/26. These cohorts sat no key stage 2 tests (COVID), so there is no baseline to measure progress from.

A-level results (2024/2025)

A-level points per entry (England: 35 ≈ B-) D+
24.8
England 35

Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.

Schools with a similar intake

Attainment 8, 2024/2025

This school40
Median of its 12 closest peers44.5
Medway average46.8
England46.1

On attainment 8, this school is behind the schools that teach a comparable intake.

The twelve below are matched on intake alone, from every state school in England, so most are not local. They are the evidence behind the comparison above, not a shortlist. For schools you could realistically apply to, see nearby schools.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
Lyndon SchoolSolihull · 123 miles awayGood49.7
Bellerive FCJ Catholic CollegeLiverpool · 201 miles awayExpected standard47.3
Burnt Mill AcademyHarlow · 33 miles awayGood45.2
Cockburn SchoolLeeds · 186 miles awayOutstanding49.1
Co-op Academy SwintonManchester · 191 miles awayGood44.6
Ralph Thoresby SchoolLeeds · 193 miles awayGood39.7
Trinity High School and Sixth Form CentreRedditch · 123 miles awayGood39.2
Arena AcademyBirmingham · 131 miles awayGood44.5
DSLV E-ACT AcademyDaventry · 94 miles awayGood37.2
Darwen Aldridge Community AcademyDarwen · 203 miles awayRequires improvement36.5
Bishop Justus CofE SchoolBromley · 20 miles awayRequires improvement37.8
Oulder Hill Leadership AcademyRochdale · 192 miles awayGood44.4

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one: same phase and admissions type, and as near as the data allows on size, free school meals, English as an additional language, SEN and the child poverty of the surrounding area (IDACI 2025). Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable: sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and plain geography all matter and are not in the calculation. Results: DfE performance tables, 2024/2025. How the matching works.

Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)

Sessions missed (overall absence)
9.6%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
23.9%
England 18.1%

Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
20.1
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

Teacher retention (2024/25)

79% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 8% moved to another state school · 13% left the state-funded sector

School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Spending per pupil

This school£7,814
Typical secondary school£7,798

Total expenditure ÷ pupils, council-maintained school finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Where pupils go after GCSEs

In sustained education, work or training
87%
Continuing in education
84%
Apprenticeship
1%
Employment
1%

Where students go after sixth form

To university / higher education
51%
Apprenticeship
4%
Employment
21%
Any sustained destination
79%

Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.

Inspection history since 2015

Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.

The area around the school

Child poverty (IDACI)
3/10more deprived than most of England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
3/10more deprived than most of England

English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.

Census 2021This areaEngland
Adults with a degree or higher29.3%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications19.2%18.1%
In managerial or professional work28.4%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways20%18.1%
Residents in very good health48.2%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier52.5%62.3%
Social housing19.8%17.1%
Privately rented27.7%20.5%
Detached houses2.9%22.9%
Flats24.5%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms12%21.1%
Households with no car or van24.1%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01016020 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 977 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£268,000512 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£226,500–£316,000the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (13)£425,000
Semi-detached (68)£311,000
Terraced (361)£270,000
Flat (70)£178,500

Homes around this school are cheaper than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.

Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Roads around the school

Child pedestrian casualties
7an urban school averages 2.0
Collisions at school-run times
15an urban school averages 5.8
All reported collisions
42an urban school averages 30.6
Of those, serious or fatal
11an urban school averages 6.1

Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Nearby schools