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Head Teacher's Welcome

Welcome to Sacred Heart High School - an 11-18 Catholic comprehensive girls’ school with Academy status under the trusteeship of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  

What does it mean to be a Sacred Heart School?

The Society of the Sacred Heart has championed the education of young women for almost 180 years.  What makes Sacred Heart schools  distinctive is that we all follow the same five goals of Sacred Heart Education that are rooted in the cherished philosophy of our 19th century founder St Madeleine Sophie Barat.  These include:

  • Living an active faith;
  • Valuing community;
  • Building social awareness that impels to action;
  • Valuing intellect; and
  • Building and rewarding personal growth.

Sacred Heart in Hammersmith maintains strong links with the Society, whose unique philosophy and Catholic ethos permeate all we do.   

We value intellect and our results, placing us in the top 3% nationally, speak for themselves - but Sacred Heart Education is about far more than that.  Sacred Heart Education is rooted in the importance of relationships; recognition of the individual; building social awareness and the importance acting on it.  Kindness and responsibility is at the heart of this, both towards one another and to others beyond our own community.  We educate to develop students' recognition of their own worth and to ensure that they leave school with a sense of their own responsibility to stand up for others.  We prepare students to become positive role models, agents of change and leaders who will transform the world we live in, for the betterment of all.

Our Mission Statement

Our mission statement (which forms the basis of our approach to the students in our care) is shaped by the teachings and attitudes of Jesus Christ and is underpinned by gospel values.  This enables students to gain a real sense of what it means to belong to a community of faith, and it reflects our value of holistic education, aiming to ensure that students are engaged in all aspects of their learning - mind, heart, body and soul.  

Relationships and Pastoral Care

At the heart of our community is our commitment to establishing excellent relationships to support an inclusive and positive learning culture, in which all students feel motivated, challenged and supported. This coupled with high expectations and excellent pastoral care, forms the basis of our approach. Our students achieve excellent outcomes and have very good behaviour and attitudes to learning.

We affirm the uniqueness and worth of each individual member of the school community. We aim to provide opportunities for self-development, personal formation and self-knowledge, as well as encouraging the sharing of gifts and talents.  Personal growth is a goal we all work towards.

The philosophy High Performance Learning (HPL)

We work hard to remove barriers to learning and we are a globally accredited 'High Performance Learning School'.   The High Performance Leaning model requires schools to recognise that all students are capable of high performance regardless of their starting points. The heart of this modern philosophy of education was already embedded in the Sacred Heart ethos which recognises the value of each child individually. 

Curriculum

We ensure the curriculum is broad and deliberately wide-ranging to ensure each student has the potential to develop their individual talents, knowledge and skills.    We have worked hard to culturally diversify what we teach, recognising the cultural heritage of our rich multi-ethnic student body.

Academic Excellence

Our commitment to developing the whole child, includes a recognition of the value of intellect.  We value academic excellence and learning and are proud of our examinations record and the fact that every Ofsted inspection has praised the quality of the school’s teaching and learning and its strong ethos.   We are equally proud of our successes in the performing and creative arts, sports and music; and to this end we constantly seek to provide an interesting and varied range of experiences to enable opportunities for creativity, learning and exploration beyond the classroom. 

Overall

Sacred Heart offers its students an excellent education and formation in faith, preparing them for the next stage of their adult lives. Students thrive and achieve at Sacred Heart, and I am proud to be the Headteacher of this unique school.  I feel privileged to work with such amazing and committed governors, staff, students and parents. 

Mrs S O’Donovan,
Headteacher

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