URSULINE HIGH WIMBLEDON

It is not a designated grammar sxhool and therefore, if all places have not been filled under higher criteria,

@MarchingFrogs

HolyCross, St Richard Reynolds, Richard Challoner, St Paul's Catholic College, Salesian Catholic school + Ursulean are local Catholic schools in this area. Not new ,therefore had no requirement of accepting 50 perc non faith. All oversubscribed to the extent that they don't go to lower criterions because first 3-4 fill the schools.
There is more Catholic kids than spaces. Living further Catholics are not getting in and in some instances like with St Richard Reynolds even not from designated parishes.

It will improve when the current Reception year goes to secondary school as the birth rate falls. But for now it is what it is

For that you would need to call the school and ask about percentage of turnover. For London the average is 10.5 perc. That is there is more mobility than nationwide -7.5 perc.

This is all available online for every school and doesn't need to be shared in informal way:
schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/School?urn=102683

Would it be the impact of lack of teacher caused by the suspension of RE teacher this year?

I searched a news from below:

Suspended RE teacher - May 2024

In addition, I got an ex-student’s comment about “Very high turnover of teachers”. Could anyone give advice about the situations, too?

many thanks!

URSULINE HIGH WIMBLEDON

I’m also looking for an advice about the teacher’s situation & the financial conditions of the school.

I heard from my parish’s friend that another family have a daughter is studying in there at high form (I’m not sure but she should be Year11 or Year12). They have one subject without teacher for teaching. They need to self-study during the lesson’s time in school. Recently, it’s 1 or 2 more subjects with the same problem…

i also heard from my daughter’s classmate saying that they don’t have enough resources as a result the classmate family had donated 1 bag of new tennis balls to support their tennis practice.

For sure I never see that but I just heard it within these 2weeks.

Can someone with daughter studying there share the teacher & financial situations of this school?

Before that Ursuline is definitely my first choice to me for my daughter when I did the research for it. By the way, my daughter is a time to apply very soon in September/October.

Hope someone can share your information, thanks a lot!

And baptism is a requirement for the school criterions

.Criteria, perhaps.

And only if wishing to be considered under one of the criteria actually including this. So not if just wanting a place at the school and would only be ranked under the last criterion. It is not a designated grammar sxhool and therefore, if all places have not been filled under higher criteria, cannot refuse to offer a place to a girl for whom, determined by their CAF submission, this would be her highest effective preference, even though no evidence of religious affiliation had been provided to the school.

Pressure of numbers - the number of applicants with no higher preference on their CAF which can be allocated and who are ranked under a criterion above 'any other' - may dictate that no-one in the final criterion is offered a place in any given year, but that's just the way it goes.

@sugarbyebye lol, my cousin was there then & raved about the tuna rolls!

I was catholic on entry but now identify as pagan :)

I went there but in the nineties, so not really relevant to your questions, but it was a great school and I got almost straight A*s. It was very catholic, and we were dicks to the nuns, trying to make them blush. I feel ashamed now. My science and maths teachers were fantastic and inspired my career into STEM. It had amazing herringbone wooden floors and the canteen did a mean tuna hoagie.

@Smoothie23 I think we are agreeing with each other :)

Classes preparing to Sacraments are in the church but at school definitely they among other things talk about Sacraments and their meaning, the Catholic dogmas.
People often think that the religious involvement in CoE is the same as in Catholic schools and it is only about beginning of the day prayers.
It is worth looking at the Religious Curiculum and Chaplaincy pages of the school website.
My son is also going to Catholic school

Holy Communion and confirmation classes are taught at parish level, usually by volunteer catechists, absolutely not in school, primary or secondary.

@Womblewimble have you spoken to the admissions office?

@CaptainOhMyCaptain I still don't understand what you mean by " formal". Is Holly Communion formal? Is Confirnation formal? Is mass formal? Or do you consider it informal?

Learning about Sacraments is a part of Catechism. And baptism is a requirement for the school criterions. Most of the pupils taken Holy Communion. What do you think the lessons preparing for ot were?
Even reception kids learn Catechism in Primary Catholic schools. It is done by the right educational tools appropriate at that stage.

@Johaanah but that’s not the same as 6 months is it.?

There is a last criterion where they accept " girls of all other faiths" and no faith.
In most of Catholic schools this criterion exists. And in undersubscribed schools this criterion is exercised. But the problem is that in well performing schools there is always more Catholics applying than spaces and it never comes to exercising that criterion.
Having said that there are Catholic schools that are new and until recently 50 perc of kids had to be non Catholics. Or they reserve places for other Christian faiths etc.
There were over 800 applications to Ursuline last year and they accepted 210.
The best to be sure if other faiths/ no faith were accepted is to call admission office.

My mum went there and hated it. But that was in 1952

I am a Catholic, yes, I understand catechism to mean a formal rote learning of Catholic tenets and beliefs. As opposed to more discursive Religious Education.

@Womblewimble its a fabulous school that most people would love their daughters to attend. It has an ethos of achievement. My friends daughters are on the whole very happy there. Sorry to derail your thread!

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also, I don’t think they do catechism in a formal sense.

I am a practicing Catholic but I have no idea what you mean by this sentence. Are you a Catholic?

Just in terms of trips - I’ll say again that most trips are not pilgrimages. Right now a lot of year 7 are at PGL.

I don't have a daughter. But my son's friend is there:)