A SECONDARY school has been shortlisted as a finalist for this year’s Worcestershire Education Awards.

St Augustine’s Catholic High School has made it to the final for the Secondary School of the Year category.

With growing concern about the mental well-being of young people today, St Augustine’s has established parent support groups, anxiety workshops and has developed an experienced Pastoral team to help students.

Gerald O’Connor, headteacher said: “Moral guidance and pastoral care is a great strength of our school; building self-esteem and confidence in young people today is at the heart of what we believe in.

“Our academic results are life changing and consistently robust year on year. In 2018, 75 per cent of disadvantaged students at St Augustine’s obtained English and Maths which is significantly above the national average for all students.”

The school in Holloway Lane, Redditch was rated Outstanding at its recent Ofsted inspection in 2017. As an active member of the Worcestershire Careers Hub, the school employs an independent careers advisor who meets with all students to give advice and mentoring support to facilitate the student in their career path.

Whilst grades are important at the school, Mr O’Connor’s aim is to provide an engaging and wide enrichment programme which involves performing arts, overseas music trips and charitable work within the local community.

Its outstanding Progress 8 score of +1.21 in 2018, makes it the highest achieving school in the Midlands and the best performing Catholic school outside London. The school ranks at 18th out of 6485 schools within the UK.

Winners will be revealed at June 20’s awards ceremony, at the University Arena.

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