St Catherine's School A GSG School

Other features

All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.

Sports

Equestrian centre or equestrian team - school has own equestrian centre or an equestrian team.

Rowing

Sailing

What The Good Schools Guide says

Headmistress

Since 2000, Alice Phillips, MA (Cantab). Grammar school educated, where she recalls being sat between a dustman’s daughter and a lawyer’s daughter before heading to Cambridge to read English. Says education is her vocation and teaching is in the bones – she grew up in a boarding house at Sedburgh where her father was housemaster. She has worked in just three schools over her 35+ year career, starting at the Royal Masonic School, Rickmansworth (as English teacher, then head of English) and most recently down the road at Tormead (as deputy head).

Her office is formal but calm, with textiles, paintings and other pupil artworks in abundance. Cushions are emblazoned with school mottos. It’s quietly reflective of Phillips who is gently formidable (mostly in the inspiring sense) and almost regal in manner.

She talks passionately about the school she’s steered for over two decades. ‘It’s the best school in the world,’ she exclaims. ‘A brilliant place full of successful, dynamic young girls who are all serial school lovers.’ Her favourite parts of the job are the final and first assembly of each academic year where she revels in ‘ships launched’ and the potential of the ‘squeaky clean new ones’. Parents describe her as ‘an impressive educator’ who ‘has her finger on every pulse’. Staff say she is ‘so wise’ and ‘no nonsense, in a really good way’.

While her standards are undoubtedly high, her expectations are grounded. Stands by school’s policy of sitting nine, not 10 GCSEs, and advises prospective parents to judge a school on the quality of onward destinations instead. ‘We’re quite happy not to be at the very top of the Christmas tree. Our emphasis is on a rounded education. We don’t over-test. We believe in having a life and for parents, having a human being at the breakfast table!’

Aware of her longevity (which at St Catherine’s is not unique by any stretch; just eight heads in the school’s history, with one in tenure for almost 40 years) she pre-empts any questions around retirement and says that when the time comes, she will enjoy a ‘substantial rest’ in her Yorkshire Dales bolthole. A keen cook, she cites Jamie Oliver as an inspiration. Not only is he dyslexic (as is she) but ‘he will not take no for an answer and does it all with good humour’.

Leaving July 2025.

Entrance

Proudly selective. Parents say the process is meticulously well organised and staff ‘helpful and professional’. Just under half of 11+ entrants came from the prep the year we visited - the figure is usually around a third. All are required to take the school’s English, maths, science and verbal reasoning entrance assessments. A taster morning is offered in the autumn term where prospective pupils experience four mini lessons and have an opportunity to talk with current girls. School looks for ‘curious girls, interested in the world, everyone around them and education’.

A few places at 12+ and 13+ too, especially for boarders. For sixth form, a general paper, tests in A level choices, cognitive abilities test and predicted GCSE grades – 7s expected in A level subjects. Interview for potential sixth formers (in person or via Zoom if from overseas). Around 70 apply for the 10-15 annual places – they can afford to be very choosy.

Exit

Loses just 10-15 girls after GCSEs – maybe due to swanky new sixth form block, ‘The 6’, and sense that sixth form is the ‘best bit’ at St Cat's, according to girls we spoke to. Results are most impressive too. Two-thirds of sixth formers to Russell Group universities, one in 10 overseas (including Washington, Utrecht, British Columbia and Hong Kong in 2023) and a few to Oxbridge most years (four in 2023). Diverse study paths from robotics engineering and anthropology to microbiology and linguistics. Four medics in 2023.

Latest results

In 2023, 88 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 60 per cent A*/A at A level (87 per cent A*-B). In 2019 (the last pre-pandemic results), 83 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 64 per cent A*/A at A level (88 per cent A*-B).

Teaching and learning

Lessons are quiet and purposeful. Girls focused and engaged. Teaching traditional. Results outstanding. Grumbles on a well-known parenting forum about St Cat’s system of banding pupils from year 7 to 9 are explained by school as simply a tool to provide girls and their parents with GCSE grade expectations from the off. ‘If anything, it helps stop competition between subjects, it certainly doesn’t drive competition between pupils,’ rebuts head, adding ‘if you want to get pupils to Russell Group Universities, the work starts in year 7 not year 10.’ Parents say, ‘You know what you’re signing up to - it’s a very results driven environment which espouses excellence alongside kindness and care’.

