Notre Dame Catholic High School in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, South Yorkshire, England, was established in the 1850s by the Sisters of Notre Dame, a religious order. It was, for many decades, a fee paying school. It currently has 1400 students, with a 1:17.3 Teacher: Student ratio.

Admissions

The school has a Catholic ethos and caters for children from all over the city and further afield. The school is

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

, and has students aged 11–18.

History

# The

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

of Notre Dame set up the school in 1855 in central Sheffield, moving to a site on ''Cavendish Street'' in 1862. In 1919, the Sisters moved their living quarters from ''Cavendish Street'' to Oakbrook House, a Victorian mansion in Ranmoor built in 1860 for

Mark Firth Mark Firth (25 April 1819 – 28 November 1880) was an English industrialist and philanthropist. Biography Firth was born in Sheffield, the son of Thomas Firth (1789–1850), of Pontefract, York, and Mary Loxley. He joined the crucible steel wo ...

, a steel manufacturer who became Lord Mayor of Sheffield and Master Cutler. In 1935, another secondary school was built in the grounds of Oakbrook House; in 1948 the two schools amalgamated to form a girls' grammar school, Notre Dame High School for Girls, on two sites. The

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

was converted in 1976 to a mixed comprehensive, still on two sites. The school finally consolidated onto the Oakbrook site in 1988 when the Cavendish site was closed and subsequently demolished. Oakbrook House, which was owned by famous Sheffield steel baron Mark Firth and part of the school since 1919, is now the school's Sixth Form block and has been a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1973. The main school building is a 1930s building with many architectural features including a main hall, known as the salle, with a high

vaulted ceiling In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

. As the school has expanded other buildings have been built that complement the architecture of the site making use of local sandstone or red pantiles depending where the building fits in. The Hallam City Learning Centre which is hosted on site has distinct modern architectural merit and receives a mention in the

Pevsner guide The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

to the architecture of Sheffield. The school became an

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

in August 2012.

Achievements

OFSTED The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

described the school as ''outstanding in every way'' in 2005 and 2008.

School Specialism

It has been a Specialist

Technology College In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 59 ...

since 1995 and was awarded a second specialism in 2005 in

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and a third as a Leading Edge school supporting a partnership of other schools. The Leading Edge specialism also includes a sub-specialism on sharing good practice with others around issues of educating able, gifted and talented pupils.

Awards

ICT has been a prime focus of the school; winning the 2009 Becta Excellence ICT Award for the best whole school in

Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York. It is ...

and other awards including a national award at the Specialist Schools and Academies Conference in 2005 and again in 2007 in recognition of this work. A new environmental learning centre website has been set up and an eco-classroom has been built by the on site Hallam

CLC CLC may refer to: Religion * Christian Life Centre, a number of individual and networked Pentecostal churches in Australia * Christian Life Community, an international association of lay Christians * Church of the Lutheran Confession, an American ...

in the school woodland area which makes use of the latest technology to enhance learning and set an example for sustainable buildings as part of the approach to the sustainable schools strategy.

Academic

The GCSE (A*–C) rate in 2009 was the strongest in school's history with the 80% barrier of the number of pupils gaining 5 good GCSE being broken for the first time. The figure including English and maths was well above average for Sheffield with 70% of 5th Year (Y11) pupils attaining these grades, compared with Sheffield's average of 39.9%. It was the second highest for Sheffield in the state sector, with

Silverdale School Silverdale School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the founding school of Chorus Education Trust (formerly Silverdale Multi-Academy Trust). It opened in 1957 ...

being the highest. In 2007, there were 280 in the sixth form, 111 of whom took A-levels, with an average point score of 84.70, compared with the average of 79.9 in England overall.

Houses

The school has four houses:

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hi ...

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 c ...

, St Julie,

Cuvilly Cuvilly is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. See also *Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 679 communes of the Oise department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunaliti ...

, all having roots in places associated with St Julie Billart, the founder of the Order of Notre Dame. There are two school inter-house competitions, the sports day and the house cup, with the latter measuring academic ability and effort of house. The houses are balanced equally, with two forms from each year.

Ethos and traditions

The school's

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

ethos offers many opportunities for pupils and staff to work together to prepare for pastoral occasions, for example, the whole school

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

at the end of the year, and for the 5th year leavers' mass during May.

Charities

The school contributes mainly to Christian charitable work and the internal charity FOND (Friends of Notre Dame).NDHS: FOND

Notre Dame Virtual School

The school collaborates with Notre Dame schools all over the world through the Global Virtual Learning Environment 'Notre Dame Virtual School' (NDVS).

Alumni

Notre Dame High School for Girls

* Prof

Sheila Hollins Sheila Clare Hollins, Baroness Hollins, (born 22 June 1946) is a professor of the psychiatry of learning disability at St George's, University of London, and was created a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords on 15 November 2010 taking the ...

, Professor of Psychiatry at

St George's, University of London St George's, University of London (legally St George's Hospital Medical School, informally St George's or SGUL), is a University located in Tooting in South London and is a constituent college of the University of London. St George's has its o ...

since 1990, President of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

from 2005 to 2008 *

Judy Parfitt Judy Catherine Claire Parfitt (born 7 November 1935) is an English theatre, film and television actress. She made her film debut in a minor supporting part in '' Information Received'' (1961), followed by supporting role in the BBC television ...

, actress

Notre Dame High School

* Joe Carnall, former lead singer of

Milburn (band) Milburn are an indie rock band from Sheffield, England, that consisted of Joe Carnall, Louis Carnall, Tom Rowley, and Joe Green. They announced their split on 28 March 2008, with the band playing one final gig at Carling Academy Sheffield, Shef ...

Jackie Doyle-Price Jacqueline Doyle-Price (born 5 August 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician and former civil servant. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Thurrock in the 2010 general election. In September 2022, she was app ...

, Conservative MP for

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The l ...

* Alex Kiwomya, footballer currently signed to

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

* Chris McClure, lead vocalist of The Violet May, and whose image is the cover art of the

Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The group consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jamie Cook (guitar, keyboards), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Helders (drums, back ...

' album ''

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January 2006 by Domino Recording Company and on 21 February 2006 in the United States. The album includes their firs ...

'' *

Jon McClure Jon McClure (born 22 December 1981), known as The Reverend, is an English musician. He is the lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers, and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He says that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because ...

and Ed Cosens, singer and bassist respectively with Reverend and The Makers *

Johnny Nelson Ivanson Ranny "Johnny" Nelson (born 4 January 1967) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1986 to 2005, and has since worked as a boxing analyst. He is currently the longest reigning world cruiserweight champion of all time, ...

, boxer

References

External links

School web site

OFSTED page for Notre Dame

2007 GCSE results for Sheffield LEA

2007 A-level results for Sheffield LEA
{{Diocese of Hallam Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Hallam Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur schools Defunct grammar schools in England Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed educational buildings Secondary schools in Sheffield Educational institutions established in 1855 1855 establishments in England Academies in Sheffield