Headteacher's Welcome

I would like to welcome you to Cardinal Newman Catholic School, a truly extraordinary school built to serve the Luton community through our mission Together Towards Our Lord through Learning, Love and Faith. Our school can be described through our curriculum aims of developing Growth, Connection, and Mission for our students.

GROWTH: Love, Learning, Love and Faith.

Our staff who Love the children and ensure that they know they are loved through our actions towards them. This love is in the relationships between staff and children and the connection with them. Our staff care deeply about the children and the children know it. People who visit Cardinal Newman Catholic School often say that it is a special place. That it feels different and that their interactions with staff and students feel different. It was this feeling, this difference, which led to the development of ‘The Newman Way.’ A way of living and a path to developing good character through a focus on the growth of the fruits of the Holy Spirit within our students.

Learning is at the heart of our mission we must provide the highest quality of curriculum and teaching as we believe our students deserve the best. As a result, our students achieve some of the best results in Luton. This year at GCSE we achieved some of highest ever results putting us in the top 20% of schools in the country for high grades. At A Level we achieved the best results in the town with our students achieving an average of a B- grade and our vocational average was a Distinction *, which is the highest possible grade. This academic excellence is important to the school as we aim for children to leave us having fulfilled the potential of their talents – leaving us with options for their lives with choices about what they will do next. Our Year 13 students exemplified this this year by being able to pursue their next step choices successfully with over 70% achieving their first offer for University.

We have faith that the students we serve can achieve great things. As an Outstanding Catholic school, we have a strong focus on mission and the faith that underpins it. Throughout their time in the school, we will provide them with opportunities to explore their own faith (whatever that may be) and bring them closer to gospel values, which are inherent in good character.

CONNECTION: Connected, together…

Cardinal Newman Catholic School’s formation was founded through the efforts of the Catholic communities of Luton and the Diocese of Northampton who advocated and campaigned for a Catholic secondary school in Luton. The bonds of connection of those educated through the school are forged across Luton and have positively contributed to this community for years. This legacy is a firm part of the school to this very day and evident in every classroom. Many of the children who attend here were preceded by parents, friends and loved ones; many of the teachers who teach here, attended the school; the legacy of these connections of the past stretch into the future. Cardinal Newman Catholic School is a special and extraordinary school committed to the personal, academic and spiritual growth of the children we serve to make our Luton community and our world a better place.

MISSION: Our Mission, to do good… Towards our Lord.

That is our mission: to do his work; to do good. It is our belief that we serve through the love, expertise and care we call upon to grow and develop our students. The bible regularly relates stories of loved ones, disciples and faithful people moving Towards Our Lord. It is through this faith in action that miracles were often possible. It is our mission to bring others to the Lord – to do good and make our communities better through our faith, love and action.

It is this growth through learning and the qualifications that come from it, through love and the character it develops and through faith and the strength it provides that we believe enables our students to make our community and world better through the good that they will do. And most importantly the children will have the time of their lives connected with us in this extraordinary school.

Helen Fay, Headteacher