Headship Welcome

Head of School

Our motto at Bishop Justus is Success through Faith, Love and Learning and this underpins all of the work we do with our young people from year 6 transition to sending students onto further education, apprenticeships and the world of work. 

We nurture all of our students to know their identity is rooted in the love that God has for them. They are encouraged to have faith and hope in themselves and the others in our community. 

We pride ourselves in the active, intentional and ongoing engagement with differences in a purposeful manner. The success in society as a rounded individual is based on the love that we demonstrate when we work closely together. 

At our school, we value the ways in which pedagogy, curricula and assessment are designed and delivered to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant and accessible to all. It embraces a view of the individual and individual difference as the source of diversity that can enrich the lives and learning of others. 

We have the ability to function with awareness, knowledge and interpersonal skills when engaging people of different backgrounds, assumptions, beliefs, values and behaviours. The students’ learning surpasses just the knowledge acquisition, which is invaluable, but also extends to the value we place on those who have contributed to that knowledge development. 

Ofsted 2020 verifies our success with learning this, with comments such as: 

“School leaders have put building students’ knowledge at the centre of their curriculum plans.” 

“Subject leaders organise lessons in sequences so that it is clear how students build their knowledge and skills across the year groups, including the sixth form. Leaders ensure that students revisit previous learning through quizzes and tests.” 

Proverbs 18:15 best sums up how we aspire for our students to approach their studies. 

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. 

Miss Samantha Thompson 
BSc (Hons), NPQH 

Executive Headteacher

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Bishop Justus Church of England School. 

We are a Church of England comprehensive school serving the children and families of Bromley, our distinctively Christian educational ethos offers a strong academic curriculum vision and an exceptional pastoral commitment which ensures that every student is known individually and reaches his or her potential within the context of our caring in inclusive community. I would encourage you to read our vision and ethos statement which is also included within this website. It sets out clear virtues that, alongside our commitment to rigorous academic skill and deep knowledge, aim to foster compassion and empathy within the character of each and every student. We are part of the highly successful Aquinas Church of England Education Trust and I am very grateful for the opportunities and support this provides across our network of secondary and primary schools.

The school is thriving because we provide a high quality education for children aged 11–19. We foster academic success within a stimulating and happy environment. We encourage full development of scholastic excellence with a clear focus on the acquisition of core knowledge in each subject area. I am proud to lead a dedicated and talented team of professionals who share a sense of purpose and vision; a vision that demands we never stand still and continuously improve outcomes for students.

Our school and Trust community is very proud of the success our students achieve, they work incredibly hard to achieve such results and progress onto university, college and apprenticeship courses across many different sectors. In March 2016 we received truly excellent feedback during our Ofsted inspection; they judged that we continue to be a good school in every respect with some great comments regarding the progress that students make and our fantastic Sixth Form; SIAMS judged the school to be an outstanding Church of England school in every respect in the summer of 2017; these assessments underline the hard work and achievement of the whole school community.

Committed to excellence, our curriculum is designed to offer a broad range of subjects, to encourage independent learning and to provide an outstanding range of wider learning opportunities. We expect the highest standards of work, dress, behaviour, attendance and punctuality. Our staff work in partnership with parents to provide a firm framework within which all students are able to achieve irrespective of their start point.

I believe that everyone has something special to contribute and, as a Church of England School, we strive to nurture the moral and spiritual well-being of our students as well as their academic achievements. Worship is at the heart of our community and our Chaplain supports and encourages the students to explore Christian ideals so that when they leave us they are well prepared for life in the world today.

Life at Bishop Justus is engaging, exciting and very rewarding. I hope our website gives you a flavour of our school community.

Mr. Simon Murphy
BSc (Hons), NPQH