What would you pick if you could - London CoE or Catholic schools?

[Nkmama15]

Have the opportunity and meet the criteria to apply for two outstanding schools in London - the grey coats hospital school in Westminster and Sacred Heart high school in Hammersmith. Both girls schools and both perform well. grey coats gives ‘posh’ legacy school vibes , excellent university prospects and seems a very feminist school and I liked the head teacher. Sacred Heart is wholesome, performs well, lovely building , traditional, closer to home and seems more down to earth. I’m still scratching my head why people don’t shout about this school and if I’m missing something?! When I mention to people they just stay silent!

what would you pick from what you know of them - what at the pros and cons of them? I really do like both equally . But part of me feels grey coats is probably a strong academic school so why wouldn’t I go for that one?! I really value everyone’s opinions and experiences from these schools .

If you can’t pick then maybe let your daughter choose which one she likes best? If it were me, I would choose the Catholic school. When she is older and doing her GCSEs a long commute can take time away from revision.

I really don't think that poster was talking about skiing and horse riding in central London.

Well yes 😂
But the OP was talking about an 11 year old child riding on the back of a vespa in central London during rush hour.
I was just shocked it's legal.

Sacred Heart is a fabulous school. I’m surprised you’re not taking the opportunity with both hands, especially if you are a practising Catholic. It’s extremely well regarded, for good reason.

Yes , I think it’s quite unique to fit the criteria at SH. However , it was just a wonder as it’s never really spoken about - compared to other church schools and was wondering if was missing something!

No personal experience either school. Catholic schools tend to be very Catholic. C o E often more gently Christian.
Often see Sacred Heart girls hanging around Hammersmith area / travelling after school. Might give you a feel for the girls

I haven’t seen them as not around Hammersmith that sort of time, can you give me some more information?

I know quite a few girls who went to SH (a few years back). They generally did well and a disproportionate number ended up in STEM careers and seemed happy. The big minus used to be lack of a sixth form and a misguided suggestion to send them to one of the boys’ schools for sixth form. Those I knew mostly resisted this route and found other sixth forms. I believe the school has its own sixth form now which would be better.

Hammersmith has the Piccadilly line running through it which was the route used by most of the girls I knew.

If your GC option is by triggering the EHCP criteria be sure to check out their provision for your specific needs very carefully. Both schools are notionally comprehensive but that is skewed heavily by their ability to select parents willing to demonstrate a series of hoops.

IME RC schools tend to be a lot more diverse than CoE, especially where schools are oversubscribed favouring parents who can demonstrate hoop jumping. I would look closely at the make up of the school attendees rather than pictures of hand picked pupils.

Yes, I noticed that too when I went round. The two schools have quite different mixes. GC felt more varied, with families coming from a wider area, including parts of South London. It came across as really diverse, with girls from lots of different backgrounds and a few Muslim students as well, which fits with it having a broader catchment.
SH seemed a bit more specific in its intake – Catholic families, and from what I could tell, more of a mix of white British, Filipino and Spanish/italian backgrounds - which ties in with Catholic schools I feel. Both seemed lovely in their own ways, just with slightly different vibes. The GC girls struck me as especially confident and happy.

is this what you mean?

I really appreciate you coming back as you have knowledge or experience of the school!

Ah I mean that the RC schools I know are more diverse than most CoE schools but GC could well buck that trend if it draws on a broader range of Anglican/Episcopalian churches across London.

Out my way the RC primaries and secondaries are notably more diverse than the CoEs, not just across the range of European Catholic congregations but also South Asian (sizeable RC population in India and amongst Anglo Indians), black of Caribbean and African heritage, some South Koreans and Coptic Church Arabs. They are also more socially diverse, have higher FSM percentages. They also still get better results, especially value add results than the local CoE primary.
The CofE by contrast is overwhelmingly MC white with a sizeable minority of parents who discover church in time to apply to the school.
This difference persists to the CoE and RC secondaries although the CoE secondary is a lot more diverse than the primary as it draws on a wider area.

Go look at both schools and talk to the girls and parents inasmuch as you can. Your primary must have parents with older girls going through SH - ask them for more recent feedback on the school.
Listen to both heads carefully. IME a head can make or break a school and a change in head can dramatically change it in either direction. I know GC had a very bad patch a decade or so back, ascribed by a relative working there as a problem headship but I believe it regained former standards after the head left.

Yes I understand where you are coming from.
I found GC a lot more diverse than SH if I’m honest . And to you point , that isn’t usually the case with CoE schools - as you say usually WM class , GC wasn’t giving me that vibe . The head teacher was very nice at GC - really liked her.

FWIW, most CofE schools (including GCH) have an allocation of "open places" which do not consider religious criteria, whereas most RC schools (including SHHS) apply religious criteria to all their places. Between the language places and the open places, 21% of the places at GCH are available without religious criteria. So GCH will likely have some non-CofE and non-Christian students even though they're oversubscribed whereas SHHS will have non-Catholics only if not enough Catholic girls want places, which has not been the case in recent years.