| Established | 1905 |
|---|---|
| Type | Voluntary aided school |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Headteacher | Mrs Patricia Wager |
| Founder | Society of the Sacred Heart |
| Specialisms | Technology and Arts. |
| Location | Fenham Hall Drive Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear NE4 9YH England |
| Local authority | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| DfE number | ???/4716 |
| DfE URN | 108536 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 350 |
| Students | (Roughly) 1362 |
| Gender | Girls |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Diocese | Hexham and Newcastle |
| Website | SHHS |
Sacred Heart High School is a comprehensive school on Fenham Hall Drive in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
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The uniform is a navy blue blazer and jumper, and a Douglas Tartan kilt (dark blue, light blue, green and white). All students must wear their blazer around the school site. This rule has been contested on many occasions due to the overheating of students in Summer terms on account of the compulsory wearing of unnecessary insulative layers.
Located in the centre of Fenham Hall Drive, the school is accessed by most students by public transport. This is key as the school takes pride in being a place in which young ladies from all over the beautiful city of Newcastle Upon Tyne can meet and learn together in a supportive and truly Catholic environment.
Next door is the St Mary's College of Newcastle University, now a hall of residence. This used to called St Mary's College of the Sacred Heart and was a Catholic College of Education (teacher training college), becoming part of Newcastle University's Institute of Education. Very near to the east is the private Dame Allan's School, Newcastle.
The school educates around 1,300 girls between the ages of eleven and eighteen on the site which recently benefited from a near £10 million makeover.
This school has a generally good record with GCSE and A LEVEL results. Over 60% of students received A*-C grades at GCSE.
The school is, and has always been, single sex but the very latest of development plans involve the further mergence of the sixth form with St Cuthbert's. To the delight of many students, this has already resulted in boys taking A Level classes in Drama and Music at the school and one male in permanent residence at the school (in the sense of attendance as currently it is not possible to board at Sacred Heart).
Many Catholic schools across the diocese are 'feeder school', including Sacred Heart Primary, also situated on Fenham Hall Drive. From mid-September the school begins a vigorous campaign or promotion advertising the plethora of facilities Sacred Heart has to offer to prospective students. These range from aesthetical satisfying toilets to provide a positive sanitary experience to the availabity of chairs in almost every classroom.
The school was established in 1905 as a small, fee-paying, all-female private secondary school in Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne.
It became a direct grant grammar school in 1944, known as the Convent of the Sacred Heart Grammar School. Although it is unsure if they have kept the name, as it is now not going by the convent name.
In 1977 the grammar and secondary school on the Fenham site were amalgamated and became a comprehensive school. It became known as Sacred Heart Comprehensive School for Catholic Girls.
In 2007 the school signed up to the Building Schools for the Future initiative which resulted in, amongst other benefits, the outsourcing of all IT services to a division of Newcastle City Council named "City Service".
The school has recently (Roughly 2008) had many building works and has a new vocational building, including hair and beauty facilities (2008). The school consists of several different buildings, the main building, the P.E. block which also joins on to a maths and MFL (modern foreign languages) building, a new vocational building and the sixth form centre. There is also the technology building (lovingly known as the technology block by the students and staff) and the small Pottery building. The pottery building was recently created (Roughly 09-10) and the technology has been around nearly as long as the main building has.
The school's prayer reads;
"This is our school, let peace dwell here, let the rooms be full of joy, let love abide here, love of learning, love of one another, love of all people, love of life itself, and love of God, let us remember that as many hands build a house, so many hearts make a school."
The school is well known for staying open throughout adverse weather conditions. However, due to heavy snowfall on the 29th and 30th of November 2010[1], the school shut for the second time in roughly five years. It was regarded as a sensible decision owing to the wide catchment area of the school and the city-wide cancellation and irregularities of bus timetabling which would have inhibited many students from reaching the school safely.
Another Sacred Heart tradition is the Christmas pantomime. The pantomime is an annual phenomenon, headed by Year 13 pupils with much encouragement from teachers (both teachers within the drama department and outside of it). The pantomime is traditionally written in verse and inevitably features male teachers in dresses, water guns which are fired at students and festive music. It is looked upon with much joviality. Examples of staff-enhanced performance include the science department's rendition of 'Ghostbusters' and more recently 'YMCA', all in suitable attire.
In past years, the highlight of any Year Sevens' year was the counting up of Merit stickers received throughout the scholastic year and the distribution of corresponding reward certificates. Recently, however, this long-considered defunct system was replaced, thanks to innovative breakthroughs in merit technology, with an online system which allowed, for the first time in Sacred Heart history, for Concerns to be awarded for detrimental behaviour, thus allowing interested parents to be fully kept up to date with their children's development.
The VLE of Sacred Heart recently underwent a makeover, making it more accessible and more utilisable. The VLE of each student and teacher contains a "classroom" section which allows a connection between pupils and teachers at times where exchange is otherwise difficult. An example of such an occasion is the aforementioned snow days of Sacred Heart, where it was felt that the introduction of "snow tasks" would aid learning progression. These were then accessed though the VLE. The VLE is further student-friendly in that it contains what is amiably nicknamed by students as "tartan Facebook", owing to the interactive nature of the page, much like popular social networking site "Facebook", as well the tartan pattern which decorates said page.
As well as the maintenance of high educational standards, Sacred Heart has also played a major role in supporting local businesses through times of recession and indeed continues to do so. Examples of such businesses include the "Retro Sweet Shop" situated on Fenham Hall Drive, as well as the "Butty Box" and several corner shops. "Butty Box" provides feeding services for hungry students and is also a popular meeting spot owing to its immediate proximity with the school premises. The sweet shop sells vintage-esque sweetened goods, including lollies of flavours such as "cream soda" and "tutti frutti".
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