South London state schools for anxious girls

[Lifesatoot]

Our daughter has quite high anxiety and has good pastoral care from her primary currently as well as external support. We are concerned about the transition to secondary. We are currently in SW17 and on our radar are the following:

Graveney (Pastoral care questionable?)
Burntwood (Huge but amazing facilities)
Harris Southfields (Not fans of Harris ethos in general)
Harris Wimbledon (Concerned about location and pollution levels)
Harris Battersea (Hard to find accurate picture)
Chestnut Grove (not in catchment but would be first choice otherwise)
Ricards (not in catchment)
Dunraven (not in catchment but sounds like a great school)
Lambeth Academy (heard good things re pastoral care)

Are there any obvious options we are missing? We do have the option of Catholic potentially as daughter is baptised but we aren't regular church goers or attached to a particular church.

Our preference is for a school that really cares about their kids and the welfare of all. Chestnut Grove really impressed us on this front. An academic high pressure environment probably isn't right nor is super strict one rule for all (If she forgot something for school one day, getting detention would send her anxiety into overdrive)

Help please!

www.laretraite.lambeth.sch.uk

Thanks parsnippoop (good name BTW). Have heard of La Retraite but don't know much about it. Looks like they take the Catholic thing quite seriously so not sure our attendance or lack of would be frowned upon... Do you have personal experience of the school? Thanks!

No experience personally but I believe it's outstanding. I did go to a catholic high school in SW London myself so know of others. Other catholic schools I know of are Ursuline & St Philomena's. We had non catholics at our school but roles may have changed. Friends went to Dunraven & Graveney & were happy but again this was in the 90s.

Would you consider private? Some neighbourhood friends went to Streatham High, both quite shy girls.

Sorry didn't make it clear. Had friends who went to all the schools I've listed, all have done well & were happy but from memory none were particularly anxious.

Thanks. Would consider private as a last resort but feel there must be state secondary school that ticks enough of the boxes we are looking for (hopefully!). We suspect the anxiety will only get worse with adolescence and transitioning to secondary so pastoral care is probably our number one consideration.

I guess what is good about the catholic schools is that they are same sex which ime removes some pressure & back then they were smaller but not sure if this is still the case.

If you are open to independent, then Sutton High is a small school with excellent pastoral care.

TBH we have mixed feelings about single sex schools. Would def consider if it seemed like the right fit.

Thanks JoJo. Again, we wouldn't rule it out and are aware of Nonsuch, Wallington etc just presumed the catchments might be quite small/entry requirements quite high and travel time could be a bit of an issue although not as problematic as the financial side...

Sutton High is a few paying school that’s perfect for anxious girls as it’s small friendly and big on pastoral care.

Nonsuch or Wally Girls are grammars and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone prone to anxiety or low self esteem. They’re both lovely but it’s easy to feel less clever or pressured.

few=fee

La Retraite is only about 1/3 Catholic and it is currently rated Outstanding. Definitely worth looking round

Lambeth Academy's most recent Ofsted isn't great

Thanks JoJo. Will look into Sutton High.

Thanks AveEldon. Second person I've heard mention La Retraite so will def check it out.

Re Lambeth Academy. Seems to be a bit of a catch 22 in that the state schools with good pastoral care possibly retain the kids that might need the extra help and create extra workload for staff and therefore this can affect Ofsted results as those schools with less focus on pastoral care have more resources available to focus on results. Theorising here...