SF School Facts UK

Boys secondary school in London, Southwark

The St Thomas the Apostle College

Hollydale Road, Nunhead, London, SE15 2EB

Sixth form Roman Catholic Boys Full
School website 02076390106

Ofsted

Standards maintained at the last ungraded inspection, on 6 November 2024.

Inspections since September 2024 do not give an overall grade, so there is no one-word judgement to report. The full report sets out what inspectors found.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

61.7 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

72% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

86% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

5.7 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

70% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the top 10% of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is most disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top 10%.

Progress 8 2023/24

1.45confidence interval 1.23 to 1.68

Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as well 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
42.2

England average 32.3

A level students
134

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1140
Places
1000
How full
Full — 1140 pupils against 1000 places
Girls / boys
108 / 1032
Overall absence
5%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
12%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
47%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
33%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
10%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
97%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
96%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
70%
No sustained destination
1%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
155

After sixth form

Went to university
73%

England 50%

In education, work or training
91%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
131

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

50% 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
91%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
128

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 Southwark 023C, 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
52%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
15%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
30%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
43%

England 17%

Households with no car
57%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
28%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Voluntary aided school
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Boys
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Eamon Connolly
Local authority
Southwark
Ward
Nunhead & Queen's Road
Constituency
Peckham
URN
100857

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Haberdashers' Hatcham CollegeAcademy sponsor led No grade 50.5 0.6 mi
Harris Academy PeckhamAcademy sponsor led No grade 39.3 0.8 mi
Harris Girls' Academy East DulwichAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2023 54.3 0.9 mi
Deptford Green SchoolCommunity school Good 2022 47.7 1 mi
Harris Boys' Academy East DulwichAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2023 55.5 1 mi
Addey and Stanhope SchoolVoluntary aided school Good 2023 41.1 1.2 mi
The Charter School East DulwichFree schools Good 2024 56.3 1.3 mi
City of London Academy (Southwark)Academy sponsor led No grade 52.9 1.3 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
Grace Academy DarlastonAcademy sponsor led No grade 41.2
E-ACT Royton and Crompton AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 38.7
Clapton Girls' AcademyAcademy converter Outstanding 2024 59.4
Lord Derby AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 39.9
Nottingham University Academy of Science and TechnologyFree schools Good 2022 51.1
Saint Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic AcademyAcademy sponsor led Requires improvement 2024 30.2
Addey and Stanhope SchoolVoluntary aided school Good 2023 41.1
Harris Academy MertonAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2022 53.7

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.