St Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent

St Joseph's College is a coeducational grammar school located in Trent Vale, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. The school's oldest and original building in this location is a Grade II listed structure which was previously a residential property before it was bought by the Christian Brothers in 1931.

1. History

The school was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1932. It moved into the present buildings in 1936, and was recognised by the Board of Education in the following year. St Joseph's was a direct grant grammar school until the 11-plus was abolished in Stoke in 1967, after which the grant was gradually phased out. The school re-opened as a fully independent school in 1980, and in the following years began to admit girls. In the early 1980s the school pulled out of the Catholic reorganisation of secondary provision and decided to stay private. When grant maintained schools were allowed it started to admit non-fee paying pupils. It is the only grammar school in the area as the council abolished the grammar system but as a private school it was allowed to continue. After many years as a Preparatory and Senior School, the Preparatory School split off to form a new independent school elsewhere on the site, while the High School became a state-maintained grammar school. The school achieved Science College status in 2004. Applicants to the school are required to take an entrance examination. Approximately 75% of applicants reach the school's qualifying standard, and places are allocated among these using other criteria (faith, siblings and distance). St Joseph's has Specialist Status for Science and Mathematics and is rated as Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted. The college was amongst the first schools to convert to Academy status in 2011 and in 2012 became one of the country's first Teaching Schools.

1. School site

The school has an extensive program of rooms and labs, the biggest are SC2 and SC6 in the Science Wing. A new Science Wing was added to the old building, forming a quadrangle in the centre of the school, which contains a heart-shaped pond overlooked by a statue of the Virgin Mary, marking the end of the second millennium. A statue of Edmund Rice is located outside the Year 7 corridor. The Sixth Form Centre until 2008 was housed separately from the rest of the school in a Grade II listed building, which until 2001 was home to the Congregation of Christian Brothers who founded the school. Since their departure from the school premises in the summer of 2001, the Brothers' House has undergone extensive renovations. From September 2008 onwards, 'Stone House' further down the A34 road towards Hanford took the Brother's House's place as Sixth Form Centre. In 2018 Stone House was sold and the Sixth Form Centre was relocated to the 'Fideliter Building' - a chapel across the road from the main school site with a recent extension added - and the 'Olsen Building'. The Olsen Building is on the main school site and was built for use by Sixth Form students. In 2019 a perimeter fence and gate system was built around the school site.

1. Notable former pupils

Geoffrey Prime (b. 1938) - former spy, convicted of espionage and child sexual abuse Trevor Burton (b.1943) - Commonwealth Games athlete Kevin McDonald (b. 1947) - Archbishop of Southwark Terry Green (b. 1951) - businessman Dominic Cork (b. 1971) - cricketer, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, England Emma Jackson (b. 1988) - athlete, England 800m runner Dan Croll (b. 1990) - singer-songwriter Kian Emadi (b. 1992) - track cyclist, medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Harry McKirdy (b. 1997) - footballer, Hibernian F.C. Ciaran Algar, Award-winning folk musician.

1. References


1. External links

St. Joseph's Preparatory School (3–11) website St Joseph's College website

Nearby Places View Menu

Trent Vale

Trent Vale is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, bordered on the south by Hanford, to the west by Clayton, to the north by Newcastle-under-Lyme, to the southeast by Oakhill and Penkhull to the northeast. The Springfields and Trent Vale ward population at the 2011 census was 6,816. The area is home to the Clayton Wood Training Ground, owned by Stoke City FC. Employment is provided locally by the Royal Stoke University Hospital. St. John the Evangelist Church was erected in the early Gothic style in 1843. The architect was Philip Wooton. The A34 road runs from north to south through the centre of Trent Vale.

Church Hospital

769 m

Oak Hill, Staffordshire

Oak Hill is an area in Stoke-on-Trent.

Landmark Neighbourhood

770 m

Michelin Ground

Michelin Ground was a cricket ground in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The ground was built and owned by the Michelin Tyre Company and was located along Campbell Road. Its location today would be next to the bridge halfway along Campbell Road which passes over the A500 road. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1928, when Staffordshire played Lincolnshire in the grounds first Minor Counties Championship match. From 1928 to 1951, the ground hosted 29 Minor Counties Championship matches, with the final Minor Counties Championship match held on the ground in 1951 with Northumberland as the opposition. In 1937, Staffordshire played the touring New Zealanders, with the New Zealanders winning by 158 runs. A combined Minor Counties team used the ground for a single first-class match 1953 against the touring Australians. The ground is now part of the Michelin sports complex and the cricket pitch has moved to another location on this large site.

Cricket Landmark

937 m

Sideway

Sideway (pronounced "Siddaway") is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, approximately one mile south west of Stoke-upon-Trent, Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England. It is located on the junction of the A500 and the A50 adjacent to the Bet365 Stadium. The area around the stadium was formerly a spoil tip for the Hem Heath Colliery, which closed in the mid-1990s; the stadium itself opened in 1997. The surrounding area has also been redeveloped and is home to a hotel, restaurant, health club and a number of car dealerships. Sideway is also home to a Michelin factory, a medium wave transmitter for Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire and BBC Radio Stoke, and the base of Marcroft Engineering, a railway wagon repair company. It also has two lakes which are controlled by Fenton and District Angling Society. Known as the Overflow complex. There are proposals to build a park and ride station in this area, taking advantage of its location on the A500 and A50.

Hotel Neighbourhood