Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy

About Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy

Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy is a secondary school in Blackburn with Darwen, classified by the DfE as a sponsor-led academy with a Roman Catholic religious character. Around 812 pupils aged 11 to 16 attend the school. The school holds a 'Requires improvement' judgement from Ofsted. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 37.2, below the national average of 46. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of secondary schools nationally.

22% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, well below the national average of about 45%. 42% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy was not oversubscribed for September 2026: all 106 families who put it first were offered a place. Overall pupil absence was 14.8%. There are about 16.9 pupils per teacher. The school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage: about 48% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, compared with roughly 24% nationally — useful context when reading the results above. If you are considering Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy, it may be worth asking how leaders have responded to Ofsted's findings and what has changed since the inspection. 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.