Catholic girls school

[Finduslosthishat]

I would really appreciate your help. I am a cradle catholic and dh is agnostic going on atheist. I like some aspect of faith but don't have a need to be involved with church in any way, I don't mind going to church though.

There is a pretty good local girls catholic school very close to us (Loreto college) and I am considering whether it would be the right school for dd. She is highly academic but her social skills are less tuned in, she also gets affected badly by being in a very busy loud social environment as know some of the comps around us are. I also think she would benefit from some of the spiritual / catholic ethics and practice as I think it would call her down and ground her.

My question is what is the catholic aspect of a catholic faith school like in secondary? Does it empower and ground or is it ever so prescriptive and stifling potentially? The girl who showed us around at open evening declared she was an atheist, she was lovely, confident and smart.... Any views of people with dc at catholic secondary (and primary?) would be very welcome. Thanks.

I find the ethos at my DCs faith primary and secondary schools to be very supportive and caring with a strong sense of belonging to a community. I'm not sure whether these things stronger because it is a faith school than any other school as this is my only experience.

Marking place

You should go and visit the school, meet the staff, get to know the parents and get a feel for it all. One Catholic girls school may not be anything like another.

You will have no chance of getting in if your Dd has not been baptised and done her first holy communion. Your family should have attended mass every week for as long as you have lived in the parish. Your priest will have to sign a form to that effect.

I am amazed that the girl who showed you round was an atheist.
Presumably the HT is unaware of that. The admissions criteria are very clear.

Thank you for your replies. We are good on the admissions front.
I have visited the school and was impressed with the head teacher
And students. The girl who showed us around was in year 12 I believe and yes she was open about her being an atheist. Of course she is catholic by her upbringing but has decided to be an atheist. I asked her how others responded to this fact and she said that teachers would engage in discussions but nothing more heavy handed.

Is this the Loreto in St Albans?

If so I attended the school in the 80s.

Whilst there we had a family tragedy .... The school were amazing. Incredibly kind and supportive. I will never forget their compassion.

Hi expat, yes it is . Sorry to hear that and thank you for sharing. When I visited the school I could really feel the positive and warm atmosphere. I am just a bit cautious about committing to a catholic education even though I think my dd would thrive in such an environment.

expat even though things are likely to have changed since you went the are you able to share a little bit about your experience as a pupil? Was it in any way overly prescriptive or stifling in terms of expecting pupils to live the catholic ethos? Thank you

*comitting to a secondary catholic education to be clear

Daughter of an atheist here!!! :)))

When I was there we still had a few nuns! They were great. Very modern thinking and nurturing.

My experience was (back then) yes there was some compulsory religion but there were also extra optional religious events (Friday lunchtime mass etc). Girls could choose if they wanted to do the optional part. No pressure at all.

The compulsory part was assembly, religion lessons, some Masses and a couple of teachers started a class with a prayer. However the atmosphere was never oppressive back then.

I clearly remember a nun saying they tried to focus on human values the most and that was really my experience. They obviously knew how to relate to teenage girls and even supported those who were openly questioning their beliefs.

In the 6th form we had non Catholics. Once a year we had confession. No one was obliged to go and you could even just pop in for a nice chat instead of a confession and the non catholic girls generally joined in!

I recall a nun teaching us as 18 year olds about to use condoms!!!! Radical stuff for the 80s.

So all in all ... Yes there was religion but it was uplifting not oppressive. The school was a really happy place and I think a lot of the atmosphere came from taking the good positive parts of religion without putting the fear of God in kids.

Good to hear it still has that warm and happy feel.

Feeling nostalgic now ... May have to go to a reunion. They were very happy times.

Findus, is your dd currently at a catholic primary? It may have changed in recent years but in the past it may have been a difficulty if she hadn't.
I don't think you or she will find it oppressively religious. Many schools have RE as a compulsory GCSE subject anyway. One of the positives in my view is that these type of schools are very multicultural which is beneficial for dcs social development (esp in such a white, middle class area)

Thanks expat and decor, your responses sound all very reassuring. I would love to to hear from anyone else who might have experience with catholic all girls secondary. Thanks

Both my DDs go to Catholic secondary girls school. Neither are baptised, and neither are Catholic. I would suggest visiting and talking very honestly with HT if you like what you see. Our girls had to meet subject-specific criteria to be admitted (10% admitted with strength in a particular subject area). In addition to this, I think I wrote something on the form about our being able to understand and embrace the ethos of the school. GCSE is compulsory for all girls, but we were aware of this from the beginning. In fact, the RE teachers love having DC in their classes who are from a different/non religious backgrounds as it makes discussions broader and gives another perspective. HTH - good luck!

At the schools my DC have attended the religious aspect is in no way oppressive. They study RE as part of the curriculum. The only difference to a non faith school are masses at various points during the year, hymns and prayers at assembly.

I am very grateful for all these positive views and would be interested to hear form others. Does anyone know how topics such as sex ed are affected, if at all? The nuns in expat's experience sound cool .

My dc have been at Catholic schools all the way through. In our area RC schools tend to be very over-subscribed, so almost all dc will be practising catholics, and there is an assumption that that is the background you are from iyswim.

There was quite a lot of faith-related stuff, including class prayer journals, prayers before and after lessons and annual retreats for each year group. The very few non-Catholics did tend to join in with religious activities (taking turns in reading at Mass for eg) - I think if you were going to take the 'opt-out' clause, you'd be better off elsewhere, but if you're happy to go along with the community aspects, then I'm sure you'd be made welcome regardless of your level of practice.

