St Richard Reynolds secondary school

@ListeningPost , the HS ofsted section 8 report has been released today, it's on the HS section of the school website and the school has maintained its Outstanding grading.

I have been interested to read these posts. Are there any more opinions on this school currently? Has anything changed ? I posted in another thread about my reservations of the sport provision at SRRCC.

I have kids at 2 of the other catholic schools mentioned here and know many, many parents (and teachers) at SRR. None of the schools are perfect, we all have our gripes and issues. They all have different a demographic as well so choosing the one that suits you and your child is the main thing. it's true that St Marks is more academic but I've found the pastoral care for my tricky 13 year old to be brilliant, I've been very impressed on that front. However, the sport St Marks leaves a lot to be desired so if your child is at all sporty avoid that.

We've all heard rumours from all the schools and I wouldn't stoop as low to mention the ones I've heard about SRR as I suspect they're BS.

My No.1 tip for Schoo tours is rather than to grill SLT or teachers, is to grill the students showing you around. Are they happy? Do they have fun? How do they interact with each other and their teachers? They're often 6th formers so make sure to ask if they attend that school or if they moved.

I have never ever heard anyone describe St Mark's as holistic before. Many parents from my DC's year 6 class put it down as a first choice but not many got it with my DC's friends mostly going to Gunnersbury and a few to SRR. The ones who did go for St Mark's went for it because the headmistress gave a lot of waffle about it being the best Catholic school in the country and their amazing exam results. When we did our research however it wasn't everything she said. We also asked lots of questions about their safeguarding (our DC is dyslexic and was bullied for it until his brilliant primary head steamed in to stop it) and it seemed shocking. We heard first hand accounts of a massive cover up of a serious sexual assault (pupil on pupil) at the school which put us completely off. They are all about results and that's about it at St Mark's. The children have to stand up when an adult walks into a classroom and a friend of my DC who's there got a detention for scraping their chair. Pathetic. Poor child is terrified of school and says they only like you there if you're really clever. We may not like Mr Burke but we really disliked the headmistress at St Mark's. Honestly from what we've seen and heard, St Mark's does not hold a candle to St Richard Reynold's. It's far from perfect but our child is safe, very happy and the teachers are as I say just brilliant. We wanted co-ed and Catholic for our DC and fee we made the right choice. If the school works a bit smarter to improve their exam results and gets a bit stricter on uniform and behaviour we'll be ecstatic. Really interesting to find out that Gunnersbury is going co-ed. If they'd done it for this year we'd probably have made it our first choice but we are so happy we went with SRR. Honestly we are.

Anyone looking for Catholic schools for 2025 onwards might be interested that Gunnersbury in Hounslow is going co-educational: https://www.gunnersbury.com/page/?title=Statutory+Notice&pid=252

Hi. Wow. Reading your post on the SRR thread can I say this has not been our experience of SRR at school. The school has lots of faults but it is really proud to be a Catholic school. I have heard lots of stories of crummy behaviour but overwhelmingly the kids seem good, kind and proud of the Catholic values they are being taught. We went to the welcome Mass at the school last September and it was (tbh) shambolic but it didn't feel like anyone was ashamed to be Catholic. Maybe it's because there are such a high number of Catholic children there but honestly nobody is picked on for their Catholic faith as far as I can tell.

I stumbled across this thread, interested because I have a DC in Year 7 at SRR. Wow. Interesting mix of views. We are still in our early days so my opinion is still being formed, however, so far, our experience has been positive. Especially the teachers who are overwhelmingly great. One or two exceptions, of course: we do not like Mr Burke. Our DC says he's hardly seen at the school and we've only seen him at major events, which he stalks with the Chair of Governors looking for money and telling us parents how fortunate we are to send our children to the school. He's not wrong on the latter. It is a really good school, but not as amazing as he thinks it is. We find him arrogant and no, the school is not stacking up to the nom-dom schools in the area that achieve such fantastic exam results. He needs a dose of humility. Also, my DC is in a great stream with great kids, but the abuse of uniform is a shocker. My DC says you don't know where to look with the mostly older girls shortening their skirts to their pant line and the boys pulling their trousers down to below theirs. Behaviour in the upper school too is not brilliant either from what I hear from other parents. A close friend's child is in Year 10 and is finding the peer pressure to mess around and vape in the toilets overwhelming. The leadership seems a bit weak and reluctant to sort it out. These are the negatives in a school with a lot more positives. If we'd wanted our DC to go to a super strict school and (unrealistically) be pushed to Oxbridge we'd have sent them to St. Mark's. We chose SRR because we believe the school will help them to achieve without damaging their mental health for life. It's a very supportive and kind environment. I think we've made the right choice here but agreeing a little with some of the earlier posters who are/were unhappy with the school, many parents would like to see the school adopt a more rigorous approach to raising standards and behaviour. If that means being a bit stricter and adopting harsher penalties for taking the mickie out of how the uniform is worn and the like we'll totally support the school. For anyone reading here and considering SRR for their children I'd say yes, go for it, it's a great school. Just like any other school you're looking at however, grill the senior team and don't fall for the marketing BS. There's a lot of that at SRR and now they're 10 years old they really need to start delivering on everything they say they are.

