St. Brendan's is a post-16 educational institution located in Bristol, England. It has a strong rugby union heritage. Saint Brendan's was founded by the Irish Christian Brothers as a Catholic school for boys in 1896 in Berkeley Square in Bristol. During the first fifty years of its existence it played a part in developing an educated Catholic laity in and around Bristol. Many of its pupils entered the priesthood as well as other professions. Following the 1944 Education Act, Saint Brendan's became a boys' direct grant grammar school and by the late 1950s had outgrown the Berkeley Square site. The Brothers purchased a house (the Beeches) and extensive grounds in Brislington, built the present accommodation, and moved to Brislington in 1960. The grammar school was wound down over several years, the last of the old grammar school students joined the sixth form in 1985. In the late 1970s, as a result of a reorganisation of Catholic secondary education in Bristol and Bath, Saint Brendan's became a coeducational sixth form college: the sixth form for four 11 to 16 Catholic secondary schools.