St Catherine's School

Non Verba Sed Facta (Not Words, but Deeds) has run as the motto since 1914, and it still sets the tone at this independent Catholic girls' school on the banks of the Thames at Cross Deep, Twickenham. St Catherine's takes girls from age 7 in the Prep through to A level at 18, all on one riverside site in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is deliberately small, with 386 pupils against a capacity of 455, which lets staff know each girl by name. GCSE results sit well above the England average, placing the school in the top 10% in England, while the sixth form sends most leavers on to university. A recent inspection found leadership shortcomings that the school has since put right. For families who want a faith-rooted, close-knit education with a clear all-through pathway, it rewards a closer look.

The story begins in 1914, in a house on Twickenham Green that the Sisters of Mercy named after St Catherine of Siena. The school moved to its present Cross Deep site in 1919, taking in the grounds of Pope's Villa on both banks of the road, joined by the underground passage known as Pope's Grotto. The Sisters ran it until 1991, when they moved out and St Catherine's became fully independent. The history is not just decoration: the founding emphasis on action over words still shapes daily life, and the riverside setting gives the school a calm, green character unusual for a London day school. The school celebrated its centenary in 2014, and the steady cycle of building since then, new dining facilities in 2011, an upgraded and extended science block in 2016, and a purpose-built Sixth Form Centre, marks a school investing in itself rather than coasting on age.

This is unambiguously a Catholic school, and a girls' school, and it leans into both. Faith here is woven through the ordinary day rather than bolted on: form prayers, school Masses, special liturgies, feast-day observance and an annual retreat for every year group, organised by the School Chaplain. The school welcomes girls of all faiths and none, and roughly half the community is Catholic or Christian of another denomination, so observance varies from family to family and diversity is treated as a strength rather than a complication. The single-sex framing is just as deliberate. The school likes to say the best hockey player is a girl and the best artist is a girl, the point being that no subject or pursuit is quietly gendered away from anyone, and that leadership roles, science labs and sports captaincies all belong to girls by default.

Five values anchor the ethos: community, faith, courage, scholarship and service. Pupils are divided into four houses, Bronte, Cavell, Nightingale and Pankhurst, each named for a pioneering woman, and the house system drives debating competitions, sport and charity drives through the year. The Friends of St Catherine's, the parents' association formed back in 1976, knits families into that community through fundraising and social events. The result is a school that feels intimate and purposeful rather than pressured, where confidence is built quietly. Mr Andrew McCleave took over as Head shortly before the summer of 2026, the latest custodian of a small school with a long memory.

St Catherine's is academically strong at GCSE without being a hothouse. In recent results, 42% of grades were the top 9 to 8 (A* equivalent), 21% were grade 7 (A), and 63% reached grade 7 or above. For a school that does not select hard at entry, those are confident outcomes that point to teaching which adds value over five years rather than simply harvesting it at the end.

The standing is best understood through ranking. At GCSE the school holds an England rank of 281 and sits 6th within Richmond upon Thames, figures drawn from the proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data. That places it well above the England average, in the top 10% of schools in England. Richmond upon Thames is one of the most competitive school boroughs in the country, packed with high-performing state and independent options, so a local placing of 6th is a genuine marker of quality among demanding company.

The sixth form tells a more measured story. At A level, 6% of grades were A*, 18% were A, and 53% reached grade B or higher. Against an England average of around 24% at A*-A and 47% at A*-B, the A*-B figure is ahead of the England average while the very top band runs a little below it. On the FindMySchool rankings the sixth form holds an England rank of 1055 and a local rank of 15, which is solid performance in line with the middle 35% of schools in England. The honest read is that this is a school whose GCSE record currently outpaces its A level record, a useful thing for families to weigh when deciding between staying on and looking elsewhere at 16. The school's own analysis of value added is something the sixth-form team will discuss subject by subject, which matters more here than the headline grade distribution given the small cohorts.

The Prep phase has no published key-stage results to report, which is typical of small independent prep departments that sit outside the state assessment tables. What can be said is that the curriculum from age 7 is broad, taking in science, humanities, creative arts, languages, and food and nutrition, and that it is designed to feed directly into the Senior School. An extension strand, run as the Now and Then centenary project, stretches the most able pupils, and Year 6 girls finish the Prep with a year of leadership at the top of the department before they move up.

Teaching is the engine of those GCSE outcomes. Inspectors identified it as a clear strength: staff hold girls to high expectations, lessons push pupils to reason and question rather than simply recall, and the result is measurable, with most girls leaving each subject attaining at or above expectations. That finding explains the results better than the results explain themselves.

