URSULINE HIGH WIMBLEDON

[Womblewimble]

Looking for feedback on URSULINE girls HIGH school wimbledon please. Can any past or especially current parents share how their dd are getting on? Does it have strong academics since the change of head? What are the girls generally like here, well behaved or not? If your from a non Catholic background esp keen to hear how your dd has found it.

I'm so conflicted, the site looks good- alot of seperate buildings for the girls to navigate but facilities seem ok- the only other school I viewed were ricards and nonsuch so I'm comparing to those.

Girls behaviour outside fo school really seems to be at conflict with the Catholic ethos of the school at times but I'm not sure if that just teenagers being teenagers! Or if there a more widespread lack of discipline in the school atm?

Are the girls pushed academically enough here?

Please provide feedback if you can, a desperate mum here not knowing what's best for her dd!

I am a Catholic, yes, I understand catechism to mean a formal rote learning of Catholic tenets and beliefs. As opposed to more discursive Religious Education.

@Womblewimble its a fabulous school that most people would love their daughters to attend. It has an ethos of achievement. My friends daughters are on the whole very happy there. Sorry to derail your thread!

My mum went there and hated it. But that was in 1952

There is a last criterion where they accept " girls of all other faiths" and no faith.
In most of Catholic schools this criterion exists. And in undersubscribed schools this criterion is exercised. But the problem is that in well performing schools there is always more Catholics applying than spaces and it never comes to exercising that criterion.
Having said that there are Catholic schools that are new and until recently 50 perc of kids had to be non Catholics. Or they reserve places for other Christian faiths etc.
There were over 800 applications to Ursuline last year and they accepted 210.
The best to be sure if other faiths/ no faith were accepted is to call admission office.

@Johaanah but that’s not the same as 6 months is it.?

@CaptainOhMyCaptain I still don't understand what you mean by " formal". Is Holly Communion formal? Is Confirnation formal? Is mass formal? Or do you consider it informal?

Learning about Sacraments is a part of Catechism. And baptism is a requirement for the school criterions. Most of the pupils taken Holy Communion. What do you think the lessons preparing for ot were?
Even reception kids learn Catechism in Primary Catholic schools. It is done by the right educational tools appropriate at that stage.

@Womblewimble have you spoken to the admissions office?

Holy Communion and confirmation classes are taught at parish level, usually by volunteer catechists, absolutely not in school, primary or secondary.

Classes preparing to Sacraments are in the church but at school definitely they among other things talk about Sacraments and their meaning, the Catholic dogmas.
People often think that the religious involvement in CoE is the same as in Catholic schools and it is only about beginning of the day prayers.
It is worth looking at the Religious Curiculum and Chaplaincy pages of the school website.
My son is also going to Catholic school

@Smoothie23 I think we are agreeing with each other :)

I went there but in the nineties, so not really relevant to your questions, but it was a great school and I got almost straight A*s. It was very catholic, and we were dicks to the nuns, trying to make them blush. I feel ashamed now. My science and maths teachers were fantastic and inspired my career into STEM. It had amazing herringbone wooden floors and the canteen did a mean tuna hoagie.

I was catholic on entry but now identify as pagan :)

@sugarbyebye lol, my cousin was there then & raved about the tuna rolls!

And baptism is a requirement for the school criterions

.Criteria, perhaps.

And only if wishing to be considered under one of the criteria actually including this. So not if just wanting a place at the school and would only be ranked under the last criterion. It is not a designated grammar sxhool and therefore, if all places have not been filled under higher criteria, cannot refuse to offer a place to a girl for whom, determined by their CAF submission, this would be her highest effective preference, even though no evidence of religious affiliation had been provided to the school.

Pressure of numbers - the number of applicants with no higher preference on their CAF which can be allocated and who are ranked under a criterion above 'any other' - may dictate that no-one in the final criterion is offered a place in any given year, but that's just the way it goes.

URSULINE HIGH WIMBLEDON

I’m also looking for an advice about the teacher’s situation & the financial conditions of the school.

I heard from my parish’s friend that another family have a daughter is studying in there at high form (I’m not sure but she should be Year11 or Year12). They have one subject without teacher for teaching. They need to self-study during the lesson’s time in school. Recently, it’s 1 or 2 more subjects with the same problem…

i also heard from my daughter’s classmate saying that they don’t have enough resources as a result the classmate family had donated 1 bag of new tennis balls to support their tennis practice.

