Ursuline High School
Encyclopedia
The Ursuline High School, Wimbledon ("the Ursuline") is a Roman Catholic secondary school
, for girls aged 11 to 19, based in Crescent Road and The Downs, Wimbledon, London
. The school has a joint sixth form
with the all-boys brother school of Wimbledon College
that is situated on Edge Hill. It is under the Trusteeship of the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark and is maintained by the London Borough of Merton. The school has a tradition of academic excellence, addressing individual needs and service in the spirit of St Angela. With specialisms in ‘Business and Enterprise’ and ‘Modern Foreign Languages’, the curriculum equips girls with skills for the 21st century and develops them as independent and critical learners and confident communicators. The standards achieved in academic work and all aspects of the life of young people have been outstanding and the school is also committed to continuous self improvement. Being fully comprehensive academically and socially, it enjoys a strong and supportive community life.
The school's motto is "Serviam", which in Latin means "I will serve". I will serve and service of others is at the heart of the school's ethos and chaplaincy work. As a catholic school, it has a rich liturgical life and students have a strong interest and commitment to social justice issues. It has been serving the local community by providing education for Catholic girls for over 100 years.
order came to establish a tiny school in a private house in Worple Road. In the beginning there were eight pupils, now there are over 1360. The school has gone through three phases evolving from a private school to a grammar school and now is a voluntary-aided comprehensive school
. Its specialisms are Business & Enterprise and Languages specialist status
and it is a Gifted & Talented Lead School. It has recently been selected as a Regional Winner (London Secondary) in the Church School Awards 2011, as an example of excellent practice in the field of community cohesion and global citizenship. Throughout their lives, students continue to carry forward the legacy of St. Angela de Merici, by serving their society in all paths of life
The Ursuline aims:
By the time they leave the Ursuline students will:
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
, for girls aged 11 to 19, based in Crescent Road and The Downs, Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
. The school has a joint sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
with the all-boys brother school of Wimbledon College
Wimbledon College
Wimbledon College is a government-maintained voluntary-aided Jesuit Roman Catholic high school for boys aged 11 to 19. The school is based at Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London. It was founded in 1892 "for improvement in living and learning to the greater glory of God and the common good"...
that is situated on Edge Hill. It is under the Trusteeship of the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark and is maintained by the London Borough of Merton. The school has a tradition of academic excellence, addressing individual needs and service in the spirit of St Angela. With specialisms in ‘Business and Enterprise’ and ‘Modern Foreign Languages’, the curriculum equips girls with skills for the 21st century and develops them as independent and critical learners and confident communicators. The standards achieved in academic work and all aspects of the life of young people have been outstanding and the school is also committed to continuous self improvement. Being fully comprehensive academically and socially, it enjoys a strong and supportive community life.
The school's motto is "Serviam", which in Latin means "I will serve". I will serve and service of others is at the heart of the school's ethos and chaplaincy work. As a catholic school, it has a rich liturgical life and students have a strong interest and commitment to social justice issues. It has been serving the local community by providing education for Catholic girls for over 100 years.
History
St. Angela de Merici inspired the Ursuline Sisters to provide young women with an opportunity to achieve their full potential. The school was founded from Forest Gate in 1892 when four nuns of the UrsulineUrsuline
The word Ursuline is used to describe the following:* The Ursulines, a Catholic religious order.Several schools named after the Ursuline religious order, including several named Ursuline Academy.Ursuline Academy or similar may refer to:...
order came to establish a tiny school in a private house in Worple Road. In the beginning there were eight pupils, now there are over 1360. The school has gone through three phases evolving from a private school to a grammar school and now is a voluntary-aided comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
. Its specialisms are Business & Enterprise and Languages specialist status
Specialist school
The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...
and it is a Gifted & Talented Lead School. It has recently been selected as a Regional Winner (London Secondary) in the Church School Awards 2011, as an example of excellent practice in the field of community cohesion and global citizenship. Throughout their lives, students continue to carry forward the legacy of St. Angela de Merici, by serving their society in all paths of life
Mission Statement
The school commits itself to education for tomorrow's world within the dynamic tradition of Catholic belief and practice. As a Christian community, characterised by a spirit of respect, trust and joy, we promote excellence in every aspect of life, thereby fully developing each individual.The Ursuline aims:
- To build a caring and supportive Christian community where each individual is able to grow in their understanding of the faith and in their commitment to Christ.
- To set standards of excellence in teaching and learning and to provide a broad balanced and relevant curriculum.
- To develop personal qualities of understanding of self and others, self-discipline and motivation, responsible maturity, creative freedom and integrity.
- To foster an attitude of respect for all regardless of age, race, colour, creed or gender.
- To build peace, to promote justice, social concern and, through the celebration of difference, the equality of all peoples.
- To widen horizons, to encourage a sense of commitment and service to the wider world, and to enable each one to go on learning and changing all through life.
