Established 1932 Head Teacher Ms M Roberts Phone +44 1782 848008 Motto Fideliter et Fortiter | Religion Roman Catholic Colors Black, Red | |
Location London RoadStoke-on-TrentStaffordshireST4 5NTEngland Similar Trentham High School, St Joseph's Preparato School, Stoke‑On College, St Thomas More Catholic, Newcastl School | ||
St. Joseph's College is a mixed selective 11–18 school 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.
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History
The school was founded by the Irish Christian Brothers in 1932 as an all-boys school. 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.
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, which it remains to this day. 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 College 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.
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.
School song: Fideliter et Fortiter
When we grow old and the battle is raging,
when to the wide earth's far corners we're flung;
when we need faith in the conflict we're waging;
shall we remember how once we were young.
Fideliter et Fortiter, Fideliter et Fortiter,
Down the years we'll re-echo the song:
Faithful and strong. Faithful and strong.
Then we'll be true to devotions we've learned,
cling to our standards, be proud of our name.
Bare without hauteur the laurels we've earned,
strong in adversity, humble in fame.
Fideliter et Fortiter, Fideliter et Fortiter,
Down the years we'll re-echo the song:
Faithful and strong. Faithful and strong.