Meanwhile, those older students who had passed their 11-plus in 1968 and earlier years continued to be educated at the St Francis RC Grammar School(boys) and at the Convent (girls) at Hartlepool.

When those schools closed in 1973, some of these pupils finally arrived at St Bede's as sixth-formers.

Originally there were four of these, each named after the first bishops of Hexham and Newcastle: Hogarth, Chadwick, Bewick and O'Callaghan.

In September 1974, true comprehensive school status was achieved when some of the first-year intake of 1969 entered the Sixth Form.

Corporal punishment, in the form of caning, was used in the early years of the school, but only the housemasters and headmistress were allowed to administer it.