St Paul's Catholic School is a comprehensive

Comprehensive school

A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 co-educational secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 in Leadenhall, Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The school is a specialist Science and Language College in Milton Keynes. It is also a Teacher Training College.

Ofsted reports

Ofsted

Ofsted

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

inspected the school in January 2000. In their report summary, they say

St Paul's catholic School is an outstanding school which provides excellent care, support and guidance for its pupils and enables them to achieve very high academic standards. Through highly effective management and the outstanding leadership of the headteacher, well supported by the governing body, the school has continued to improve since its largely favourable previous inspection. The school has effectively addressed all areas identified for improvement in the last inspection and demonstrates very good capacity to improve further.

The school was inspected again in 2005 and 2008, and in both cases it was judged to be "outstanding".

Key Stage 3

St Paul's Catholic School's KS3 curriculum has a format of 6 periods of 45 minute lessons, 1, 15 minute break and 1, 45 minute lunch (during KS4's period 4) on a Mondays and Fridays. 8 periods of 40 minute lessons are taught on Wednesdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays along with 2, 15 minute breaks and 1, 40 minute lunch (during KS4's period 6. KS3 subjects include English, Mathematics, Science, ICT, Religious Education, Physical Education, Games, History, Geography, Art, Design & Technology, Music, Drama, PSHE & Citizenship and a Modern Foreign Language; which is allocated in year 7 from either French, German, Italian or Spanish.

Key Stage 4

At KS4 pupils make GCSE options. The options are grouped into 3 programmes; A, B and C. All Programmes have the compulsory subjects of English Literature and Language, Mathematics (option of Additional
mathematics in year 11), Religious Studies, Games(Non-GCSE) and PSHE(Non-GCSE). Programme A offers a choice of 1 humanity (History/Geography), 1 Expressive Art(Art/Drama/Music/PE), 1 technology(BTec Hospitality/Textiles/Product Design/Engineering/Graphics/Electronics) and 1 Vocational Subject (Business Studies/Business Communications/Health and Social Care/ICT). Science in programme A has two options of either Double Award or Triple Award). Programme B has the same compulsory Subjects but with no Humanities or Technology, 1 Expressive Art and 1 BTec Subject (Health and Social care/Horticulture/Business Studies in 1st diplomas). Programme C is the same as programme B but has the option of either BTec Business Introductory or BTec Construction and the Built Environment Introductory, instead of the 1st diploma courses.

Key Stage 5

6th Form students have the option of 4 selected subjects offered during the year and is compulsory to do a course in General Studies and General RE. Entry to St Paul's is 5 GCSEs A*-C grades.

Banding

St Paul's structures it's timetables with two bands (X and Y). Each band consists of four forms, making eight forms per year group. In September 2007 a 9th form was added to year 7 X band, this form has been added henceforth to every year group. In 1996, the year 8 intake had only seven forms, missing out on Neumann, however this changed back to 8 forms for the 1997 intake. The bands work form two to four consecutive periods of lessons. When X band has a single period of RE, Y Band has a single period of Science, the bands then switch lessons during the next period, such that X band has science and Y band has RE.

Form groups

The forms are named after patron saints of the universal church. X band: Angela Merici, Benedict of Nursia, Charles Borromeo, Maximilian Kolbe and Elizabeth of Hungary(recently added). Y Band: Thomas More, John Neumann, Teresa of Avila and John Vianney.

Faculties

The Form Tutors are given tutor group through what teaching faculty they are in. Each year group has a faculty. The faculties are: Humanities and RE, Mathematical Skills and LS, Communication and Design, Languages and Expressive Arts. When a year 11 leaves, their faculty will go to the new year 7's.

External links

• School website