I am on the waiting list for SRRC - fingers crossed for us 🤞

I have two children at SRR- one graduated and one in the high school. I have nothing but great things to say about it and my kids have lovely - and well mannered- friends. I think at every school there will be children who do not have the exemplary behaviour you would hope for. My son transferred from a very highly respected catholic school where he was completely miserable due to bullies. He said that the school was more interested in your uniform being tidy than children being kind to one another. He is happy, thriving and working hard now.
to the posters above I'm sorry to hear your daughters aren't happy as I know it's horrid to see your child miserable but I don't think it's a universal experience at SRR at all

Hi there,how did you get on with your Year 9? Did you find another school? I am having similar problems at another school

The kids participate in weekly mass at StRR school, and they go on Lent Retreat at school. They have two hours on Catechism per week and in the other school three.

There were dozens and dozens of kids from the local Catholic schools in the Holy Communion preparation course. And it is not a requirement by school.

Honestly, I have never heard of such instance as you described Left Foot.

@ThingsWillWorkOut Interesting. It was two years when my DC applied but having checked it’s now 5 years. One way or the other, there were only a handful of children from practising Catholic families. That’s not a problem in itself. It’s a free country. The problem is the weird and surprising level of hostility towards the catholic faith from the supposedly Catholic pupils, and some of the teachers. Maybe this is specific to the schools my DC/their friends went to rather than Catholic schools in general.

Ha! I'm guessing they don't want the kids hanging out in the corridors reading the displays when they should be somewhere else! 😁

it is a lovely school. Kids are there so kind. I meant the corridor walls

The walls were white weren't they? Each classroom seemed to have one wall in a feature colour from the same palette as the school logo, but I'm sure they were otherwise white. But white isn't the most practical colour for a school, so perhaps there were a few grubby fingerprints making them look greyer than they should be! 😁 The classrooms and noticeboards had lots of displays - especially the history classroom. The canteen had screens advertising the after-school clubs, which caught my daughter's eye. She liked the food too! 😋

The certificate required 5 year attendance. I understood first time what you stated. You should have raised it with the headmaster.

@ADogAndThreeCats I’m talking about people going to Mass for two years in order to get the form ticked, then never going again.

My DS got bullied because he was catholic at a Catholic school. It’s happened to friends’ DC too.

@LeftFooter the assumption of the schools we have in mind is that the priests are issuing Certificate of Catholic practice. In our parish the priest is checking in his notebook the attendance . So there is no way that somebody will be baptised last minute and go to catholic school. That simply would not work.

Btw a very Catholic people can have naughty kids too. It happens in all circles.

@SignoraFranca the only way you’ll get a truly Catholic education for your children is if you home educate. My children have been bullied in Catholic schools because they come from a practising Catholic family. Most Catholic schools round here (West London) have parents jumping through hoops to get their children in to the school, and then they give up their pretence of faith.

If it’s accessible to you, have a look at The Laurels School. It’s fee paying but they also offer bursaries. Genuinely Catholic and a very special place.

Exactly, the walls are the detail and definitely I would not use it as a deciding factor.
Spanish is spoken by vast part of the world and definitely useful but it would be nice if they continued French. In our primary we had French.

The only problem I have with Turing is that there is no choice of languages. Spanish is the only language on offer. Whereas at Orlean Park they have two languages in the first two years ( French and Spanish)and then you can add German if you wish.

Also ( and this is a minor thing) they could paint the school walls in a more positive colour or white rather than dirty blue/grey. And since they have so many great art pieces they could decorate the walls.

But academically the school is top notch for a comprehensive school, of course

I think Urban Rhino means last year results which were slightly bit lower than usual but not bad. 71 perc got 5+ and 7+ were 33 perc. This year 72perc got 5+ at GCSE and 40 perc got 7+. These are good results as compared to the nation average.