Football club teams up with school in joint education initiative

The new partnership was announced last week.

Winning the right to educate budding 16 to 18-year-olds stars in the Slough Town Football Club Academy is the icing on the cake for the school in Shaggy Calf Lane, which has once again produced its best ever A level and BTEC results.

The partnership is designed to make sure the Academy pupils get good academic qualifications as they work towards possible future football careers.

Headteacher Ciran Stapleton said it all started when Slough Town chairman Steve Easterbrook came down to discuss ways they could work together.

The meeting turned out to be momentous.

Mr Stapleton said: "I got chatting with him and it became clear we saw things from a similar angle.

"We started talking about education and I ended up saying 'why don't you send your students here'?"

Slough Town FC's academy offers a two year, fulltime education and football development programme, open to talented young footballers aged 16 to 18.

Now they will do their A levels or BTEC exams at St Joseph's while still spending two hours day training.

It is Mr Stapleton's third year as headteacher at St Joseph's Catholic High School - during which he has turned it from a failing school into the top four per cent best in the country.

St Joseph has seen its Year 7 numbers rise from 135 to 167, while the sixth form has exploded from 28 to 128.

He said: "What I really like about this school is the sense of community. 97 per cent of the kids come from within two to three miles of the school and that's quite rare.

"We are having a new sports hall built and a new football pitch laid."

Mr Stapleton has no intention of moving on to turn another school around.

He said: "I have made a promise to the parents. I love this school, the kids are amazing."

He is looking forward to welcoming the new students from the Academy.

He said: "You may be a successful sport or football and you still really important to get a good education."