IGCSEs for core subjects and art, with GCSEs for RE and languages. French, German and Spanish offered at GCSE and A level, as are Latin and Greek - the former is studied in the first three years, with a short taster session in the latter in year 9. Microsoft Office Specialist Qualifications are taken before the end of year 10, as is short course religious studies. Subject and study skills clinics widely praised by parents, as were teachers in general who are described as ‘off the scale’ and ‘dedicated’. At sixth form, 28 subjects offered, of which each girl takes three. Science and maths by far the most popular. All sixth formers study a subsidiary subject such as Spanish film or French business ‘for fun’.

It's not all traditional academics. A culinary arts theory class we pass by are learning how to market their dishes with descriptive language. The male teacher, who clearly adores his role, was a finalist on a TV cooking competition and the classroom modelled on Masterchef kitchens.

Learning support and SEN

Learning support is known as 'academic mentoring' and supports those with diagnosed additional needs alongside those who have just hit ‘a bump in the road’. Department works closely with pastoral and teaching staff to ‘level the playing field’ for around 80 girls with additional needs, ranging from mild dyslexia to autism and hearing impairments. Learning difficulties not seen as a barrier. If the pupil has the ‘academic potential and ability, and will enjoy our lively and exciting environment,’ they will succeed at the school.

The arts and extracurricular

Not short on facilities here. There’s a huge well-equipped DT studio, dedicated history of art classroom, photography studio complete with dark room, the Masterchef style kitchen classroom, two textiles studios and even an artist in residence. Standard of output for all disciplines is excellent. Ceramics are clearly a strength, and we were impressed by some eye-catching textiles; sixth formers stage a fashion show every year.

Performing arts is well catered for with dedicated dance studio and professional standard 350 seater auditorium, behind which there’s the drama studio which has an audio relay system to ensure no missed cues. An adjoining ‘dressing room’ - complete with spot-lit mirrors - adds further pizzazz. Around 20 girls take GCSE drama each year and 100 do LAMDA. Those who prefer to stay out of the spotlight are encouraged to join the tech crew. Opportunities for musical performances warrant their own leaflet with an event most weeks. Highlights include choral evensong at Winchester Cathedral and the annual carol service at Guildford Cathedral. Our guides tell us house singing is ‘the best thing, so much fun!’ Over 600 music lessons each week (piano most popular, strings ‘thriving’) and 12 choirs across both the senior and prep school.

School believes in the ‘benefits of "busyness"’. Head maintains that ‘girls only work smart when they have something better to get on with’. Expansive co-curricular timetable of over 100 clubs and activities is launched at a freshers' fair each autumn. Girls say the only problem is ‘too many things to choose from’. There’s everything from advanced Mandarin and chess to print making and the newly launched ‘dog club’ where girls explore the DNA, history and temperament of various breeds, as well as learn how to train and handle dogs. DofE a rite of passage with its own corridor long ‘wall of honour’ display board – more than one third of sixth formers complete the gold award. Inspiring lectures by the great and the good – often alumnae. Most recent have included an up-and-coming singer songwriter and a CFO at AON.

Sport

Lacrosse is the name of the game. Six senior teams are fielded and most of the school pitches up at the national competitions. Lots of specialist coaches mean school is also strong in netball (captain of the Ugandan national team is on the staff) and swimming, with respectable gains in cricket, athletics, and tennis in the summer. Perceived in the community as a highly competitive and sporty school, the girls we speak to disagreed, insisting ‘we just have fun’. Teachers corroborate that teams are fielded right down to D and E levels.
Broad offering of non-mainstream sports includes table tennis, trampolining, equestrian (off site) and sailing, plus early morning yoga for the boarders. School still enters rounders nationals too – ‘We just love it!’ say coaches. Excellent facilities including fields with long jump pit, fitness suite, 25m indoor pool and vast multi-sports hall. Director of sport been at the school for 23 years because ‘there’s nowhere better’.

Boarders

An ‘intrinsic and popular’ part of the St Cat's experience. Mostly international students in the younger years, with a broad range of nationalities mixed into houses by age range. Girls enjoy weekend activities from ice skating and visits to theme parks to walks in the woods with hot chocolate. One parent described the experience as a ‘female Hogwarts’ and told us, ‘I cried for three days when my daughter began weekly boarding but she hasn’t looked back. She has grown more independent by the day and now doesn’t want to come home at weekends, she loves it that much.’

