Welcome to
St Thomas More Catholic School

A Catholic Academy and Member of The St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust

St Thomas More is a wonderfully friendly, hardworking and successful school in the beautiful spa town of Buxton.

There are just over 400 pupils on roll in this popular and successful 11 to 16 comprehensive school. The school serves all areas of the High Peak. Children also travel from across the borders of Staffordshire and Cheshire to be part of our school community. Approximately 60% of our pupils are Catholic, but whether of the Christian faith, other faiths or no faith, the children are very proud of their school. We are a member of Peak 11.

St Thomas More Catholic School was visited by Ofsted in 2013 and was judged to be a 'Good School' with 'Outstanding Behaviour and Safety' and 'Outstanding Spiritual, Moral, Cultural and Social Education'. The school was visited again in March 2017 for a 'short inspection' stating that the school still remained 'good'. The school was rated 6th in Derbyshire by The Times newspaper (25th January 2019) based on attainment and in the top 14 schools in Derbyshire by The Derbyshire Times (28th January 2019) based on progress.

St Thomas More Catholic School has been a voluntary aided school, under the control of The Bishop of the Diocese of Nottingham. In 2016, the decision was made by the Bishop to convert all 87 schools within the Diocese into Academies (15 Secondary, 69 Primary). Rules surrounding the academisation of schools changed in 2016 which meant that schools were only able to convert if they became part of a Multi-Academy Trust (except in exceptional circumstances or unless forced to convert following a poor Ofsted rating). The Diocese of Nottingham set up 4 Catholic Multi-Academy Trusts (CMATs) - The St Thomas Aquinas CMAT, covering Leicestershire Schools; The St Therese of Lisieux CMAT, covering the schools of Lincolnshire; The Our Lady of Lourdes CMAT, covering Nottingham and Nottinghamshire schools; The St Ralph Sherwin CMAT, covering schools in Derbyshire, Derby City, Staffordshire and Stockport. From September 2018, we will therefore be part of The St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust along with 4 other secondary schools and 20 primary schools. In the main, it is anticipated that parents and pupils will see very little change through this conversion but it is hoped that this move will be able to offer the school greater financial security, as well as enable us to offer effective support for other schools within the trust.

B Hickey
Headteacher