I am incredibly proud to lead the school here at St John’s and to be part of its extensive heritage.
St John’s Catholic Specialist School is a non-maintained, day and residential school, founded over 150 years ago. We offer day and residential places for children and young people aged from primary through to sixth form.
We are a Catholic school, but we are inclusive and welcoming to those of all faiths and none. I am proud to say we are a values driven school where respect, compassion, integrity, and service to others is central to all we do. Our religious values and Catholic virtues benefit all students, regardless of their personal beliefs.
St John’s is a nurturing environment where pupils embrace self-acceptance, celebrate diversity, practice kindness, uphold honesty, build trust, learn to forgive, and contribute positively to our community.
The lessons learned here go beyond academic success — they shape our pupils to become thoughtful, caring, compassionate and responsible young people ready to make a positive impact in the world.
Headteacher
St John’s is a non-maintained special school. We are a charitable trust running on a not-for-profit basis. Our pupils are placed by many different local authorities, who fund placements. All of our pupils have an EHCP.
St John’s was established as a Catholic School for the Deaf in 1870 by Monsignor de Hearne with help from the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
The ethos was based on the values of their order:
- Serving the poor and standing for justice
- Respecting dignity for all
- Compassion and kindness
- Enabling change – helping people make choices and change their lives
The curriculum then was vocationally-based, and designed to give life-long opportunity for pupils and enable young deaf people to be successful.
In recent years, our school has changed considerably and we no longer support or offer places exclusively to children who are deaf.
Our nurturing and warm learning environment supports children whose needs cannot be met by mainstream schools, including those who are hearing-impaired or have speech, language, and communication challenges.
We also support children who are autistic, have ADHD, Down syndrome, dyslexia, or are affected by anxiety and emotionally based school avoidance.
All of our learning spaces are optimised to reduce sensory overload. Children are taught in small groups, with a maximum class size of eight. Our teaching staff includes specialist teachers of the deaf and SEND specialists. We also have a large team of learning support assistants to help pupils with their learning and wellbeing each day.
