St James Senior Girls School, Olympia

Is there only one St James secondary school in the whole of the UK? (I'll assume you're not abroad at least)

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Did you assume all of MN live in London?

Bless her it’s a mistake.

In saying that I do live in London and still didn’t recognise the school name. 😂

I only know primary school St James.

Good luck Op in your secondary school choice

Hope you find the advice you need!

there is a st james school in colindale/edgware.
guess several others in london, let alone uk.
sorry don't know anything about olympia.
is it a church school ?

Name changed for anonymity

Our DD is in year 7 at St James Senior Girls. We are happy with the school (so far!)

It's in the London consortium, so last year assessment was ISEB based, and an interview. Interview was striaghtforward, general chat about favaourite books, characters, plots etc. Nothing too hard.

According to DD, the quality of teaching is excellent. Plenty of clubs, music, etc and decent sports options (they don't have ground on-site, so make a short coach journey for some PE lessons).

From a parents perspective, I quite like what the school is doing.

They have a superb humanities and mathematics department with some very experienced and skilled staff. Regular tests (almost every week), close tracking of progress and remedial extra subject specific clinics kick in automatically if needed.

Also, very lively discussions in assembly and philosophy classes on a variety of subjects outside the curriculum (Iran protests, Thatcher and the unions, analysis of painting and so on). I can see DD and her friends gradually becoming more well rounded and interesting people over the years!

Now the not-so-good is that the head teacher is leaving (she was one of the reasons we chose the school). The new headteacher Ms Emma Bell (www.linkedin.com/in/emma-bell-0285a077/?originalSubdomain=uk) starts in September. Hopefully it's a good choice, but only time will tell!

Happy to answer specific questions if you have any.

Good luck!

Maybe a new thread asking whether Tudor Hall parents are sad she's departing as Dep Head there!

Yes, the head is retring.

Good range of extra curricular activities available, there's something for everyone. That said, when we were visting schools two years ago, pretty much every London indie we visited had similar range activities, probably due to competition.

They have the usual sports clubs - lacrosse, volleyball, netball, football, cricket, fencing, gymnastics, cheerleading, karate. Many of them teacher led, other more specialist ones (like fencing or karate) cost extra.

Then there is music/art/performance - choir, singing, drama, LAMDA, jazz, ballet, art, fashion, cookery.

And more academic ones, these are all department led - book club, creative writing, chemistry, zoology, military History, history film , politics, STEM, chess, coding, politics.

Am sure I have missed some, there are probably close to 50 or so clubs.

Also, there's Duke of Edinburgh award at Bronze and Silver level, trips, guest lectures and so on.

It's a small school, only two form year group, so everyone gets a chance to do things - on stage, on sports ground and so on.

That was one our aims when looking for secondary school. DD is shy and had low confidence. In a larger place, she would have happily settled back in the background, passively avoiding participation in most non-academic things. In a smaller place like this, everyone participates.

I am an SJGS parent, yr 8.
There are some lovely teachers, and they are very open-minded and many inspiring. They do a lot for a small school with limited premises and achieve great results - as good as Goldolphin and Latymer last year in terms of percentage of A-levls As etc and leaver destinations but with none of the competitive parenting at that same school ( I know someone who bought their 12 yr old War and Peace at G&L because apparently the other year 8 parents were making their children read it - yawn).
They have held some truly wonderful theatre productions.
They still do cooking classes
It's an enthusiastic and inclusive school that ends up getting the right results without destroying anyone's confidence along the way
The however:
I feel the girls are given far too much rope and are very actively encouraged to be adults which means: not letting parents see homework etc from yr 7; on sports day witnessing the farce that is girls choosing whatever it is they fancy doing so my 12 yr old not doing any running because she didn't fancy it; bullying (not) resolved through getting the bullied and the bully to have managed chats.
Their communication is shambolic and last minute. Lucky I don't work and have any life.. oh
My daughter's spelling and grammar has managed to worsen since being there - which I only very accidentally picked up - and she has not yet done an essay. I am told that will get picked up this term.
If the after school sports club doesn't work for you as its held nowhere near the school and ends up being a logistical nightmare for pick ups, you can forget your daughter ever playing in a competitive match. They have to be in the club.
The girls look an absolute f*ing mess - the school is obsessed with wearing blazers, but is clearly not picking them up on intentional holes torn into their tights, and skirts so short you can see butt cheeks.
The vegetarian food involves lots of cheese, pasta, and fake meat - I suspect it ends up more fatty and unhealthy than a regular meat eating diet

Thank you for feedback.

@sjsgparent may ask I what kind of questions your daughter was asked in interview?

Have you had any concerns about the school so far?

@curious79 Thank you for sharing.

Concerning some of your feedback. have you raised them with the HT? Did you receive a response?

Sorry to hear about the bullying. Not great about the freedom, my daughter needs more of a structure.

Not great you raised the decline in your daughters SPAG and they were not reactive.

@justanotherdaduser really appreciate comments on the interview. Daughter has hers this week.

@HappyMama2024 I am hearing more and more that parents at secondary Indies that parents continue tutor, I really hope not.

My daughter enjoyed the open day and really got involved with the activities. We got a really positive feel for the school.

Sorry, wasn't watching posts here.

About the veg food, not sure if it was different earlier, but since DD started, it's not always pasta and cheese. I guess it's bound to be subjective, and people have different exepectations, but we found the lunch options reasonably good.

There's last term's menu here, see for yourself if it's suitable for your DC -
www.stjamesschools.co.uk/seniorgirls/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/St-James-Schools-Summer-Menu.pdf

My daughter enjoyed the activity morning today, we have our interview tomorrow. They interview the parents too. Any idea on what they ask lol I am nervous

Haha :) nothing scary! It's just an opportunity for the parent to ask questions to be honest.

Last year I had a pleasant 10/15 minutes chat with the teacher after DD's interview. He mentioned what he discussed with DD, how it went, and wanted to know if I had any questions/concerns etc.

I used the time to find out bit more about the school, veg menu, "quiet time" between lessons etc, and found it more informative than the open day.

@sjsgparent thank you that has definitely calmed my nerves.

Very interesting they take this approach, I like it.

I need to get thinking about some questions then lol

Good luck! Hope you both have an enjoyable experience tomorrow.