St Benedict's Catholic College

Secondary Maintained Colchester 📅 Term dates 2025–2026 🏅 Ofsted: Good 📊 Attainment 8: 54.7

St Benedict's Catholic College is a mixed local-authority maintained secondary school in Colchester, Essex County Council, teaching 905 pupils aged 11 to 16. Its last Ofsted inspection in July 2023 found the school remains Good. In 2024–2025, GCSE Attainment 8 was 54.7 (England 46.1). The 2025–2026 school year runs from 1 September 2025 to 20 July 2026.

Ofsted inspection

The latest published Ofsted judgement for St Benedict's Catholic College.

Latest inspection
Good Ungraded inspection
Outcome: School remains Good. Ungraded (short) inspections confirm whether standards are maintained since the last full graded inspection — they don’t assign new category grades.
Ungraded inspection · Inspected 19 Jul 2023 · Published 25 Sep 2023
Read full Ofsted report ↗

Term dates & holidays 2025–2026

Autumn, spring and summer terms, half-terms, INSET days and bank holidays for St Benedict's Catholic College.

St Benedict's Catholic College original calendar 2025–2026
Original calendar · source
Download PDF
St Benedict's Catholic College interactive calendar 2025–2026
Interactive calendar
Download Term Dates 2025–2026
All 2 pages of the original:

Interactive Calendar

September 2025
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
  • 1 Autumn Term begins
October 2025
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 27–31 Autumn Half Term
November 2025
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
December 2025
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 19 Autumn Term ends
  • 22–31 Christmas Holiday
  • 25 Christmas Day (Bank Holiday)
  • 26 Boxing Day (Bank Holiday)
January 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 1–2 Christmas Holiday
  • 1 New Year's Day (Bank Holiday)
  • 5 Spring Term begins
February 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
  • 16–20 Spring Half Term
March 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 27 Spring Term ends
  • 30–31 Easter Holiday
April 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
  • 1–10 Easter Holiday
  • 3 Good Friday (Bank Holiday)
  • 6 Easter Monday (Bank Holiday)
  • 13 Summer Term begins
May 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 4 Early May Bank Holiday
  • 25–29 Summer Half Term
  • 25 Spring Bank Holiday (Last Monday in May)
June 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
July 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 20 Summer Term ends
  • 21–31 Summer Holiday
August 2026
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • 1–31 Summer Holiday
  • 31 Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August)

Key dates (2025–2026)

  • Autumn Term begins Sep 1, 2025 Term
  • Autumn Half Term Oct 27-31, 2025 Holiday
  • Autumn Term ends Dec 19, 2025 Term
  • Christmas Holiday Dec 22, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026 Holiday
  • Spring Term begins Jan 5, 2026 Term
  • Spring Half Term Feb 16-20, 2026 Holiday
  • Spring Term ends Mar 27, 2026 Term
  • Easter Holiday Mar 30 - Apr 10, 2026 Holiday
  • Summer Term begins Apr 13, 2026 Term
  • Early May Bank Holiday May 4, 2026 Holiday
  • Summer Half Term May 25-29, 2026 Holiday
  • Summer Term ends Jul 20, 2026 Term
  • Summer Holiday Jul 21 - Aug 31, 2026 Holiday
  • New Year's Day (Bank Holiday) Jan 1, 2026 Holiday
  • Good Friday (Bank Holiday) Apr 3, 2026 Holiday
  • Easter Monday (Bank Holiday) Apr 6, 2026 Holiday
  • Spring Bank Holiday (Last Monday in May) May 25, 2026 Holiday
  • Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August) Aug 31, 2026 Holiday
  • Christmas Day (Bank Holiday) Dec 25, 2025 Holiday
  • Boxing Day (Bank Holiday) Dec 26, 2025 Holiday

Exam results & performance

DfE performance tables Official results, 2024–2025 GOV.UK ↗
54.7 Attainment 8 England 46.1 Top 14%
61.7% Grade 5+ English & maths England 45.4% Top 14%
15.3% Persistent absence England 17.8%

The measures that carry the most signal. Open a section to compare St Benedict's Catholic College with Essex County Council and England.

Key stage 4 (GCSE) 54.7 Attainment 8 score

Year 11 results across eight qualifications, including English and maths.

This school Essex County Council England

Attainment 8 score · Average across 8 GCSEs, out of 90 54.7
Essex County Council 45.1 England 46.1 +8.6 vs England
Grade 5+ in English & maths · A strong pass 61.7%
Essex County Council 43.1% England 45.4% +16.3 vs England
Attainment 8 — disadvantaged pupils 44.5
Essex County Council 31.1 England 34.9 +9.6 vs England
Disadvantage gap · Attainment 8 points; smaller is better 11.9
Essex County Council 17.8 England 15.5 -3.6 vs England
Disadvantaged pupils in the year group · Context for the scores above 15%
Essex County Council 21.8% England 28.2%
Pupils in the year group · Small cohorts swing wildly 180
Attendance 15.3% Persistently absent pupils

Absence across the whole school year.

This school Essex County Council England

Persistently absent pupils · Missed 10%+ of sessions; lower is better 15.3%
Essex County Council 17.7% England 17.8% -2.5 vs England
Overall absence · Lower is better 5.8%
Essex County Council 6.9% England 6.8% -0.9 vs England
What pupils do after GCSEs 94% In education, apprenticeship or work

Still in education, an apprenticeship or work a year after key stage 4.

This school Essex County Council England

In education, apprenticeship or work 94%
Essex County Council 92% England 92% +2 vs England
Same, for disadvantaged pupils 93%
Essex County Council 81% England 83% +10 vs England
About this data source & caveats

Progress 8 is not published for 2024–2025. This year group missed their key stage 2 tests in 2020, so there is no baseline to measure progress from.

Attendance comparisons are pupil-weighted averages we calculate from every school’s published absence figure — the DfE absence file has no local authority or England rows of its own.

We show the headline measures only. Threshold and curriculum-policy figures — grade 4+ in English and maths, EBacc entry and points, the per-subject key stage 2 breakdown, academic and applied splits at 16 to 18 — reflect admissions and curriculum choices more than school quality, so they are left to GOV.UK. Progress measures matter most because they compare pupils with others who started at the same level; attainment on its own largely tracks a school’s intake.

Figures are the Department for Education’s official published results for St Benedict's Catholic College. Results are suppressed where too few pupils were entered. England figures are the average for state-funded schools. “Top x%” is this school’s position among all schools in England with a published figure for that measure — the DfE does not publish league table rankings.

Source: Compare school and college performance, Department for Education. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Location & catchment area

Indicative catchment Other secondary schools

Indicative only. This is a nearest-school (Voronoi) estimate — the area closer to St Benedict's Catholic College than to any other secondary school. Real admissions depend on the school’s own policy (straight-line distance, siblings, faith, feeder schools and available places) and change each year. Always confirm with the school and local authority admissions team.