URSULINE HIGH WIMBLEDON

@Smoothie23 is your daughter at the Ursuline?

And you are sure that it is not CoE school?

I wonder how a muslim accepts that his/ her daughter learns that he prophet Jesus was the Messiah. And she goes through all brain conditioning process...I have a challenge to imagine jt.

By law you can withdraw your child from worship, even in Catholic schools. But so much of school life is religion-flavoured you’d spend quite a lot of time sitting out.

also, I don’t think they do catechism in a formal sense. I’ve never heard that said, anyway.

In most of Catholic schools you don't have plug and play option. It is what it is and everybody participates in masses, cathehism etc

@Elledeco

To be fair to the Catholic Curch, education arm thereof, it has made effort to simplify its admissions policies in recent years (in comparison, some of the CofE VA schools' policies I've come across are positively Byzantine...). If it doesn't have it in the policy, then the school can't use it to rank its applicants.

My daughter attends an Ursuline school and we had to provide a copy of her baptism certificate to prove that she was baptised before one year old. Not sure if that rule still applies though.

Can I please ask about the 6 months point? I can't see that on the current admissions criteria - do you know if that is definitely still the case?

This used to be more of a thing in Catholic schools when I was young but I don’t think it’s very common anymore.

*Also, bear in mind that this is a school with a heavy emphasis on Catholicism: there are days of retreats with priest lectures, two hours of religious education per week, one of which is solely dedicated to catechism, sometimes participation in masses with the holy communion, and most trips are to important Catholic locations such as Rome, monasteries, Fatima, Santiago dell Compostella pilgrimages.

Really? My cousin went here but it must have changed!

Our local (private) Catholic girls' school has a few Muslim pupils. Some Muslim parents are very keen on an all-girls environment for their daughters, and they can alway opt out of mass.

Over a mile away and not Christian but another faith. I think they had a last minute vacancy and she was on the waiting list (most people drop off the waiting list by September I expect) so got lucky. Anecdotally I have heard the local Catholic community has reduced somewhat since covid/Brexit but I have no idea on numbers. This gives some info https://www.merton.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/admissions/recent-years but the school website might have more numbers?

Loads of Muslim girls attend my local single sex Catholic school here in the North East..

Are you very close to the school? Is it by distance?

Or perhaps is she practising Christianity but another form ie, CofE? I've heard that can help!

I couldn't see it in the admissions criteria, either. And it's not something like the 'to the best of my belief' bit in the form that the priest signs off wrt Cathplic practice, in that there is guidance for the priest as to.how they should form that belief - when you were baptised is when you were baptised.

If the school really is ranking applicants by anything other than its published admissions criteria, any applicant affected by this should have a very good chance of having an appeal upheld.

Can I please ask about the 6 months point? I can't see that on the current admissions criteria - do you know if that is definitely still the case? Thanks

A non catholic girl on our street got in last year at the very last minute (just at the start of September) from the waiting list. She’s enjoying it.

Just to say that Catholic schools are just that - very, very Catholic. There will be masses, the local priest will visit, and although they will learn about other faiths there will be a strong focus on what catholics believe and this will be presented as the truth. RE will take up 10% of the teaching time. Other schools may teach religion but really not in the same way.

i dont think its quite true that all/most the trips are to religious sites though?

I also agree that if you child is non-Christian your chances really will be very low indeed. Not nil. But very very low. Also there will be very few/no non-Christians in the school so you do need to think about how that will feel for your child. It’s very ethnically and socially diverse but pretty much everyone will share the same beliefs and have the same points of reference

@OP look at their website, the retreats are in the calendar. Twice in year. By retreats I mean analysis of Gospel by the priest.

Please read the section Catholic Life in the menu section here it is very elaborate.

In Catholic schools they don't teach only a lesson of RE per week, which focuses only on judaism and Christianity in Catholic schools, but there is an additional cathehism lesson. They also take it at GCSE. Look at the curiculum here

@Elledeco

You will NOT get in otherwise. Admission criteria rules aside. You just won't.

Exactly.

I've had 3 girls go through the school.
It's excellent. Very, very popular and the GCSE results are very high as are the A Level results.
High emphasise on religion as you would expect from a Catholic school.
You have to have baptised your daughter before the age of 6 months and you have to have a letter of support from your local priest along with proven church attendance to get in
You will NOT get in otherwise. Admission criteria rules aside. You just won't.

@Womblewimble
If you are not a practising Catholic (that is, if there is no chance the priest will sign even one year of church attendance and no certificate of baptism), you have a very low chance of getting into this school in 2025 but of course you can try. In a few years, the birth rate will decline, and it may be easier. I am not saying this to upset you but to make you aware of the situation.

Also, bear in mind that this is a school with a heavy emphasis on Catholicism: there are days of retreats with priest lectures, two hours of religious education per week, one of which is solely dedicated to catechism, sometimes participation in masses with the holy communion, and most trips are to important Catholic locations such as Rome, monasteries, Fatima, Santiago dell Compostella pilgrimages.

this is all a bit moot really. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about the Ursuline. I have heard that under the previous head there was a fair amount of academic pressure, but generally it’s a very well regarded school but it’s a comprehensive and thus will have a comprehensive intake. But there are so many opportunities for the children to do so many things there. So if you like it, apply. If you get in, great, if you don’t, you’ll get Ricards if you live close by. You can’t really compare either of them to the grammar schools in terms of academics.

I didn't mean to offend you but you mention that you see them as they go to school. And I thought that you base your assumption on the fact that there are kids of all ethnical background, skin pigments.
Of course they are, there are many Catholics in any country.

Surely you have not seen a girl in hijab and Catholic school uniform. Simply no practicing muslim would consider Catholic secondary school for their kid.

@CaptainOhMyCaptain

Year 7 Sept 24 has Catholics on the waiting list.

Exactly. This is what I am also trying explain