The structure supports it. Lower School in Years 7 and 8 keeps the curriculum broad, with three separate sciences, three modern languages on offer in French, German and Spanish, and the full creative spread including drama, music, art, and food and nutrition. From Year 9 girls narrow towards GCSE, taking compulsory maths, English language and literature, the three sciences, a modern language and religious studies, then choosing three further options from a wide list that runs to Further Mathematics, Photography, Textiles, Computer Science and Drama. Small classes mean a girl who is flying in chemistry but finding maths harder gets noticed in both directions, and the redesigned science block, with its corridors decorated to remind pupils that a scientist is them, signals where the school has put recent investment.

Pupils with additional needs and those learning English as an additional language achieve results similar to their peers, supported by class teachers and a dedicated learning support team. The one fair caveat, flagged at inspection, is that in some lessons the challenge dips and opportunities to build critical thinking are missed. It is a refinement point rather than a structural weakness, and the kind of thing a small school can address quickly through its existing systems of teacher observation and support.

There are two main exit points to consider, and a third internal one. At the end of Year 6, progression into the Senior School is automatic: Prep girls keep their place and move up as a natural step, so families joining at 7 are buying an 11-year pathway, not a five-year one with a cliff edge at the end. That continuity is one of the quiet advantages of an all-through school, removing the 11+ scramble that dominates so many London family calendars.

At 18, the destinations are university-heavy. Of the most recent leaving cohort, 84% went on to university, from a year group of 25. The small cohort size is worth keeping in mind when reading any single year's figures, but the direction of travel is clear: this is a sixth form that prepares girls for degree study and competitive courses, with the careers area in the Senior Library stocked with university prospectuses and course requirements to support that. The school does not publish a Russell Group breakdown or Oxbridge figures, so families wanting that detail should ask the sixth form team directly, ideally for the spread of subjects and universities over several recent years rather than one.

For girls who finish at Year 11 rather than staying on, the GCSE grades open the usual range of sixth-form and college routes across south-west London, and the school's strong local standing carries weight with neighbouring sixth forms. The point worth making to parents weighing the move at 16 is that staying on brings the benefit of small classes and individual attention; the trade-off is a narrower subject pool than a large sixth-form college can offer.

St Catherine's is non-selective in spirit but does assess at the main entry points, so the process is worth understanding by age.

Entry at 7 into the Prep runs through the Head of Prep: families visit, register formally, and the prospective pupil is invited in for age-appropriate literacy and numeracy assessments, supported by a current school report and reference. It is a gentle, get-to-know-you process rather than a hard exam, designed to check fit rather than to filter aggressively.

The largest gateway is Year 7 at 11+. Registration for the 2027 intake closed on Wednesday 11 November 2026, with entrance examinations in maths and English held on Saturday 28 November 2026, each a one-hour paper assessing skill and potential, and a Head's welcome talk for parents following the exams. Because dates shift each year, families should confirm the current cycle with the school before relying on them, and book onto an open event or a personal visit early to see the riverside site in person.

Sixth-form entry at 16 is open to external applicants who typically hold six GCSEs at grades 6 to 9, with grade 7 normally expected in subjects to be studied at A level, though the school allows some flexibility for aptitude and motivation. The school's own Year 11 students move up automatically into the sixth form, with external students joining alongside them, which keeps the sixth form a blend of familiar faces and new arrivals.

As a Catholic foundation, St Catherine's roots its identity in faith but does not gate admission to Catholics: girls of all faiths and backgrounds are welcomed, and there is no Certificate of Catholic Practice or faith-based priority criterion to navigate here, which sets it apart from the diocesan state Catholic schools nearby. Distance is not a published admission factor, so where a family lives matters far less than at an oversubscribed state school. The FindMySchool map and saved-schools shortlist can help compare St Catherine's against other Twickenham options side by side.

Pastoral care is the part of St Catherine's that parents tend to talk about first, and the smallness is central to it. With under 400 pupils, staff know each girl as an individual, and the school treats happy, secure girls as the precondition for learning rather than a nice-to-have. Inspectors confirmed that safeguarding arrangements are effective, that staff are well trained and alert to contextual risks, and that pupils feel safe, which is the reassurance most families want stated plainly. The safeguarding policy is published openly on the school website with the contact information families may need.

Behaviour is calm and kind. The school has a settled culture in which incidents of serious misbehaviour are uncommon and bullying is infrequent; when either does arise, leaders act on it promptly. The personal, social and health education programme runs weekly from Year 7 and builds self-knowledge and awareness of others, covering relationships, health and safety, careers and wider social issues, while the chaplaincy adds a reflective dimension through retreats and liturgy tailored to each age group. A pupil-led Charities Committee gives girls a real platform to turn concern into action on the inequalities they care about, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award from Year 9 channels the same instinct outward through service, skills and expedition. The through-line is that wellbeing and faith reinforce each other rather than competing for time.

