Holy Family Catholic High School, Thornton


Holy Family Catholic High School is a Catholic comprehensive school situated in Thornton, Merseyside, England, catering for mixed pupils aged 11–18. The current intake at the school is 885, of which 156 are aged 16–18 pursuing further education in the school's own sixth form, with student attainment Year 13 above average in 2004, compared with all sixth forms nationally.

History

Holy Family converted from a secondary modern to a comprehensive during the late 1970s, and was formerly known as St Joseph's. The catchment area for pupils during the 1970s and 1980s was predominantly from the nearby towns of Formby, Freshfield and Crosby. This was the nearest RC High School that these pupils could attend after leaving junior school. Holy Family is a well known school mainly down to the fact that the School achieve high results each year. Many of Holy Family's pupils now come from areas such as Bootle and Seaforth and fewer come from Formby due to improvements made by the schools there. As of 2014, Mr Symes is the School's headteacher a position that he has held since September 2012 due to Mrs Seddon retiring. Since Mr Symes appointment the school has grown rapidly and is now one of the best schools in Sefton. In June 2014, the new School Dance Studio opened.

Statistics

The 2006 GCSE exam results saw 42% of pupils achieving 5 A*-C including Maths and English, slightly below the Sefton LEA average of 44%, showing a decline from 50% in 2005. The school achieves a KS2-KS4 Value-Added Measure of 993.2. Of the 143 lessons observed by Ofsted in March 2005, 71.4% were judged to be good, very good or excellent. The sixth form is currently collaborating with other local schools in order to provide a wider array of subjects to sixth formers.In 2013, 97% of Year 11 gained 5 or more A* - C passes including 77% gaining an A*-C in mathematics and 68% in English.