SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Leicester

St Paul's Catholic School, a Voluntary Academy

Spencefield Lane, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 6HN

Ofsted Good · 2023 Sixth form Roman Catholic Full
School website 01162414057

Ofsted

Goodas at 25 January 2023

Remained Good at its last ungraded inspection, on 25 January 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

54.5 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

57% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

78% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.6 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

31% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the top quarter of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is second least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.30confidence interval 0.09 to 0.51

Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as above average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
B-
Average points per entry
35.7

England average 32.3

A level students
79

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1167
Places
1142
How full
Full — 1167 pupils against 1142 places
Girls / boys
578 / 589
Overall absence
7%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
18%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
20%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
49%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
1%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
12%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
95%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
92%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
40%
No sustained destination
3%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
214

After sixth form

Went to university
65%

England 50%

In education, work or training
86%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
102

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

30% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
86%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
83

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for Leicester 025E, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.

Adults with a degree
32%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
25%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
85%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
4%

England 17%

Households with no car
16%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
47%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
ST THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC MULTI ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Headteacher: Shelley Conaghan
Local authority
Leicester
Ward
Evington
Constituency
Leicester East
URN
146232

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
The City of Leicester CollegeAcademy converter No grade 49.1 0.4 mi
Judgemeadow Community CollegeAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 46.7 0.5 mi
Crown Hills Community CollegeCommunity school No grade 47.4 0.9 mi
Al-Aqsa Schools TrustOther independent school No grade 1 mi
Madani Girls' SchoolVoluntary aided school Good 2022 61.4 1.3 mi
Madani Boys SchoolVoluntary aided school No grade 52.2 1.3 mi
The Imam Muhammad Adam Institute SchoolOther independent school No grade 1.5 mi
Jameah AcademyOther independent school No grade 1.6 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded secondary schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
The Cotswold AcademyAcademy converter No grade 53
Guru Nanak Sikh AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 49.9
Ossett Academy and Sixth Form CollegeAcademy converter No grade 51
Plympton AcademyAcademy converter Requires improvement 2024 43.1
Penrice AcademyAcademy converter No grade 50.9
Shelley College, A Share AcademyAcademy converter No grade 51.3
Sacred Heart High SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 60.9
XP SchoolFree schools Good 2023 39.8

Where these figures come from

  • School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
  • Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
  • Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
  • Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
  • Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.

All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.