Ursuline High School, Virgo Fidelis, Notre Dame

Wrong Ursuline - I think this thread relates to the Wimbledon Ursuline High school.

2years 8 mounts and 3 weeks ago I faced the most disappointing day in which nor I or any other person of any ability should have endured. Joining Brentwood Ursuline convent night school for girls was one of the worst choices made for me. This school proves and is presented as a great convent school and yes the results may back up the learning etiquette for this school however, when it came down to the simply respect and offering of help and virtue for me and my family there standards seemed to no longer apply. Without capturing the schools reputation, the simple human decency of the staff themselves are merciless and have no regard for help- coming from a convent school this is shocking. A member of my family was facing anxiety towards learning and when no pleased help was required and severe impact struck all the school could offer was waiting, missed phone calls and pointless meetings which where all to prevent the police getting involved all to prevent there reputation.

Good luck, it is a tense time from now until March 1st!

Will you put Kingsdale down, as that is a lottery so not dependent on distance, and does your Dd have any particular aptitude, fir music, for example? For schools that have places reserved for music (Norwood I think) or languages (Chestnut Grove, but I could be wrong).

You do need a school, last on the list if it is not your preferred school, that you will definitely be offered a place at.

Can you tell us your nearest school? You are clearly in S London

OP - are you looking at the admissions criteria for all these schools? If they are oversubscribed they very rarely get past the top admissions criteria.

Does your dd attend a catholic church most weeks and is she confirmed? Look very carefully at the admissions criteria that the catholic schools demand.

Other schools tend to operate very tight catchment areas. I see you mentioned Charter further up the thread (great school!) which has a very tight catchment on distance.

If you list lots of schools you have no chance of getting into you will end up with a place that is left after all the other places have been allocated to people who did list them. So you need to be realistic. Although with 6 preferences you can afford t list probably 4 'long shot' schools that are your favourites, but then you need to list two that you will definitely meet the criteria for.

Virgo Fidelis has closed. Very sad.

Not sure where you are OP as you seem interested in schools over a wide area. St Catherine's in Bexleyheath is a fantastic school. Best progress 8 in the Borough and holds its own results wise against the grammar schools. It may be too far out for you though.

@VeryHappyIndeed No problem! They have an open day this Saturday (10th Oct), if its a school you are considering definitely check it out, best to get a feel for it. Lots of my friends had really good experiences, just best to know both sides of people's experiences. If you have any questions after I am more than happy to help :)

Hi!
I left Notre Dame in 2015, other sisters left 2017 and 2020, just thought I'd give you my opinion on the school.

Teaching is okay if you're academically gifted. If you're not, they give barely any support.

Headteacher is really negative and doesn't show support to struggling pupils. Instead, she will gather them in her office in year 11 all at once when their mocks aren't great and instead of showing support and helping them, she will tell them all that they will fail and never get a good job or go to university. In all my 5 years of being there, I think I spoke to her once for a reward from the PE teacher.

Since I left in 2015, it seems to have gone rapidly downhill from the stories my sisters told me, e.g. phones out in lessons, (headteacher bans phones which I agree with 100%, but students seem to always have them out in lessons and seem to be getting away with it, including teachers allowing students to film snapchats in the PE changing rooms).

They reward the badly behaved children for being good for one lesson, I never got rewarded for my good behaviour, nor did my sisters.

Pupil wise, I was really lucky. I'm still in contact with a big group of students and bullying was something I never really experienced, however, my other 2 sisters don't speak to anyone since leaving and had problems with other girls in mostly every year (always the same group of girls and nothing was sorted out over it after many phone calls).

My advice to you would be to check the school out for yourself, you might like the school. The school itself is tiny compared to other schools, which is good in my opinion and something I liked over other schools I toured in year 6. Your daughter may like Notre Dame the best (year 7 have their own building now which is a good way to settle into secondary) and she could also have a mainly positive experience like myself. I personally had an ok experience and I do miss my secondary school days. I think if the current headteacher left and one of the assistant/ deputy heads took over, the school would be a great school, but sadly, the headteacher lacks building good relationships with her students, (whereas I would say the senior leadership team has much better relationships with students) and from my sister's experience, the headteacher really embarrassed and degraded her.

Any questions you have I'll be happy to answer them, hope this helped a bit :)

It'll probably be turned into flats. I agree it's sad when a school with a long history closes. You'd think a girls' catholic school would be really popular as they often are

I agree.

‘ A landmark Victorian school building in Upper Norwood is “not currently safe for pupils and staff” and has been deemed to be beyond repair, forcing Croydon Council to tell the parents and carers of 240 pupils that they will have to go to other schools in September.’

Hard to see how it will come back from that without significant investment.

And it looks like it is in consultation to close. Always sad to see a school close, particularly one like this.

That is really sad to see.

@LifeAfterBreastCancer

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/insidecroydon.com/2020/05/05/head-quits-as-high-risk-virgo-fidelis-struggles-with-budget/amp/

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/insidecroydon.com/2020/08/18/240-virgo-fidelis-pupils-sent-away-due-to-unsafe-buildings/amp/

Re Virgo Fidelis, I assume you mean the girls school in Norwood. My eldest DD was in the Junior school for 2 years many years ago and from what I know the Senior School has been in rapid decline since and in recent years looked on the verge of closure.

@VeryHappyIndeed no, not virtual. I think there may still be slots available on the website.

Just googled the St Martin uniform after reading the post above and yes it is certainly a big improvement. The previous one was not easy on the eyes!
I grew up near St Philomenas and remember when they brought in the current uniform as a replacement for the previous teal and rust number. Not sure the brown, beige and cream replacement was such an improvement though!

@VeryHappyIndeed I'm a bit late to the thread, but will be attending la retraite open day next week. So will post my thoughts. I live in north London and it's in my top 3.

It depends where you live. The comps really do work on tight distance criteria.

Charter (two schools now, North Dulwich and East Dulwich)
Kingsdale
People talk about Habetdashers, Prendergast, etc.

Sydenham School is an excellent girls school if you are near there.