St Catherine's School A GSG School
- St Catherine's School
Grove Road
Ventnor
Isle of Wight
PO38 1TT - Head: Sarah Thompson
- T 01983 852722
- F 01983 857219
- E general@stcatherines.org.uk
- W www.stcatherines.org.uk
- A special independent school for boys and girls aged from 7 to 25. Type of SEN provision: ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders; Dyslexia; SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication.
- Boarding: Yes
- Local authority: Isle of Wight
- Pupils: 92
- Religion: Does not apply
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Good 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Good 2
- 1 Short inspection 10th July 2018
- 2 Full inspection 19th June 2014
Short inspection reports only give an overall grade; you have to read the report itself to gauge whether the detailed grading from the earlier full inspection still stands.
- Previous Ofsted grade: Good on 12th October 2010
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Ventnor town is a couple of minutes’ walk away, and is an extension to the classroom. The kids are well known there, and shop staff know to be patient when a child is struggling to communicate. The café has symbolled menus for them. The compromise is the water crossing, which puts off parents, but this isn’t quite the difficulty it might at first seem, and we were surprised to learn that weekly boarders travel as far as London every weekend. Music is a big deal: 45 per cent of children have music lessons, and the school rock band has played at both the Isle of Wight and Bestival festivals. Two students achieved a grade 8 in music GCSE, and have…
Do you know this school?
The schools we choose, and what we say about them, are founded on parents’ views. If you know this school, please share your views with us.
Please login to post a comment.
What The Good Schools Guide says
Principal
Since 2020, Sarah Thompson, previously acting vice principal and head of sixth form at St Catherine’s. She has been a teacher for 25 years, specialising in mathematics, which she has taught at GCSE and A-Level. Before arriving at St Catherine’s, she had been assistant headteacher at two local schools.
Mrs Thompson is from the Isle of Wight and grew up in Ventnor, the town where St Catherine’s is based. Since joining the school, she has undertaken Elklan training and studied for a master’s in language and communication impairments in children. On taking up her role, she said, ‘I have watched the school grow in both numbers and specialist staff. Our outreach service is growing and so too are our ideas to further support parents and students. School can be so...
Subscribe now for instant access to read The Good Schools Guide review.
Already subscribed? Login here.
Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
St Catherine's offers specialist education, therapy and care to young people aged seven to 25 with speech, language and communication needs as well as autistic spectrum disorders, Aspergers Syndrome, dyslexia and dyspraxia. Classes are small (with six to nine students) and each has a speech and language therapist working collaboratively alongside a teacher to plan programmes and agree targets. Additionally, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants work with students both within the classroom and on a one-to-one basis. Within our residential provision, students follow a five step independence programme covering a range of life skills from money handling to cooking and travelling. Alongside its school for students aged seven to 19, St Catherine's runs a Post-19 provision. St Catherine's aim is to support and enable our children and young people to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | Y |
| Aspergers | |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | Y |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | |
| Dyscalculia | |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | Y |
| Dyspraxia | |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | Y |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| Special facilities for Visually Impaired | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
The Good Schools Guide newsletter
Educational insight in your inbox. Sign up for our popular newsletters.