Secondary school selection - Sept 2015 intake

[carolb54]

I am currently in the process of deciding which scool to send my DD to. At present, I have opted for the following schools:

1st choice - St Philomena
2nd choice - Coloma
3rd choice - BTG
4th choice - Harris in Crystal Palace.

Would any one like to give there opinion or views on the schools listed above?

Kind regards

Do you meet the top level of criteria for the catholic schools (of the top of my head baptised before 1 year old and weekly mass attendance for last 3 years with a priest's reference)? If not then I would be concerned that you don't have a safe backup as all of these schools will be oversubscribed.

I think that the preference between single sex and coed is a personal one, and will probably depend on the personality of your dd.

These 4 schools are a fair distance apart so I would definitely look at the ease of travelling.

I agree with previous poster - competition for all those schools is fierce and for popular Catholic schools like Coloma - well, you need to be up to your fanny in church business for years to stand a chance of a place.

I know 2 lovely families with kids at BTG and they are very happy with it.

It seems to have high standards - very strict, though. Saturday detentions for minor uniform issues or the wrong haircut etc.

Do you live close to Harris Crystal Palace?

If you are in the Harris / BTG general area, what is your closest school?

Faith schools have all changed their admissions policies and a s a general rule you don't have to show service in the parish any more although baptism and mass attendance will still count. You need to check admissions for each of the schools. I think St phils and coloma are both pretty amazing

Thanks for all your comments. Yes my DD meets all the requirements needed for admission for these schools. With these schools they are always oversubscribed. Just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that my DD gets selected

Yes - Coloma is pretty amazing. By dint of their religious criteria they manage to exclude more low achieving , non-English speaking, poor and special needs children than any other state funded school in the borough.

It does help when it comes to league tables.

The Catholic Church - you've got to admire its commitment to social equality.