St Mary's Hampstead

[dontbutme]

Any up to date opinions on St Mary's with new head? What is academic standards like? Does the school assist with making choices for Secondary Schools (in terms of guidance, speaking to future Heads etc) ? Any info please?

I have a daughter at this school, in one of the lower years so we haven't grappled with senior school choices yet. Have been seriously impressed both by the school and the new head. Academic standards are very high and parents who shun the school for being non-selective are missing a trick. The school is very Catholic in its ethos so you would have to be happy with that. But the girls are happy, parents are involved and they are learning at an incredible rate. Highly recommended so far. Oh, and the facilities are amazing for the local area too- so much space.

Thanks WPDD for getting back to me. Can I ask you about that "Catholic ethos" - I have no problem with Christian values but worry about the school being conservative about the place of girls in the world - leading to the role of women? Or is it not that old-school Catholicism? Do they teach girls to be strong and independent?

Also, do you have any idea how connected the new Head is to the network of private schools - will she be able to support applications and future schools etc?

Lastly, since it's not selective - do you feel that / know if the girls at the top end of the class is getting stretched as much as the ones at the bottom - often the emphasis is so much on the ones struggling that the brighter ones are left to do their own thing.

The new head is thinking v carefully about what mind set girls need to adopt to take on any career in the future- she is all about "academic risk taking".
In my experience St Mary's is a v rigorous school in terms of academics. They have high expectations of the girls and work them hard. But - they also remember to have fun (a disco day in Jan for example) and they teach them to be kind.
I have no sense that children aren't appropriately stretched according to their ability.
I wouldn't worry about it not being selective. Most girls need to be stretched in some things and supported more in others and my feeling is that the school is good at doing both.

OP, I know a little about the Head. Want to PM me with questions?

Hi JanDonutsRule, i’d Love to know your thoughts on the head please? We’re considering the school for our two daughters, aged 2.5 and 5. Our main concerns: is it too catholic? B) how well does it prepare girls for the 11+?

Any up-to-date experiences/thoughts on the school would be much appreciated... especially by parents with daughter’s in the upper years. Thank you!

Hi jamdonutsrule, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new head, and on st mary’s In general... especially for the more senior years. I’ve heard rumblings about it being too religious, especially because of recent changes to the hours allocated to religious education... anybthoughts on this?

Hi Zaphod07, we are not in senior years yet but have been with the school since nursery and my youngest is about to start there. I'm a fan of the "new" head (I think she's been in role over 2 years now). They've had an inspection by Diocese this year and had to increase religion to ensure the school continues with the Catholic status. The Head is adamant that RE has not increased, it's 10% as per the national curriculum. It is academic RE, i.e. they learn about Judaism and Islam too but they do have collective worship as well as RE, i.e. mass, hymn singing and regular "praying together", which is absolutely lovely - beautiful songs and words each girls decides to say. Whilst the context of the service is religious, it's also musical education and experience of performing to public, both as part of a group and on one's own. I'd say at least half of the parents are not religious, if not more. We've had offers for both girls from local selective schools which we declined in favour of St Mary's.

bump

Following up on this thread: we recently toured the school and really liked the "new" Head and the ethos. However, we are also very much non-religious. Does anyone have more details on how the school treats the role of women in society, relationships, sex ed? In terms of learning, we got the impression it's quite progressive...focus on story telling/writing etc in early years as well as introducing issue such as environmental sustainability in a child appropriate way. Am I getting that right?

fromeverywhere, that's right, the Head likes the girls to think "I CAN do it because I'm a girl" (rather than the other way round). My then 6 y.o. told me that 2 women can have a baby - they can live together as a family and adopt one, they learnt it in RE apparently! not sure if she got the subject correctly but it definitely came from school. Have you seen the new global learning centre on the top floor? It's just been completed. It truly is stuff from the future, have not seen anything similar in any other school, designed around STEAM - virtual reality goggles and sensory room, to assist with classroom topic learning, a lego wall in another room, tons of various self-build parts to make robotic toys, ipads connected to a 3D printer to make parts as required, patterns-teaching construction toys, a giant iPad interactive table, a small virtual presenting room. My DD does robotics and coding in the school's own clubs. She loves football (chose it over gymnastics to do at school) and is apparently good at hockey. I know she would not have liked these sports as much if she had to play alongside boys. Re: environmental sustainability they have just done a project in recycling various old materials (paper, carton, plastic, glass) to make new objects and then had a market day to sell them, they often have similar projects. Hope this helps.

Thanks! I am not concerned about specific topics...just wondering how open minded and creative the curriculum is in reality. It all sounded great when we visited!