About St. Bede's

St. Bede’s Grammar Technical School opened to 420 students on 9th September 1964.  Today, St. Bede’s Catholic School and Sixth Form College has 1,468 students, including 400 students in the Sir Tom Cowie Sixth Form College.  Our Sixth Form has grown rapidly over recent years, due in no small part to its outstanding academic reputation and the individual care and guidance throughout the transition period.

We are an inclusive school, popular and oversubscribed and with a formidable reputation in the local and wider community for high standards in learning, teaching and behaviour, and for the care and support which we give to each student.

On 1st June 2012, we were granted Academy status.

Mission Statement

The mission of St. Bede’s School is to create an atmosphere of Catholic values, attitudes, practice and knowledge such that all children will have the opportunity for their faith to be nurtured.  Thus they will be able to widen and deepen themselves as people in preparation for this life and for the life to come.

Our Mission is threefold:

• To help everyone in our community to grow in faith.
• To develop and support each student to make the most of every ability and talent she/he has been given.
• To deliver excellent teaching so that each student achieves her/his potential and prepare them well so that they can confidently take their place in an often challenging and diverse world.

Aims

Everything we strive to do can be condensed into one principal aim: that our young people develop as moral, spiritual individuals, equipped with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to achieve their aspirations, contribute to society, and build a community founded on trust, respect and understanding.

Ethos in Action

At the heart of our ethos is the powerful principle of respect – for oneself and others.  Our Catholic/Christian ethos underpins everything we do at St. Bede’s.  Every student at St. Bede’s feels welcomed, valued, safe and special and they are all supported as they develop on their journey of faith, whatever their background.

For the fourth time we have been awarded the prestigious British Council’s International School Award (2012 -2014) for our “excellent commitment to the enriching, creative and innovative international dimensions of teaching and learning.”

Students support our local charities: Willow Burn Hospice in Lanchester; the elderly and poor in our in our community; a woman’s refuge; St. Cuthbert’s Care; the Lupus Foundation.  They also support charities across the world: Joe Plumb’s mission in Peru; Cafod; Rachel House Hospice in Indonesia for terminally ill children; vulnerable and needy children in Nepal; a village in Namibia.

Our students are living in a world that is changing rapidly, a world that will be very different by the time they have joined the world of work, compared with the time they joined us in Year 7.  Not only will they need a solid foundation of learning, but also skills of perseverance, teamwork, flexibility, resilience; they must be confident about stepping out to the next phase of their journey in life.

St. Bede’s is a happy school where students feel valued, supported  and challenged to be the very best that they can be and they rarely disappoint.  We are very proud of all their achievements.