Ursuline High School, Virgo Fidelis, Notre Dame

Is single sex education your main aim?

Schools can only admit in accordance with the published admissions criteria.

Make sure the priest knows your Dd is attending! Often there is a register which is used as the basis of schools admissions.

Another all girls schools you might check the admissions criteria for is St Martin in the Fields. It is an outstanding CoE girls secondary. More popular now they changed the previous hideous uniform

Lots of good co Ed comps in SE London, though.

@VeryHappyIndeed do you meet the ‘catholic’ credentials for the catholic schools? Is your Dd at a catholic primary? Don’t catholic primaries and churches generally have schools that their children / worshippers go on to?

You will need to make sure that your list of preferences includes at least one school that you will definitely get a place in.

I was at La Retraite, but back in the 1980s so I suspect my opinion on it is irrelevant! I loved it there, though.

When I was at the ursuline we all laughed at st philomena uniform. Calf length brown kilt!
The ursuline uniform has a striped shirt that makes you go cross eyed when you iron it though...

Re st ursula Greenwich...
the teaching school just means they have visiting trainee teachers who are completing their training ... it's not a major feature of the school for the girls but shows how good it is held to be!
Progress is excellent and I'm really pleased with how well my daughters are doing there. They pride themselves on all children's progress and that shows in their being a top 100 school in the country for progress 8. They are non selective academically but they still have incredible results. They just have one open day in September definitely worth coming to see for yourself

Although the St Philomena's uniform is terrible I will say that when travelling on a public bus that had a group of the girls on they were nicely well behaved and not to shrieky. Which made a nice change.

Try to also do visits during the school day (when teachers and pupils aren't on their best behaviour) to get a real for the places. And hang-out in local coffee shops at the beginning and end of the days to see how the girls behave out of school.

It would seem that you have some very good options if you are Catholic and a regular church-goer, so I'm sure you'll find the school that best suits your DD.

Good luck.

Parents being the left-leaning (and therefore more likely to opt for state schools).

It's not even so much that the St Phil's socks are cream as that they are chunky and seem designed to 'bag' at the fattest point of lower leg so are just really unflattering.

St Phil's is usually one of the highest performing non selective schools in the national league tables (habitually outperforming the likes of Graveney). Ursuline certainly the best-achieving state school in Merton.

I have heard very good things about La Retraite - can only think that Clapham is probably a more polarised community ('ordinary' priced houses just don't exist in that neck of the woods) and suffers for not having a middle-class and left-leaning but not monied cohort on its doorstep.

There is also the all girls state ‘prendergast’ at hilly fields near Lewisham. I don’t have children there to comment though.

Hello
The St ursula convent school in se10 Greenwich is a fantastic school. I have daughters there who are doing brilliantly. It's small , girls only, and has an outstanding record and ofsted. The girls travel from quite a wide catchment area from Hackney to Bexley and further afield. Happy to answer any questions you may have about it.

La Retraite is a catholic girls school in Clapham / Balham. Ofsted Outstanding, great academic reputation, and rather bizarrely undersubscribed in recent years so places available.

Holy Cross in New Malden rates high in the Kingston Borough. Suspect it may be an alternative school for families looking at the Ursuline (geographically speaking that is)

I went to the Ursuline but left in 1990 so am possibly not much help...

I think OP means Ursuline in Wimbledon.

Those horrible cream socks as part of the St Phil's uniform...

If you mean Ursuline in Brentwood I know girls that go there and as it's an all girls school I'm told the bullying by pupils is out of hand. I looked around the school with my daughter and got a good feeling about it, the dance studio and photography studios were outstanding as was the textiles/sewing.

If St Philomena's is the one I think it is - it has an absolutely hideous uniform.
(obviously your opinion on that may be different)

If you are talking about Norte Dame in Southwark, it is a comprehensive. Have a look at the criteria for admissions it is very specific re baptism age and church attendance. I have no recent reports of the school but I went there years ago when the current Head was a teacher. She is the reason I didn't consider it for my catholic daughter.