New to mumsnet and have been searching for information about Sacred Heart High School (in Hammersmith) to no avail.
Our daughter has offers from this outstanding state school as well as 5 independent schools (of which we have for now accepted and paid a deposit for Putney High and declined the others). We are however now having second thoughts and we think that perhaps we could save the cash and take the place at Sacred Heart which is also an amazing school. Also, we are 20minutes walk from SHHS and a 40-50 journey (tube+walk) from Putney High.
Our daughter is very good at sports and likes drama and music, which is why we first choose independent route but is the provision really so lacking at Sacred Heart? We could do a lot of extra curricular stuff with we the money we save! We were also first concerned about class sizes but this might not be an issue in reality (?). Most of the girls I see in the street seem really nice...
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I guess what we are looking for is an honest opinion from current parents at Sacred Heart regarding:
*the sports and extra curricular activities provision
*how do the girls get set, and is this just for maths and English?
*how do they identify and stretch bright girls when the class size is so large (33 if I remember correctly)?
We are both catholic and state educated, but not in this country. Although not wealthy by any means (good sized mortgage) we could pay for the fees relatively comfortably (we both work), and therefore it is not just about fee vs free (but we will take into account how much easier life would be with no fees!). We would like to decide by the end of the week and we are very confused at this point. Thank you in advance for your opinions!