St Bede's Inter-Church School

St Bede's Inter-Church School
Location
Birdwood Road Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , CB1 3TD England
Coordinates	52°11′26″N0°09′45″E / 52.19051°N 0.16245°E / 52.19051; 0.16245
Information
Type	Academy
Motto	"Cum Deo" (Latin for "With God")
Religious affiliation	Church of England/Roman Catholic
Established	1962, 1988
Local authority	Cambridgeshire
Specialist	Humanities College
Ofsted	Reports
Headteacher	A Day [1]
Staff	50
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11to 16
Enrolment	750
Website	Official website

St Bede's Inter-Church School (formerly St Bede's Inter-Church Comprehensive School) is the only Christian state secondary school in Cambridgeshire. It is an academy school with support from both the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia and Anglican Diocese of Ely. The school currently has around 750 pupils and around 50 staff. In 2024, the school was designated as "outstanding" by Ofsted in all areas.

History

St Bede's opened in 1962 as a small Roman Catholic secondary school housed in one central building, under the leadership of headmaster K.G. Kent and around 18 nuns teaching and running the school. Over the years, the school began to admit students from other Christian denominations, notably the Anglican Church. In the light of the increasing ecumenical co-operation between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches the school was closed, re-opening in 1988 as a joint Catholic/Anglican foundation, St Bedes Inter-Church Comprehensive School, retaining most of the original staff, including the nuns, but with a new management.^{[ citation needed ]}

Since then the school has expanded and additional buildings have been added; first a technology block, housing Food Technology, Textiles Technology and Design Technology, although now also hosts Information Technology; then the St Etheldreda block, a suite of 12 general-purpose classrooms (the "B Block") in 1995. Three science laboratories were refurbished in 2001; in 2003, four new English classrooms, a purpose built drama and dance studio and purpose built music rooms were added and in 2005 a state of the art Sports Hall including teaching rooms and tennis courts brought the school to its present state. Due to the increasing popularity and expansion of the school the site continued to need mobile classrooms to cope with the demand for teaching space. The latest £4m development began in August 2008, aiming to replace all mobile classrooms with six teaching rooms, two new art rooms and a digital media centre, a chaplaincy and more refurbished science labs. The new Art and Chaplaincy building has been connected to the technology and English/music/drama building to create one large building which can be walked through when raining; covered walkways will be added between the main block and "B" block, the only building which now stands alone.^{[ citation needed ]}

The school gained Humanities Specialist Status in September 2005 with History as the lead subject and Geography/Religious Education in support. In 2009 the school was invited to apply for a second specialism in light of the school's success in the Humanities department. The choice was Maths & Computing: the Maths department had previously been nominated as a consultant Maths department. ^[2]

The school converted to academy status in August 2012.^{[ citation needed ]}

On Sepember 17 2025, the community of St Bede's gathered together to celebrate the opening of the new chapel and music block. ^[3]

Ofsted

In 2004, 2007, 2011 and 2013 the school was inspected by Ofsted and was judged to be "satifactory", "good", "outstanding" and "outstanding", respectively. ^{[note 1] [5]} In 2024, the school was designated as "outstanding" by Ofsted in all areas. ^[6]

Notes

1. Ofsted grades schools as either "inadequate", "requires improvement" (formerly "satisfactory"), "good", or "outstanding". ^[4]

References

1. "Our School". St Bede's Inter-Church School. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
2. Unknown ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
3. Bohan-Hurst, Charlie (16 October 2025). "New Chapel and Music Block Blessed at St Bede's". Catholic Diocese Of East Anglia. Archived from the original on 17 November 2025. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
4. "NEU to Ed Humpherson: Comparisons of the proportion of good and outstanding schools over time". Office for Statistics Regulation . Archived from the original on 14 June 2025. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
5. "Find an inspection report and registered childcare". Ofsted. 7 April 2022. Archived from the original on 20 July 2025. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
6. "Inspection of St Bede's Inter-Church School". Ofsted. 2 July 2024. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2025.