Having said that, I've not ever had the impression that it was oppressive or actively proselytising (though obviously if you were militantly anti-religion you'd sign up elsewhere). My ds was adamant he didn't want to make his Confirmation when he was in Y9, and he was in no way criticised or put under pressure for that decision. The ethos tends to be more along the lines of it being a 'faith journey', an invitation to a relationship rather than a forced one. The only compulsion will be that Dc will almost certainly have to do RE 'Catholic Christianity' syllabus at GCSE.

Sex-ed is (IME) not the strong point of most CAtholic schools, for fairly obvious reasons, but also because they will be aware that regardless of what the teachers think or would like to teach, some parents are very traditional and will be resistant to attempts to teach about eg. contraception. So you wouldn't choose most Catholic schools because of their forward-thinking approach to PSHE, but we've never encountered judgemental or dogmatic sex-ed teaching, more a bit woolly and idealistic.

In our experience Catholic schools tend to be very warm and supportive communities, with a powerful commitment to the pastoral needs of the individual - strict, yes, but done with a lot of warmth and humour rather than the chilly 'zero-tolerance' style of discipline that seems to be so popular in the Michaels-Gove-and-Wilshaw model. The only downside I would identify is that (probably because of the strong tradition of continuity) Catholic schools can sometimes be a bit slow to benefit from the opportunities of innovation and carry on doing things the way they've always been done rather than look outwards and embrace the new.

But for a child who is bright but in need of nurturing and pastoral sensitivity they can be just the ticket (my oldest dc was exactly like this, and blossomed in her small, traditional, supportive but academically challenging girls' school). We've had more academically rocky journeys with other dc, but still feel they benefited from the community and faith aspects of the schools. Our experience is of state schools, fwiw, but anecdotally I hear similar from people with dc in Catholic independent schools.

Many thanks, 134 thats a really detailed and helpful account and I know what you mean by the"chilly" approach to discipline. Discipline is good and needed but so is warmth and care. I remember from my school days that I responded very well to both but not well to a merely strict environment without much kindness. My dd sounds a bit like your dc1. The problems your other dc experienced were they due to the academic demands of the faith school?

Hi Findus - the problems my other two experienced were down to issues with the HT being headhunted for a promotion, and the school not being able to recruit a replacement, followed by unfavourable Ofsted, followed very swiftly by a mass exodus of teachers. It wasn't pretty. Dc's results were okay, but it wasn't a great experience academically - the school's ethos and pastoral care were not nearly as badly affected, luckily.

Actually, thinking about it, probably worth checking the likely longevity of the SLT at schools you're considering - recruiting HTs is difficult anyway, but good Catholic headteachers seem to be rare as rocking horse shit. So check that the current HT isn't approaching retirement, or young, dynamic and likely to be headhunted elsewhere. Also look for a long-term, stable and convincing layer of deputy/assistant heads. Catholic schools tend to appoint from within, particularly in schools previously run by religious orders - many of those schools will have never had an externally-appointed head. So check that you like the deputies as well.

But overall, I'd def recommend it for the kind of child you're talking about. You also seem to be okay with the general ethos - if you're a cradle catholic yourself, the occasional bits of bonkersness will probably seem quite familiar. It does sometimes feel a bit like liivng on the set of Father Ted, but in a good way.

My DCs have been at both Catholic and non-Catholic schools and, in my experience, the RE taught at the Catholic school is much more balanced. The kids learn about a lot of different faiths and are encouraged to question their own beliefs (in the non-Catholic school there was a real bias towards Christianity). A lot of the older pupils claim they are atheists and most of them were not confirmed (no pressure from school to do this).

Sex education at the Catholic school is excellent and the pupils have been taught about all forms of contraception and encouraged to practise safe sex.

There is a school mass once a term and daily prayers, but there is also Buddhist meditation and the kids are encouraged to practise mindfulness. Relationships with those of other faiths in the local community are excellent and the pupils are often invited to events at the local mosque.

There is a strong emphasis on service to others and charitable work is encouraged.

Discipline in the Catholic school is the same as any other school.

I have no regrets about sending my DCs to a Catholic secondary school. They seem to be much more broad minded than their friends who have been educated in non-faith schools.

I went to a Catholic all girls secondary and it was absolutely brilliant. We were taught the facts of life, in such a way that we all swore to remain virgins for ever, but hormones insured that that didn't happen.

My children go to a Catholic primary and it's brilliant - the way the children are taught to be kind to each other is unlike anything I've seen in other schools, and the children are noticeably gentler with each other than others in local schools.

And they are endlessly taught about other religions in an open manner - my children have all visited a mosque and a temple, while I (in my 40s) haven't been to either!

I went to a girls Catholic school. I really can't fault the education and ethos of the school, even though I declared myself atheist at 12.

The nuns were kind and progressive. Sex Ed was fine, contraception was taught by a nun (science teacher) and the 1980s PHSE equivalent by a lay teacher.

RE was compulsory to GCSE, assemblies had prayer and we had a couple of masses per year. In 6th form, those not doing RE A-level had to attend 2 double periods of RE per week. These focussed on ethics, inspirational people of all faiths and none and Catholics who challenged Rome.

There was no bullying at my school. None! I had coffee with one of my old teachers a few weeks ago. He retired 3 years ago and I was pleased that he said that there was still no bullying there.. However there were high expectations wrt academic achievement.

Because mine was a convent school, we had a chapel, but we also had an oratory for prayer, contemplation and yoga on a Friday.

I know the school well. It has excellent academic teaching, it does very well even though it's non selective and pulls from a wide (sometimes deprived) catchment. Latin and Classics are taught very well and many girls develop a life long learning for the subjects.

The school does focus on getting great results with GCSEs RE so it's taught in a way to get A*( which is formula based). Many girls are non religious and it's not an issue at all.

The school grounds are lovely and easy reach of the city centre.