Change Notre Dame High School from girls only

[Glasgowlassie]

I have 2 children, currently at Notre Dame Primary in Glasgow. I have only just discovered, due to a recent campaign that my son and daughter will not be able to go to the same High School.

Girls are enrolled into Notre Dame High School, an all girls high school, this is state funded and a total anomaly, the only one of its kind in Scotland. My daughter must go there unless I can get her into another local school via a placing request, becoming increasingly difficult in the West End.

My son has to go to the linked school 3 miles away, St Thomas Aquinas, if I can't get him into another school which is closer.

Over 75% of the girls in this girls only school come from a distance via placing request. So this has an impact on the local community and the environment.

There is a campaign to change this which is how I became aware that my children would not even be allowed to go to St Thomas Aquinas without a placing request for my daughter.

In 2018 there is no place for an all girls school as it is discriminatory. Schools should serve their local area first.

Campaign is here for anyone that is interested and wants to help change it. Particularly people from Glasgow.

www.ndh4all.net

Glasgow doesn’t have a weird system in least.in fact imo it compares favourably to the english system.under the English system pupils are not automatically in a school catchment. Or the Catchment changing annually.or being left without a place.

In Glasgow the info is freely available.online,locally. You’re allocated a school determined by which primary children attend

Basically you attend a primary that is aligned to a specific high school, so called feeder schools

Glasgow High schools have their feeder primary schools.its clearly set out and clearly stated

It’s clear at point of primary school application where your destination high school is

If one wants a different high school you make placement request
Places allocated 1st to feeder school, any surplus go to placement request. Popular schools it fiercely competitive to get placement request

Op,could have chosen to send both kids to hyndland primary then progressed to hyndland secondary. Both kids at same school. All of this was wholly avoidable with adequate planning

By choosing Notre dame the destination high school for her son was Thomas Aquinas , and Notre Dame for her daughter . I’m surprised op was caught out and only recently found out about this

Yes, it is a confusing system!

Lipstick - it’s not true that every high school has associated feeder primaries.

At the moment there are 13 high schools with a defined geographical catchment - delineated secondary schools. The remaining 17 high schools have associated feeder primaries - non-delineated secondary schools.

GCC are trying to unify to a single system where they are all delineated with a defined catchment.

Thanks for the clarification westendmum

Then there seems that it would be more reasonable to campaign that at entry to secondary you should get the choice of Catholic or non dom. I presume local children not in a

Opps sorry. I presume local children not in a feeder primary would have to make a placing request for a Catholic secondary?

The argument for/against an all girls school is separate. Bur my view is specialist education (including single sex) should be open to the whole city or not at all.

I suppose if the council were going to offer single sex education as a specialty in the same model as the gaelic/dance/sport schools, they would have to open an all boys school too or be accused of gender discrimination.

Yes Beanie, and I think it would need to be non-Dom too. So I really can’t see that they will go down this city wide single sex specialism route - it opens up too many other complications!

So if it isn’t a city-wide specialist school and indeed is just a catchment school like every other then surely we are back to does it serve its local community....

.

I am a former pupil of Notre Dame High and my daughter is a current pupil there. Just in the interests or fairness I would like to link to the other petition which is to keep the school all girls. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-notre-dame-a-single-sex-school

There is also a Facebook page which I believe has been set up by a group of pupils. As I said my daughter attends there mainly because it is our local school, I believe that for her personally she could have done as well at many of the other schools in the area, but I do believe for lots of girls that attend it has been a huge benefit.

The fb group have been encouraging former and current pupils to share their stories with the hashtag #whatNDmeanstome (I can't work out how to link to the page)

Anyway I feel there is a lot of talk on MN about safe places for women and places where woman can feel safe (particularly in trans chat) should this not be the same for the younger female population? If there is currently a place where young female pupil feel happier and safer why are we petitioning to take this away from them? Do under 16s not have the same rights?

Why are the rights of the boys who do not want to have to walk a few hundred meters more or the parents who want their kids to attend the same school (despite knowing this would be the case when signing them up to the primary) more important than having a space where some girls thrive?

Agree, all girls should have the option of an all girls school if they want it.

In terms of private education, yes, but not at taxpayers expense.

So only rich girls get the opportunity of an all girls school then?

I went to an all girls school down south and it was quite common to have single sex schools down there. I hated coming up to co-ed. It really didn’t do me any favours

No but moreprosecco said single sex was fine for private schools not for state
Schools which means that only rich girls would get the opportunity of a single sex school and not poorer kids

Divisive education should not be state-funded.

And yes, if you want religious or gender-specific education, you should be paying for it.

It really disappoints me that Scotland has separate schooling for religions. Shocking in this day & age.

We have led the way in so many important things eg smoking ban, yet are so behind on this. It's a national embarrassment.

I would rather my taxes were spent on a place where some girls thrived and felt safe, than a lot of other things they are currently spent on.

It's one school in the city, I don't see why it is such a big deal for it to be left as is.

Most girls I believe are on placing request so i think that shows there is a need/demand.

As I understand it most placing requests in the Glasgow area are granted so parents not happy with St Thomas Aquinus could request elsewhere.

It's the only single-sex state school in Scotland, which is a huge anomaly & out of step with the whole country.

And it's roll is falling, despite all these out of catchment requests, whilst the local non-denominational schools are full to bursting.

Complete nonsense.

The only petition I'd be signing is to return it to a local non-denominational catchment school.

That is actually not true, the number of students has been on the increase every year since 2014.

It is still under capacity but so are many other schools in the area.

Glasgow also has a dance school and a Gaelic school which are both also anomalies and out of step with the rest of the country.

I'm glad that we are in a position where we can offer some our young people the type of education that is best fit to them. Sometimes one size doesn't fit all.

And do the dance or Gaelic schools discriminate in terms of gender or religion? Thought not. These are specialist schools. There is a difference.

Although that means that girls who put in a placing request at primary school stage to attend one of the feeders would automatically get a place at NDHS and would therefore be counted as “catchment” despite the fact they don’t live in the catchment area.

I just wanted to correct this^

"Parents should note that if they apply and are successful for a placing request into a particular primary school, the child would not automatically transfer to the associated secondary school."

www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18007

its the fact that my children like many other siblings will be split and prevented from going to the same school Is that really an issue though? In London it happens much of the time. In many ways it gives the siblings more of a chance to be their own person.

@MoreProsecco
How does NDHS discriminate on the basis of religion? All religions are welcome there.

And the Dance school "discriminates" on the basis of dance talent, the Gaelic school "discriminates" on the basis of language ... or for discriminates read "entry requirements"