School Commercial Certificate - instituted in 1927\nSchool Technical Certificate - instituted in 1957 (extended in 1958 to include some 'domestic' subjects)\n\nThe groupings of the subjects offered for the School Commercial Certificate and the School Technical Certificate are prescribed in the regulations. For the School Certificate the selection of the subjects (except English Language) is left to the discretion of the school.\n\nThe certificates awarded did not provide any sort of vocational qualification. In 1970 the School Certificate was replaced by the Secretarial/Clerical Examinations Stage 1, which sought to offer a more vocational qualification. In recent years prior to this decision the numbers of candidates for the School Certificate Examinations saw a decline due to the introduction of the Certificate for secondary Education.

Archbishop Thurstan School was one of the schools taking part in the Parents in a Learning Society initiative