About our School

 
Thomas More Catholic School exists to provide an academic, spiritual, sporting, creative and inclusive education for all of the children who attend our school. The school is underpinned by gospel values such as love, faith, charity and hope and the greatest of these is always love – of Jesus Christ our Lord, of one another and oneself. The school is attended by children between the ages of 11 and 16 years. A school and orphanage was opened on this site in 1868 with the Catholic Church opening the school as we now know it in 1962. We have about 750 children on roll.

Thomas More Catholic School is set on an extensive site with an atmospheric older building and extensive grounds which are used for our sporting activities. Our facilities are hired by the local community in the evenings and weekends (the swimming pool and sports hall are used by local swimming clubs and sports clubs) and our football pitches are hired for Sunday morning football. We also share the grounds with one of our feeder primary schools, Margaret Roper Primary School and the Catholic Childrens Society.

Who was St Thomas More?

Thomas More was born in Milk Street , London on February 7, 1478 , son of Sir John More, a prominent judge. He was educated at St Anthony's School in London . More went on to study at Oxford University finding the time to write comedy plays. Around 1494 More returned to London to study law and became a barrister in 1501.

Yet More did not automatically follow in his father's footsteps. He was torn between a monastic calling and a life of civil service. While at Lincoln 's Inn , he determined to become a monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the Carthusians at a nearby monastery and taking part of the monastic life. The prayer, fasting, and penance habits stayed with him for the rest of his life. He entered Parliament in 1504, and married for the first time in 1504. One of his daughters was Margaret Roper.

A favourite of King Henry VIII he was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. He refused to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragon. (1527).

Nevertheless, after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor, the first layman yet to hold the post. In April, 1534, More refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London on April 17.  More was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on July 6, 1535 . His final words on the scaffold were: "The King's good servant, but God's First." More was beatified in 1886 and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.