By the time they leave the Ursuline students will:
- Be aware of Christ as a centre of their lives.
- Be willing, in the spirit of SERVIAM, to develop their talents and use them for the good of others, especially the most needy.
- Be friendly, happy and confident and be able to work with patience and generosity, assured that with God they can do great things.
- Be focused on Justice and Peace as they keep alive the Gospel values in our world of today.
- Be able able to recognise the uniqueness of each individual by showing respect and love for all.
- Be happy to know St Angela and to have shared her values in the context of their Ursuline School.
Recent Community Achievements
Students successfully:- Raised over £12 000 through their local and international charity activities in one year, including Rose’s Gift, Manna Society, CAFOD, Crisis at Christmas, The Passage, Age Concern, The British Heart Foundation and a link school in Nomvalo South Africa.
- Participated in the pilgrimage to Lourdes.
- Took part in "Project Manvi" by spending a month in the southern India, working with the poor in the local community.
- Harvested a collection of foodstuffs for the Ace of Clubs Homeless drop-in centre in Clapham.
- Participated with the international Ursuline Community for the 475th anniversary celebrations of St Angela Merici. The school also hosted a student exchange visit with the Ursuline Academy in Dallas, Texas and raised money for an Ursuline school in Ethopia.
- Made a business studies trip to the Big Apple; New York city.
- Assumed the roles of Lawyers, Ushers, Court Clerk, Jury and Witnesses as part of a Mock Bar Trial competition at the Snaresbrook Crown Court.
- Participated in a real life microgravity experiment with the Astronautics and Space Systems Group, Faculty of Engineering at Kingston University.
- Received tennis coaching from former British number one, Tim Henman and Dan Bloxham as part of a Tennis Taster Day at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. The school is involved in preparing ball girls for training to a very high standard for the Wimbledon Championships every year.
- The choir and band gave concerts in Valkenburg,(The Netherlands), Monshau (Germany), Calais (France), the Wimbledon Village Fair, the Sacred Heart Parish Day and the Catholic Schools Music Festival.
- Design and Technology students participated in ‘Project Ventura’ in conjunction with the Design Museum, London.
- Visited the European Parliament in Belgium as part of a politics trip.
- Other opportunities for enrichment include trip to various London Museams and theatres, mathematics masterclasses, Marchant’s Hill Activity Centre, PE trip to Cornwall for surfing, the ‘Gifted & Talented’ residential in the Lake District, cultural and language trips to Normandy, Paris, Cologne and Berlin, to name a few.
- Adult students from the wider community can also make the most of the professional online language courses offered by the school in 25 languages (including French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Hindi, Turkish, Dutch, Vietnamese, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Swedish, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Latin).
Campus
The school is currently made up of seven buildings:- The Main Building - REReRe, bre, moré is an interjection common to Cypriot Greek, the languages of the Balkans, Turkish, and Venetian, with its "locus... more in the Greek world than elsewhere". It is used in colloquial speech to gain someone's attention, add emphasis, insult, or express surprise or astonishment, like...
, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Information and communication, ScienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, - St. George - MathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
- Brescia - EnglishEnglish studiesEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, Design & Technology (Product DesignProduct design-Introduction:Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business or enterprise to its customers. It is concerned with the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.Product designers conceptualize and...
) - St. Ursula - GeographyGeographyGeography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, HistoryHistoryHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, SociologySociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, PsychologyPsychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society... - The Merici Sports Centre - PEPhysical educationPhysical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
- St. Angela's Art Centre - ArtArtArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, MusicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, DramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
(Located on The Downs) - Dorothy KazelDorothy KazelDorothy Kazel was an American Ursuline nun and missionary to El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, she and fellow missionaries Ita Ford, Jean Donovan and Maura Clarke were raped and murdered by members of the military of El Salvador.-Life and work:Kazel was born Dorthea Lu Kazel to Lithuanian American...
block - Business StudiesBusiness studiesBusiness studies is an academic subject taught at higher level in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, as well as at university level in many countries...
, Health and Social CareHealth and Social CareIn the UK, Health and Social Care is a broad term that relates to integrated services that are available from health and social care providers...
, ICTInformation and communication technologiesInformation and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of... - vocational - ict
- Ursuline Sixth Form Center
See also
- The School Prospectus
- Update Newsletter
- UrsulinesUrsulinesThe Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.-History:St Angela de Merici spent 17 years leading a...
- Wimbledon CollegeWimbledon CollegeWimbledon College is a government-maintained voluntary-aided Jesuit Roman Catholic high school for boys aged 11 to 19. The school is based at Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London. It was founded in 1892 "for improvement in living and learning to the greater glory of God and the common good"...
- Raynes Park High SchoolRaynes Park High SchoolRaynes Park High School is a co-educational comprehensive school that educates around 1150 students aged 11 to 19. It is located in Raynes Park, England.-Admissions:...