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St Columba's Catholic Boys' School
B+

St Columba's Catholic Boys' School

SecondaryAges 11–16AcademyRoman CatholicBoys

Bexley, DA6 7QB · Bexley local authority

Bexley’s School Grade A better than 88% of towns in England

Photo: Mx. Granger · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Its letter
66%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
84/84
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
805 pupils
89% of its 900 places
Free school meals
24%
24 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about St Columba's Catholic Boys' School

  • Its own letter, B+: GCSE results better than 66% of England’s secondary schools
  • Ofsted: Inspected, November 2024 (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (84 of 84)
  • Progress 8 of +0.04 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did about as well at GCSE as pupils nationally with the same results at 11
  • Homes in its postcode sector (DA6 7) sold for a median £379,050; Bexley’s is £425,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 169 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools St Columba's Catholic Boys' beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 48.9

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 64% of schools · Bexley avg 52.2

20304050607080England avg 47.3St Columba's Catholic Boys' 48.9

Grade 5+ in English and maths 52%

A strong pass · higher than 65% of schools · Bexley avg 56%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%St Columba's Catholic Boys' 52%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
47.4
2024/25
51.4
2025/26
48.9

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

+0.04: about average. How pupils did at GCSE against pupils nationally with the same results at 11. Not published since 2023/24 (no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021).

Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26

Attainment 8 for the 33 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
43.1England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
50.3England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths70%
England’s schools 66% · Bexley 73% · a standard pass

England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at St Columba's Catholic Boys' School?

Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.

84
families put it first for September 2026
159
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20192020202120222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered

In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. St Oscar Romero Catholic Academy Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Bexley council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Bexley, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand

1.62 per place
47% got their first choice
1.61 per place
51% got their first choice
1.28 per place
65% got their first choice
1.00 per place
26% got their first choice
1.00 per place
84% got their first choice
0.96 per place
67% got their first choice
0.93 per place
85% got their first choice
0.91 per place
80% got their first choice
0.80 per place
100% got their first choice
St Columba's Catholic Boys'
0.53 per place
100% got their first choice

Bexley and Bexley, side by side

2025/26

All 16 graded secondaries in Bexley. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Bexley’s schools are coloured by their letter.

35435159677510%20%30%40%50%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →St Columba's Catholic Boys'
ABCDElsewhere in BexleySt Columba's Catholic Boys'
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar SchoolA+2%75.3
Townley Grammar SchoolA+9%74.8
Beths Grammar SchoolA+12%73.2
Bexley Grammar SchoolA+4%72.6
St Catherine's Catholic SchoolA15%55.5
Harris Garrard AcademyB44%49.2
St Columba's Catholic Boys' SchoolB+24%48.9
Harris Academy FalconwoodB21%47.7
Lift BexleyheathB30%47.3
Blackfen School for GirlsB−16%46.2
Haberdashers' Crayford AcademyC40%43.8
Hurstmere SchoolC+16%42.4
Trinity Church of England School, BelvedereC34%40.9
Leigh Academy BexleyC−42%40.9
Cleeve Park SchoolC−31%39.6
Welling SchoolD34%36.4

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

809 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.

SEN support
8.3%England 14%
EHC plan
5.1%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
22.4%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
23.1%England 29.6%
Its letter

St Columba's Catholic Boys' School’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths B+Better than 66% of 3,224 schools
How school letters are worked out

Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.

Ofsted

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Ungraded inspection: Standards maintained, November 2024.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near St Columba's Catholic Boys' School

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in DA6 7, the school’s postcode sector

Bexley property prices →
£379,050
median sale, 259 sales in 36 months · Bexley £425,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£150K£200K£250K£300K£350K£400K£450K2010201520202025DA6 7Bexley
DA6 7Bexley

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£550K
Semi-detached
£510K
Terraced
£442K
Flat
£303K
DA6 7Bexley

Homes in DA6 7 sell for a little under Bexley’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.

Schools within 1.6 miles

26 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNA−A+ACA+BC−AA+BB−AA−ABC+B−B−A−BB−B+BBA+B+St Columba's Catholic Boys'…
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Bexley, DA6 7QB

St Columba's Catholic Boys' School: common questions

Is St Columba's Catholic Boys' School a good school?

By its published results, above average: its GCSE results are better than 66% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is B+), with an Attainment 8 of 48.9 and 52% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, November 2024.

How hard is it to get into St Columba's Catholic Boys' School?

For September 2026, 84 families put St Columba's Catholic Boys' School first and all of them were offered a place; 159 places were offered in all.

What is St Columba's Catholic Boys' School’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (November 2024).

How much do houses cost near St Columba's Catholic Boys' School?

Homes in its postcode sector, DA6 7, sold for a median £379,050 over the 36 months to August 2026 (259 sales).

Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.

A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Bexley’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.