Geo-Demographic Context
St Bonaventure’s is a Catholic Comprehensive situated within the London Borough of Newham. Our intake covers the whole of this borough and areas of Leyton, as the boundary for admission is based upon the Roman Catholic Deanery and not the borough boundaries.
This area has some of the most deprived housing in England and yet this is no longer recognised by geo-demographic indicators such as IDACI. Since 2012, house prices have increased dramatically and this has resulted in the average income of Newham increasing. However, the vast majority of individuals have incomes significantly below average. London Borough of Newham now has the biggest gap between average house price and average income in the UK.
London Borough of Newham ranks high in all childhood deprivation factors except for student outcomes.
From London’s Poverty Profile, the following is stated with regard to Newham;
- Newham had the second highest child poverty rate across London (41%) and the highest proportion of children in working families receiving tax credits (44%).
- Newham had one of the highest unemployment rates in London (8.6%), while more than a third of residents who were employees were low paid (35%), the highest rate in London. The proportion of jobs that are low paid was also high (29%).
- Newham had the highest rate of overcrowding (25%) and of households in temporary accommodation (28.5 per 1,000 households) of all London boroughs. It also had one of the highest rates of homelessness acceptances, which had grown from 1.1 to 7.9 per 1,000 households.
- Newham has one of the highest ratios of pay inequality across London, but a low proportion of benefit claimants living in the most deprived areas. This suggests that while there is a significant degree of inequality between the poorest and richest households, there is less spatial segregation of households along these lines than in other parts of London.
Academic Context
In London Borough of Newham, there are now highly selective providers of post-16 education and so our students on intake have a lower profile at GCSE on average. This is reflected in the academic outcomes at A level.
In 2017, we had 161 students at the end of 16-18 study and the outcomes are;
- Average Point Score per Entry 32.05
- Average Grade C+
- Percentage of students who achieve three GCE A levels at grades AAB or higher, with two or more in facilitating subjects 8.1%
