St Bernard's High School

Academy converter·Secondary school Westcliff-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea·SS0 7JS
Composite score
68.6
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#477
National rank
#57
In East of England
#5
In Southend-on-Sea
Top 15%
Nationally

Performance (KS4 GCSE)

Attainment 8 score
54.9
National avg ≈ 46
Progress 8 score
—
% achieving 9–5 in English & Maths
59%
% achieving 9–4 in English & Maths
83%
% EBacc grade 5+
4%
EBacc average points score
4.25

Getting a place

Offered a place after putting it first
78%
184 first choices, 175 places
First choices per place
1.05
more first choices than places
Applications naming the school
474
any preference, for 175 places
Applications from another council area
30%
First preferences per place, last five years▼ 0.01
00.511.5
1 per place
0.9020221.1320230.9920241.0620251.052026

Red dashed line = one first choice per place. How to read this

We do not have a checked cut-off distance for St Bernard's High School yet. Southend-on-Sea does publish allocation figures and we are working through them council by council — we only show a distance once we have found it in the council’s own document.

Application figures: DfE, school level applications and offers (2026 intake).

School profile

Age range
11–18
Pupils on roll
1,021
Gender
Girls
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Admissions
Non-Selective

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6
17.4%
Typical secondary: 27.5%
% EAL
19.8%
Typical secondary: 12.0%

Special educational needs

% SEN support
5.7%
Typical secondary: 13.7%
% with an EHC plan
1.3%
Typical secondary: 2.9%

Attendance

Overall absence
5.2%
Typical secondary: 8.9%
Persistently absent
11.3%
Typical secondary: 25.7%

Staffing & funding

Pupils per teacher
16.2
Typical secondary: 16.7

“Typical” = the median secondary school in England. What this means

What pupils do next

The share of this school's Year 11 leavers in education, training or employment for at least two terms afterwards.

In education, training or work
99%
143 pupils tracked
Stayed in education
97%
Apprenticeship
1%
Employment
1%

DfE, KS4 destination measures.

Nearby secondary schools

Location

About St Bernard's High School

St Bernard's High School is a girls' secondary school in Westcliff-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea, classified by the DfE as a converter academy with a Roman Catholic religious character. Around 1,021 pupils aged 11 to 18 attend the school. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 54.9, above the national average of 46. That is down 0.6 points in its Attainment 8 score on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it among the top 15% of secondary schools in England.

59% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, well above the national average of about 45%. 83% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Competition for places is real here - 78% of first-choice applicants were offered a Year 7 place for September 2026 (184 first choices for 175 places). After Year 11, 99% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 5.2%. There are about 16.2 pupils per teacher. St Bernard's High School does not currently have a recent graded Ofsted judgement on record (often the case for newer or recently converted schools), so it is worth asking when its next inspection is expected. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.

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