Thank you for your interest in Ilford Ursuline High School, designated a specialist science college in 2003. This is a very successful and popular school and a girl who gains a place here will be part of a tradition which dates back to our foundation by the Ursuline Order in 1903.

She will be part of a vibrant, engaging and challenging learning community where her talents and gifts will be encouraged to the full. She will experience an excellent academic education in an environment which is caring, disciplined and safe. She will have a demanding homework schedule and her independent learning skills will be developed and nurtured. She will benefit from an increasingly wide range of extra curricular activities, including opportunities for community service and sports leadership as well as music and drama.

Our most recent Ofsted inspection (2006) reported that what parents liked most about the school included the following:

• The high expectations of the school for work and behaviour.
• Students’ growing maturity and sense of responsibility.
• The fact that they like coming to school.Ofsted also praised the school’s provision for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of students’ personal development.

Other key features of the school:

• The school’s motto is Serviam – ‘I will serve’ - and service of others is indeed a key feature of life at the school.
• Ilford Ursuline is a small community – 3 forms in each year 7-11 plus a Sixth Form which currently stands at 120. Each student is therefore known, and valued.
• There are no Ursuline religious sisters now on the staff but the Ursuline convent shares the site and we are delighted to have several Sisters on the Governing Body.
• We are a Roman Catholic, Voluntary Aided (since 1999) school situated in the London Borough of Redbridge and in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood.
• We welcome Roman Catholic students of all abilities.
• We have a proportion of places for non-Catholic students and the school is pleased that it reflects the multi-faith and multi-cultural makeup of the local community.
• Almost every one of our students who leaves us at Sixth Form goes on to Higher Education, including the Russell Group and Oxbridge.
• We offer strong support for those who have special educational needs.
• Likewise our ‘gifted and talented’ strategy seeks to encourage and developed those who have special needs of a different kind.
• Student progress is monitored each half-term and appropriate communication made with parents.
• The school welcomes and indeed encourages the involvement of parents in the life of the school.
• We are proud of the good name which the school has, both locally and indeed beyond.
• We are a Catholic school with a strong prayer life. Religious and moral assemblies are a key feature of the life of the school.
• There are opportunities for whole school Mass at key times of the year. Part of the School Improvement Plan for the current year is to have an Oratory which will be used to enhance the spiritual needs of our staff and students.