Beacon Hill Community School
Community school · 135 pupils
61% stayed in education · Attainment 8 28.8
Academy converter
St Josephs Catholic High School, Workington
- Pupils on roll
- 539of 615 places
- Free school meals
- 42.9%
- Year 11 cohort 2025
- 93
- Ofsted
- Requires improvement, 28 November 2023Read the Ofsted report
Results below include those reported under the school’s previous registration: St Joseph's Catholic High School, Business and Enterprise College (URN 112401, until 1 September 2021).
What the data says
St Josephs Catholic High School, Workington has no sixth form. Of the 119 pupils who finished Year 11 there in 2023, none moved to a sixth form college, 45% to a further education college and 10% started an apprenticeship.
Apprenticeships are a real route from here: 10% of leavers started one, roughly three times the England figure of 3%.
Art and Design is unusually popular at GCSE: 29% of the year group took it, against 7% of pupils across England.
GCSE results in 2025 were well below the national picture: Attainment 8 of 37.4 against 46.1 across England and 42.3 in Cumberland, with 31% of pupils getting grade 5 or above in both English and maths (England 45%).
Where pupils went after Year 11
Destinations of the 2023 Year 11 leavers, measured the following year: the share in a sustained place for at least two terms. Compared with all state-funded schools in Cumberland and England.
School sixth formSixth form collegeFurther education collegeOther educationApprenticeshipEmploymentNo sustained destination
| Measure | This school | Cumberland | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils in the cohort | 119 | 2,780 | 607,348 |
| Any sustained destination | 91% | 91% | 92% |
| Stayed in education | 76% | 74% | 86% |
| — school sixth form | 30% | 37% | 34% |
| — sixth form college | 0% | — | 13% |
| — further education college | 45% | 36% | 37% |
| — other education | 0% | 1% | 2% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 12% | 3% |
| Employment | 5% | 5% | 3% |
| No sustained destination | 5% | 7% | 6% |
| Destination unknown | 4% | 3% | 3% |
GCSE results 2025
| Measure | This school | Cumberland | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8 (average points per pupil) | 37.4 | 42.3 | 46.1 |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 31% | 37% | 45% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 48% | 58% | 65% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate subjects | 8% | 32% | 41% |
| EBacc average point score | 3.08 | 3.76 | 4.09 |
| Disadvantaged pupils in the cohort | 43% | 24% | 28% |
| Attainment 8 — disadvantaged pupils | 29.8 | 31.5 | 34.9 |
| Attainment 8 — other pupils | 43.2 | 45.8 | 50.4 |
| Pupils with high prior attainment (Key Stage 2) | — | — | — |
| English as an additional language | 14% | 5% | 19% |
Progress 8 is not available for 2025 and 2026: these cohorts had no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021, so there is no baseline. Attainment 8 shows results without taking pupils’ starting points into account.
Subjects taken at GCSE
Entries in 2025 as a share of the Year 11 cohort, and the share of entries graded 7–9 and 4–9, compared with all entries in England.
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England | Grades 7–9 | England | Grades 4–9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | 89 | 96% | 89% | 10% | 20% | 60% |
| English Literature | 88 | 95% | 86% | 14% | 21% | 61% |
| Mathematics | 86 | 92% | 88% | 6% | 22% | 55% |
| Combined Science | 81 | 87% | 65% | 2% | 9% | 41% |
| Religious Studies | 68 | 73% | 31% | 24% | 32% | 57% |
| History | 40 | 43% | 41% | 23% | 26% | 45% |
| Applied Engineering | 38 | 41% | 0% | 0% | 18% | 24% |
| Geography | 33 | 35% | 41% | 12% | 25% | 61% |
| Art and Design | 27 | 29% | 7% | 19% | 24% | 81% |
| Photography | 17 | 18% | 6% | 29% | 19% | 71% |
| Business Studies | 16 | 17% | 18% | 0% | 20% | 44% |
| Spanish | 11 | 12% | 19% | 9% | 27% | 45% |
| Food Preparation and Nutrition | 10 | 11% | 8% | 10% | 21% | 70% |
| Computer Science | 10 | 11% | 13% | 10% | 30% | 50% |
| Physics | 10 | 11% | 23% | 30% | 46% | 90% |
| Chemistry | 10 | 11% | 23% | 30% | 47% | 100% |
| Biology | 10 | 11% | 23% | 0% | 45% | 100% |
| Polish | 2 | 2% | 1% | — | 84% | — |
Technical awards and other Key Stage 4 qualifications
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports Studies | 13 | — | — |
| Multimedia | 11 | — | — |
| Health Studies | 9 | — | — |
| Speech and Drama | 6 | — | — |
Other secondary schools in Cumberland
Caldew School
Academy converter · sixth form · 990 pupils
81% stayed in education · Attainment 8 44.3
Cockermouth School
Academy converter · sixth form · 1,254 pupils
82% stayed in education · Attainment 8 51.9
Energy Coast UTC
University technical college · sixth form · 383 pupils
61% stayed in education · Attainment 8 24.2
Keswick School
Academy converter · sixth form · 1,208 pupils
84% stayed in education · Attainment 8 52.1
Millom School
Community school · sixth form · 476 pupils
48% stayed in education · Attainment 8 44.9
Sources: Department for Education school and college performance tables 2024/2025 (Key Stage 4 and 16–18 results, subject entries, destination measures for 2023 leavers); Get Information About Schools register as at 19 September 2026; Ofsted management information as at 31 August 2026. Small numbers are suppressed by DfE and shown as “—”. How to read these figures.