By sixth form, half of the cohort are boarders. They have their own brand new boarding house, ‘The 6,’ which resembles a miniature university halls of residence comprising common room with huge flat screen TVs and kitchen offering ‘unlimited tea, coffee, toast and fruit’. Upstairs are twin boarding rooms and pristine bathrooms complete with power showers and vanity points. The whiteboard in one room displays a scribbled reminder to buy ‘boobtape’ underneath a set of seriously complicated maths equations - it sums up the whole experience.

Ethos and heritage

A school that is rightly proud of its 135+ year heritage and puts the emphasis on teaching and academics over fancy new facilities. Indeed, the staff list reads longer than some blockbuster film credits. That’s not to say St Cat’s lacks in facilities - we notice each and every one of the new buildings and blocks added over the years has a shiny plaque reminding us who helped fund them.

Parents felt all the aims listed on the school website were being delivered in abundance. School gently religious, stunning gothic revival chapel is central to the school site and a foundation upon which the school was built. It was dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1894, using words from Hebrews 6v.1 ‘let us go on,’ which became the school’s motto.

Hard-working alumnae (oldest being 103 years old!) is immense and regularly rolled out to inspire current pupils and parents alike. ‘It’s the most amazing free of charge careers network,’ head admits unashamedly.

Pastoral care, inclusivity and discipline

A place where heavyweight academic expectations truly are balanced with robust pastoral care, at the heart of which is a strong house system through which girls quickly bond. Parents say it is ‘genuinely woven into the fabric of the school’ and we see proof of such throughout our visit with house events celebrated on notice and display boards. House activities, including all sports, are ringfenced for two lunchtimes a week.

Girls we meet are happy and have no complaints, except for - and this was universal - the food (seemed fine to us but school is aware and addressing) and, for one or two, the problem of ‘just too many clubs to choose from’. When things hit a more serious rocky patch there is a resident clinical psychologist and three school counsellors on the staff to provide expert support.

School’s ‘no blame’ bullying policy is enforced as first course of action for ‘low level’ incidents. ‘Both parties are heard, apologise, usually cry and we move on,’ explains head.
However, reports of more serious misdemeanours leading to a set of expulsions in one year group recently, prompts a more detailed but candid response: ‘It was post lockdown and mostly behaviour that happened outside of my school, but it spilt over and was frankly the biggest thing I have ever dealt with in my career,’ she says. Parents praise the school’s ‘swift, fair and decisive action’ and head affirms, ‘I will not shy away from difficult decisions because this (behaviour) is not what happens in my school’.

All the girls we met were on very best behaviour and appeared baffled when asked about disruptive behaviour. ‘There’s not a lot of that here,’ they assured us, adding they’ve ‘never known anyone to even get a detention’.

‘All cool’ for the LGBTQ+ community, though the student formed and led SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance) group only available from year 10.

Pupils and parents

Bright, wholesome girls with academically ambitious middle class professional parents from Surrey, SW London and Hampshire. Plus a generous sprinkling of overseas boarders, which makes for a more diverse mix of pupils than might be the case otherwise. School hosts lots of community and parent events from book clubs to talks on ‘reversing social breakdown in Britain’.

Money matters

Competitively priced among a bunch of emulous independents in the vicinity. All parents declared the school ‘exceptional value,’ one adding ‘I’m surprised they don’t charge more!’ Only four scholarships available at 11+ worth 10-20 per cent of fees. More at sixth form including a small number specifically for new entrants. A few generous bursaries available too.

The last word

An academic powerhouse that suits smart self-starters and is ideal for parents seeking a traditional single sex education without ‘sharp elbows’. Niggles from girls about the food, and parents about over lengthy email communications, are about as bad as it gets. More than one mother told us fondly, ‘It reminds me of my own school’.

Special Education Needs

All girls are screened shortly after entry to the school to help identify any extra provision they may require. This enables all members of staff to accommodate each girl's particular strengths and weaknesses. Should it be deemed necessary, on consultation with parents, the School is able to provide individual support for pupils with mild conditions, and indeed any girl who needs support, in the form of study skills lessons, for which there is an additional charge. In addition to individual lessons, students are able to attend Subject Clinics during the week, for which there is no charge, where they can seek help from a teacher for a specific topic they may find challenging. Our students have access to a range of electronic resources too, and use iPads to access information through Google Classroom. This enables teachers and students to adapt the resources to their specific need, i.e. enlarging a font and/or changing the colour of the page. We do our best to provide for all girls in our care within the classroom environment and do not have additional Learning Support Assistants within the classroom. St Catherine’s School is a vibrant school; the girls experience a busy but dynamic education at the school and their days are filled not only with academic learning but extra-curricular activities too.

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