Notre Dame RC School is a Roman Catholic school for girls in Derriford,

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, England. Its sister school is St Boniface's Catholic College. The former headteacher, Fiona Hutchings, was headteacher from 2001 until July 2012. Kate White, the current headteacher, assumed Hutchings' position in September 2012. It has 879 students attending. In the sixth form, boys may attend. It is situated north of the A386, west of the now-closed Plymouth City Airport.

History

It was originally next to Plymouth Cathedral but the site was bombed in 1941. In 1965 a new school building was completed on the grounds of the convent at Looseleigh Lane in Derriford. Sister Mary Xavier was the headmistress.

Direct grant grammar school

The school was a Catholic girls'

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

from 1946, the Notre Dame High School. In 1976 it was one of 51 direct grant schools, out of 170, that became comprehensive.

Comprehensive

In 1981 it amalgamated with the Bishop Vaughan Secondary School to become Notre Dame Comprehensive School for Girls. St Boniface's became a comprehensive at the same time. In 1993 boys were accepted in the sixth form and the school became Notre Dame Roman Catholic School. Notre Dame had much building work done in the academic year 2007/8: among this was a large professional sports hall, a library and a five-classroom block for history and geography named Stang Block after Dorothy Stang.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 April 2014.

Academic performance

In 2019, at

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

, the school's Progress 8 score was average. The proportion of pupils entering the English Baccalaureate was below average, as was the percentage of pupils attaining Grade 5 or above in English & maths GCSEs and the school's Attainment 8 score. The average result at the school for A level in 2019 was C−, just below the Plymouth and England figures.

Notable former pupils

Notre Dame High School

* Christine Crawley, Baroness Crawley, Labour MEP from 1984 to 1999 for Birmingham East *

Moira Whyte Moira Katherine Brigid Whyte FERS (born 25 September 1959) is a Scottish physician and medical researcher who is the Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. She is the Director the Medical Research ...

, Professor of Respiratory Medicine since 1996 at the Sheffield Medical SchoolProf Moira Whyte BSc PhD FRCP (London) FMedSci - Staff Profiles - Department of infection and Immunity - The University of Sheffield
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Lagi Tuima Lagilagi Tuima (born 16 June 1998) is an English rugby union player. She represents England women's national rugby union team internationally and plays for Harlequins Women in the Premier 15s. International career Tuima made her debut as a repla ...

, rugby union player for Bristol, Harlequins and England since 2017.

References

External links

* {{authority control Girls' schools in Devon Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Plymouth Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur schools Secondary schools in Plymouth, Devon Academies in Plymouth, Devon