Ursuline High School, Virgo Fidelis, Notre Dame

[VeryHappyIndeed]

Hello! I am looking into these schools to apply in the autumn and I would appreciate very much any comments from parents currently sending their daughters to these schools or who have left recently.

Are there other all girls catholic schools that you would recommend? Or all girls state schools (selective or not) near SE London?

Many thanks!

Any comments?

Don't have children at these schools but Coloma Convent Croydon and St Philomena's Carshalton are not too far away

Thank you very much! I will look into those schools as well.

Nonsuch, Wallington Girls and Tiffins are all selective (by ability) state girls schools in S London.

I know teachers at Ursuline who aren't happy there - particularly with senior leadership - but I don't know any girls there.
St Philomenas as mentioned above has a really good reputation.

@quartermile thank you very much! I will check the selective schools you mentioned. Do you know if they allocate places also based on catchment area? I am afraid that we may be a bit too far. I will start researching them. Thanks!!!

Tiffin Girls has specific postcodes as an inner catchment and I don't think they ever get to the outer catchment.
Both Wallington and Nonsuch have some places based on score only regardless of location (100 and 85 respectively, I think), with the remaining places (intake is 210 at each school currently but may increase at Nonsuch) on score but within catchment area (7.5km and 5.25km - again, from memory).

Excellent, thanks a lot!

If you are talking about Norte Dame in Southwark, it is a comprehensive. Have a look at the criteria for admissions it is very specific re baptism age and church attendance. I have no recent reports of the school but I went there years ago when the current Head was a teacher. She is the reason I didn't consider it for my catholic daughter.

If St Philomena's is the one I think it is - it has an absolutely hideous uniform.
(obviously your opinion on that may be different)

If you mean Ursuline in Brentwood I know girls that go there and as it's an all girls school I'm told the bullying by pupils is out of hand. I looked around the school with my daughter and got a good feeling about it, the dance studio and photography studios were outstanding as was the textiles/sewing.

I think OP means Ursuline in Wimbledon.

Those horrible cream socks as part of the St Phil's uniform...

I went to the Ursuline but left in 1990 so am possibly not much help...

Holy Cross in New Malden rates high in the Kingston Borough. Suspect it may be an alternative school for families looking at the Ursuline (geographically speaking that is)

La Retraite is a catholic girls school in Clapham / Balham. Ofsted Outstanding, great academic reputation, and rather bizarrely undersubscribed in recent years so places available.

Hello
The St ursula convent school in se10 Greenwich is a fantastic school. I have daughters there who are doing brilliantly. It's small , girls only, and has an outstanding record and ofsted. The girls travel from quite a wide catchment area from Hackney to Bexley and further afield. Happy to answer any questions you may have about it.

@spickels Thanks for the recommendation of the St Ursula school in Greenwich. I saw its website but was a bit confused about them being a teaching school - maybe I read wrongly. I am so pleased that your daughters are happy there! Did they find it easy to make new friends and are you happy with their academic progress?

@FranckieManca yes, that's the one I mean. Do you know why is it undersubscribed? I find it almost impossible to make sense of each schools's results and how to compare it with other schools. That's why I was looking for advice from people whose daughters are currently attending school.

@newmodel You are right, I mean Ursuline in Wimbledon. I had not even thought about uniforms and didn't have it as a criteria - will have a look at the cream socks as I'm now intrigued

There is also the all girls state ‘prendergast’ at hilly fields near Lewisham. I don’t have children there to comment though.

St Phil's is usually one of the highest performing non selective schools in the national league tables (habitually outperforming the likes of Graveney). Ursuline certainly the best-achieving state school in Merton.

I have heard very good things about La Retraite - can only think that Clapham is probably a more polarised community ('ordinary' priced houses just don't exist in that neck of the woods) and suffers for not having a middle-class and left-leaning but not monied cohort on its doorstep.

It's not even so much that the St Phil's socks are cream as that they are chunky and seem designed to 'bag' at the fattest point of lower leg so are just really unflattering.

Parents being the left-leaning (and therefore more likely to opt for state schools).

@newmodel ah, that explains it. I will go and visit La Retraite during their open evening to get a feel of the school. Though it is difficult to judge from just one visit. I am finding the whole process a bit stressful but I trust that in the end we'll find a school where my daughter will be happy. It feels such an important decision and difficult to know what's the right choice.

Try to also do visits during the school day (when teachers and pupils aren't on their best behaviour) to get a real for the places. And hang-out in local coffee shops at the beginning and end of the days to see how the girls behave out of school.

It would seem that you have some very good options if you are Catholic and a regular church-goer, so I'm sure you'll find the school that best suits your DD.

Good luck.

Although the St Philomena's uniform is terrible I will say that when travelling on a public bus that had a group of the girls on they were nicely well behaved and not to shrieky. Which made a nice change.