St Richard's Catholic College

Academy · ages 11–16 · Roman Catholic · no sixth form

Above average on every headline measure — 1st of 26 for average grade in East Sussex.

Bexhill-on-Sea · East Sussex · one of 26 state secondaries

Summary

St Richard's Catholic College sits 1st of 26 state secondaries in East Sussex for average GCSE grade. 85.7% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 63.3% across East Sussex. 68.5% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of East Sussex in combined science and history, with nothing measurably behind. Ofsted: Good in October 2021.

It is an academy of 1,029 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 14.3% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 9.4% are on SEN support with a further 4.4% holding an education, health and care plan. 65% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 36.8% entered across East Sussex, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 12.8% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 91.4% of its leavers went on to further education.

Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against East Sussex, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.

The school·East Sussex

Inspection

Good

Inspected October 2021

Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding
Leadership and management: Outstanding
Personal development: Outstanding
Quality of education: Good

October 2021 Full inspection Good

That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

St Richard's Catholic College converted to an academy in October 2025 and was given a new reference number. The Department for Education files results against the record a school held when its pupils sat their exams, so these are published under its previous one.

Attainment

86%

Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C

well above average

East Sussex 63% · England 65%

69%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

well above average

East Sussex 42% · England 45%

58.4

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

well above average

East Sussex 43.1 · England 46.1

65%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

well above average

East Sussex 37% · England 41%

After Year 11

91% stayed in education, 2% started an apprenticeship (2022/23 leavers)

GCSE results by subject

2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C

this school East Sussex England at grade 4

Subject Share at grade 4 or above Since 2021/22

Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.

Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.

English Language is the subject most of this year group sat. English Language tutors on Tutorperch.

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What these mean

Attainment 8: The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
Grades 4 and 5: GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
The EBacc: A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
Progress 8: A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
Percentage points: The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
Why some subjects say nothing: A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
Persistent absence: The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.

School details

Ashdown Road
Bexhill-on-Sea
East Sussex
TN40 1SE

01424 731070 strichardscc.com

Principal: Mr Paul Barber
Trust: Bosco Catholic Education Trust
Pupils: 1,029
Free school meals: 14%
SEND: 9% on SEN support, 4% with an EHC plan
Separate sciences: 13% of the year
Progress 8: Not published · last +0.65 in 2023/24

Other schools in East Sussex

25 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.

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