For a small school, the co-curricular programme is broad, and four pillars stand out.

Sport is genuinely competitive. The trophy cabinet reflects success in hockey, netball, swimming, rowing, athletics, biathlon, equestrian and cross-country, and St Catherine's has been ISA regional champion in several events. The indoor pool keeps swimming and water-based fixtures running year-round, rowing makes natural use of the Thames on the school's doorstep, and trampolining adds a gymnastic strand in the sports hall. The breadth means a girl can find a team whether she is a county netballer or simply wants to keep fit, which matters in a school small enough that almost everyone who wants to represent the school can.

Music runs deep. Two named choirs, the St Catherine's Singers and the Siena Singers, perform alongside the orchestra across a calendar of concerts and informal events, and a team of visiting peripatetic teachers means almost any girl can take individual lessons and play in public, often accompanied by their own teachers at concerts. Drama matches it: each year brings a major Senior production and a Prep production, plus smaller plays and a Shakespeare Play Festival, with girls involved in staging and design as well as performance, and LAMDA speech and drama work building the same confidence in a more formal frame.

The third pillar is enquiry and voice. The Debating Society runs a house competition and enters England-wide contests, building the confidence to read a room and think on one's feet, and Model United Nations, a Literature Club and a Creative Writing strand extend that further. Science Club, Art Club, Textiles Club and Photography Club round out a programme that rewards curiosity, with the Senior Library running reading themes, book clubs and the Young Reporter Programme through the year.

The fourth pillar is service, which connects straight back to the Catholic ethos. The Charities Committee, Duke of Edinburgh's Award volunteering and sixth-form core religious studies all push girls to look beyond themselves, in the school's words to be well-informed, thoughtful and brave in responding to injustice. Across these activities the through-line is the founding motto in practice, deeds rather than words, and the breadth on offer in a school of this size is one of its strongest selling points.

The school day is bookended by wraparound care. A Breakfast Club opens at 7:30am in the Dining Room and runs until 8:25am, available to all girls, and an After School Club runs from 3:30pm to 6:00pm for Prep girls, with qualified staff, creative activities and homework supervision for older pupils. The After School Club closes at 6pm on weekdays and 5pm on Fridays, which gives working parents a realistic window for pick-up. Compulsory lunch and a small breakfast charge apply on top of fees.

The Cross Deep site sits in central Twickenham, well served by the area's rail and bus links into south-west London and a short distance from Twickenham and Strawberry Hill stations, which makes the commute manageable for families across Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow. The riverside grounds, the Sixth Form Centre with its terrace looking out over the trees, and the on-site Senior Library, with its quiet study space and careers area, give the school a settled, contained feel despite the urban setting. Both the Prep and the Senior School keep their own libraries, so reading culture is supported at every age.

Compliance history. A routine inspection in November 2023 found that standards in two areas were not met: leadership and governance, and pupils' physical and mental health and emotional wellbeing, both linked to the school's failure to notify the local authority when pupils joined at non-standard transition times. A follow-up progress monitoring inspection in February 2025 confirmed the school had remedied all of these issues, including appointing a trained admissions manager and ensuring leaders, governors and staff received training on their obligations. Families should read the sequence as resolved, but worth understanding before applying.

Sixth-form results trail the GCSE record. The school's A level standing sits in the middle 35% in England, behind its top-10% GCSE position. Girls aiming at the most selective universities should discuss subject-by-subject outcomes and support with the sixth-form team before committing to stay on at 16.

Small cohorts. Year groups are small, which is the source of the school's close pastoral care but also means a narrower peer group and that headline percentages can swing year to year on a handful of girls. Visit and judge the fit in person.

Faith is real. The Catholic character is genuine and present in the rhythm of the week through prayer, Mass and liturgy. The school is welcoming to all faiths, but families uncomfortable with regular Christian worship as part of the school day should weigh that honestly.

St Catherine's is a small, warm, riverside girls' school that does the fundamentals well: strong GCSE results that place it in the top 10% in England and 6th in Richmond upon Thames, safeguarding judged effective at its latest inspection, and pastoral care built on genuinely knowing each girl. Its Catholic identity is sincere and inclusive, its all-through pathway from 7 to 18 removes the stress of transfer at 11, and its co-curricular life is broad for its size, from rowing on the Thames to two named choirs and a competitive debating programme. The honest caveats are a sixth form whose A level record currently lags the GCSE one, small cohorts that suit some girls more than others, and a recent compliance wobble that has since been corrected. It is best suited to families who value a faith-rooted, close-knit, single-sex education over the scale and league-table polish of a larger selective school, and who want their daughter known as an individual from Year 3 to the day she leaves for university.