St Christopher's CE High School

St Christopher’s is a highly successful and popular 11-18 co-educational Church of England single academy with 1,300 pupils and students on roll. We are situated in the Lancashire town of Accrington close to the Ribble Valley. Good motorway links mean that Preston, Burnley, Blackburn, Manchester, and North Yorkshire are all within a 30–40-minute car journey. The school is situated in a pleasant setting with views towards Pendle Hill.

Our pupils come from a wide catchment area. Pupils join us in Year 7 from over fifty primary schools, and the sixth form receives students from around thirty secondary schools. We enjoy an enviable reputation, built-up over many years, for providing high quality education for a comprehensive intake of pupils. Our reputation means that we are a popular school, and always over-subscribed. However, we do not allow ourselves to become complacent, always striving for higher standards in all areas. This year, for example, well over 800 applications were received for the 195 on offer. Ten per cent of our pupils are eligible for the Pupil Premium and 3% are from minority ethnic groups.

Our teaching comprises of 80 teachers and 12 teaching assistants. The core Senior Leadership Team is substantively the headmaster, one Deputy Headteacher, one Senior Assistant Headteachers, three Assistant Headteachers, and the school Business Manager.

Headteacher

Richard Jones

Spiritual care and worship

St Christopher’s opened in 1958 to educate the children of Church going families of east Lancashire. Admission to the main school is primarily based on parental patterns of worship at churches recognised by Churches Together or the Evangelical Alliance.

The school motto of ‘Ad Gloriam Dei’ informs all that we do. We try to establish caring attitudes and lasting values through worship and work done in the classroom, as well as, on a more practical level, supporting charitable appeals.

Each school day begins with an act of worship within the Anglican tradition. A Chaplaincy Team supports our worship and pastoral work, each year group having its own chaplain.

At the last SIAMS inspection (2016) the school was judged Outstanding in all areas.

Ofsted

The school was inspected by Ofsted in December 2016 and was judged to be Good with several Outstanding areas. Inspectors reached some telling judgements.

• ‘Leaders have created an ambitious culture. Pupils are expected to become the best they can be, both academically and socially.’
• ‘Pupils’ attendance is excellent.’
• ‘The work the school does to keep pupils safe is exemplary.’
• ‘The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.’
• ‘Tolerance and respect are strongly evident throughout the harmonious school community and the warm and inclusive ethos permeates every aspect of the school’s work.’
• ‘Pupils are proud of their school. Pupils of all abilities demonstrate resilience and enthusiasm in lessons.’
• ‘Attainment is at record levels.’

These judgements were confirmed in our Section 8 report which was published in May 2022.

We all work hard to ensure that every child at St Christopher’s is known, supported, and challenged. In the words of one of our former students…

“I am still not sure what I want to be but after studying at St Christopher’s I know who I want to be.”

View St Christopher's latest Ofsted report here.