St Thomas More Language College is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

. It is named after

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...

who was beheaded by King Henry VIII when Lord Chancellor. Saint Thomas More lived in the Chelsea borough which is where the school is now located. Education for boys and girls has been provided at the school since 1845. The first foundation in 1885 was for 200 pupils and the school has been in existence since that time. The Sisters of Mercy, who ran a boarding school, decided to move from the site in 1954 so that the school could be modernised to accommodate 249 pupils. The school is situated in the middle of Chelsea, a short walk from Sloane Square, and is surrounded by a wide variety of galleries and museums. Many of the buildings have now been supplemented by modern buildings which house all the facilities for a mixed, comprehensive school. The school gained Language College specialist status in September 2004. St Thomas More RC School achieved Specialist status as a Language College in 2004. There are 37 different language backgrounds in college. These languages range across Europe, South America and Africa. The largest contingents are Portuguese, Spanish, Filipino and Eritrean.

Achievements

In 1977 the school choir provided the backing vocals for the hit song ''

If I Had Words "If I Had Words" is a duet by Scott Fitzgerald (singer), Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley, released as a single in November 1977. It was a top-ten hit in several countries and sold more than one million copies worldwide. The backing was by th ...

'' performed by

Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

and

Yvonne Keeley Yvonne Keeley (born Yvonne Paaij, 6 September 1952) is a Dutch pop music singer. She is the sister of Patricia Paay. She began her career as a session singer in the music industry in London, working with Madeline Bell and Vicki Brown. She ...

, which reached Number 1 in the Netherlands, Number 3 in the UK, Number 9 in Ireland and Number 24 in Australia.

References

Secondary schools in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Westminster Voluntary aided schools in London Educational institutions established in 1885 1885 establishments in England {{London-school-stub