For sure I never see that but I just heard it within these 2weeks.

Can someone with daughter studying there share the teacher & financial situations of this school?

Before that Ursuline is definitely my first choice to me for my daughter when I did the research for it. By the way, my daughter is a time to apply very soon in September/October.

Hope someone can share your information, thanks a lot!

In addition, I got an ex-student’s comment about “Very high turnover of teachers”. Could anyone give advice about the situations, too?

many thanks!

Would it be the impact of lack of teacher caused by the suspension of RE teacher this year?

I searched a news from below:

Suspended RE teacher - May 2024

This is all available online for every school and doesn't need to be shared in informal way:
schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/School?urn=102683

For that you would need to call the school and ask about percentage of turnover. For London the average is 10.5 perc. That is there is more mobility than nationwide -7.5 perc.

It is not a designated grammar sxhool and therefore, if all places have not been filled under higher criteria,

@MarchingFrogs

HolyCross, St Richard Reynolds, Richard Challoner, St Paul's Catholic College, Salesian Catholic school + Ursulean are local Catholic schools in this area. Not new ,therefore had no requirement of accepting 50 perc non faith. All oversubscribed to the extent that they don't go to lower criterions because first 3-4 fill the schools.
There is more Catholic kids than spaces. Living further Catholics are not getting in and in some instances like with St Richard Reynolds even not from designated parishes.

It will improve when the current Reception year goes to secondary school as the birth rate falls. But for now it is what it is

I'm not disputing that... I didn't say that the school has to offer places to those whose application can only be considered under the 'any other applicant' criterion (just that it is not permitted not to offer to those under any criterion if it hasn't filled its places before it gets to them), as in
Pressure of numbers - the number of applicants with no higher preference on their CAF which can be allocated and who are ranked under a criterion above 'any other' - may dictate that no-one in the final criterion is offered a place in any given year...

I am personally very sorry for all the parents and kids who live just by the Catholic school and have hopes that they will get in but since they are not Catholic and the school is oversubscribed they don't get in. I know a family that lives just by the Catholic school. Their garden touches the fence of school premises. But because the school is oversubscribed they didn't get in.

I am a current Ursuline parent and my older daughter has also gone through it (now studying medicine). I can honestly say the school has been fantastic for us. I love the ethos of kindness and caring for others. The motto is “servíam” which means “I will serve” and emphasises the schools commitment to raising young women who will serve their communities as leaders, as contributors to society, doing good for others.
There is a culture of achievement but not only for the highest performers, girls are set personalised targets and are encouraged to achieve these, not some arbitrary measure of success. Girls are not afraid to show their talents, whether that’s academically or at the many arts/music/theatre/sporting events.
Each year there is a huge multi-cultural evening where girls and their families bring in traditional food from their own cultures and some of the girls dress up in their traditional costumes from across the world and even perform traditional songs/dances from their family’s cultural heritage. It’s always a beautiful evening demonstrating the incredible diversity at the school.
Of course, there is a strong catholic ethos and the girls do attend church services (once every few weeks). The girls who are not catholic also attend I believe, perhaps using the time as an opportunity for calm reflection etc?
To the poster who said that most school trips are religious, this is absolutely NOT the case. In fact I can barely think of any that have been. There are trips offered to destinations across the world including an exchange trip with an Ursuline school in Dallas (all optional obviously). There’s an annual ski trip and so on just like most schools.

In terms of admissions, I believe in the next few years there is a drop in the birth rate and combined with a big drop in the number of catholics there will most likely be places available to non-catholic girls. My advice would be to contact the school rather than go by the “wisdom” of mumsnet to guide you on an issue as important as who will and won’t get a place. I have seen on this thread there is a lot of misinformation about the school so please be careful taking big decisions based on a mumsnet thread and good luck in your choices!

This is exactly the kind of feedback i was after,thank you ! @bellylaughs .

One additional point - having Catholic as the first criteria means that the catchment is wide and girls can travel from quite far to attend the school, many by train etc. So it is less of a "local community" secondary school, if that matters - although plenty of Wimbledon girls do attend.

I'm yet to meet a non Catholic who goes there, but I do know plenty of families who did the box ticking weekly church attendance in order to get in...

No, Trampoline. That is not always a case Many Catholic schools don't widely accept just any Catholic but they have catchment that is they accept from the specific parishes surrounding the school