St Joseph's College, Ipswich

Infobox UK school
name = St Joseph’s College
native_name =


motto ="Fides Labore Et Tenacitate"
(Faith, Work and Tenacity)
established =1937
address = Belstead Road, IP2 9DR
city =Ipswich
state =Suffolk
country =England
campus =
type =Independent school
affiliation =
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principal = Mrs Siân Grant
founder =
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faculty =
students =588 (2006)
grades =
district =
oversight =
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newspaper =
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website = http://www.stjos.co.uk
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St Joseph’s College is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils between the ages of 2½ and 18, in Ipswich, England.

It was originally a Catholic foundation, the boys’ school having been set up in 1937 by the Brothers of the De La Salle order. In 1995 there was an amalgamation with a local Catholic girls’ school. Today St. Joseph’s is a Christian school in the Lasallian tradition of its foundation.

The college is situated near the centre of Ipswich in extensive grounds, on the site of Birkfield House. The grounds of Goldrood House and the Birkfield Mews, now boarding houses and infant school, were a later addition to the college.

In 2006, the college had 588 pupils aged from 2½ to 18, with 160 aged 2½ to 10 in the junior school, 321 aged 11 to 16 and 107 in the sixth form. There are currently 90 boarders of whom 80 are from overseas.

Recent Developments

Since May 2000, the college has undergone a programme of refurbishment and reorganisation and improved its facilities and resources, including a new teaching and learning centre, science computer atrium, new arts and photographic suite, computer networking, a music technology suite and enlarged boarding accommodation. A new junior school is about to be built on the campus, releasing space for the further development of boarding. The current head, Mrs Siân Grant, was appointed in January 2002.

An even more recent referbishment programme has taken place with a multi-million pound, state of the art, eco-friendly, junior school being built. Goldrood House has now gone back to become a boarding house instead of Hilbrow House that was off of the college's campus.

House system

The College has used various house systems throughout its history. In the current system, there is no strong house rivalry, as in many other independent schools, due to the nature of the school as both coeducational and containing a mix of boarding and day students.

Currently, there are four houses:

* De la Salle (Blue)
* Thevenet (Yellow)
* Xavier (Red)
* Celsus (Green)

An earlier version of the system which was in use in the 1980s and 1990s was to have four houses named after major figures in England’s Roman Catholic history:

* Campion (named after St Edmund Campion, an English Jesuit and martyr)
* Sherwin (named after St Ralph Sherwin, an English martyr)
* More (named after St Thomas More, English lawyer, politician and martyr)
* Beckett (named after St Thomas Beckett, an early archbishop of Canterbury and martyr)

Old Birfieldians

The Old Birkfieldians is the Alumni Association of St Joseph’s College. It is named after the site of the original school (Birkfield House). It has been merged with the Alumni Association of the old Junior School (Old Oakhillians).

Recent Inspections

SJC was inspected in 2006. It came back with outstantanding results. Inspectors commented that it was a "school that was going places" and that the "relationship between all members of the college, staff, pupils and parents is fantastic". It was awarded 9.5/10. [http://www.stjos.co.uk/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=3&Itemid=55]

External links

* [http://www.stjos.co.uk St Joseph’s College] official website