State-fundedAcademy converter · Swindon · SN3 3LR · Roman Catholic
Secondary (no sixth form) · ages 11–16
St Joseph's Catholic College is a state-funded school in Swindon, teaching pupils aged 11 to 16. It has a religious character (Roman Catholic).
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | +0.3777th percentile | -0.0646th percentile | -0.0149th percentile | +0.1059th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 49.168th percentile | 47.057th percentile | 50.662nd percentile | 48.964th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was +0.37 — above average, the 77th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.37 of a grade per subject higher than pupils across England who had the same results at the end of primary school.
The 95% confidence interval for 2023–24 runs +0.19 to +0.54. That sits entirely above zero, so the above-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has moved around a good deal across the years shown, from -0.06 to +0.37. The three-year average is the steadier number to judge it on.
Attainment 8 is the average grade pupils leave with across eight GCSEs; it tells you where they ended up, and tracks the intake a school admits as much as anything the school does. Progress 8 compares those grades with pupils nationally who had the same results at the end of primary school, so it is the better measure of what a school added.
| Grade 5+ in English & Maths | 50%63rd percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 4.1860th percentile |
A school can post a respectable overall score while coasting one group and carrying the average on another. The row that matters to you is the one your own child sits in.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower starters | +0.48 | +0.02 | +0.33 | +0.28 |
| Middle starters | +0.38 | -0.03 | +0.03 | +0.13 |
| Higher starters | +0.18 | -0.19 | -0.42 | -0.14 |
237 families named this school first for 256 places for 2026 entry — 0.93 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.93× | 0.87× | 0.94× |
This is how sought-after a school is, not how good it is — demand tracks house prices and older siblings as much as anything a school does. It is also not your chance of getting in: a school with two applicants per place can still admit everyone living near it, while a less popular school a mile further away turns you down. Distance is usually what decides it, and that depends on your address.
| Overall absence | 8.2%59th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 24.0%57th percentile |
Absence is worth reading next to results: it is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average. Across the schools in this dataset the overall absence rate averages 9.0%, so this school is below the norm.
School remains Good
The outcome of an ungraded inspection, which checks whether a school's previous grade still holds rather than issuing a new one.
The GCSE results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, which describes pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers where pupils go next, A-level or sixth-form results, pastoral care, how far a school pushes music, sport or drama, or how it feels to walk around — and those are the things parents most often say settled it. Visit at an open evening before you rank a school.
Nor is any of it a prediction of a place. Whether your child is offered one depends on the school's admission criteria and, most often, on how far you live from the gate.
See St Joseph's Catholic College on the map →Compare it with every other secondary school nearby, filter on results, admissions pressure or Ofsted, and sort the schools closest to your own postcode.