St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls is a school for girls (aged 11–18) in Carshalton, South London, England. Ofsted praised the school as 'outstanding'[1] and the Archdiocese of Southwark found the establishment to be 'a very strong school'. ,[2] the chair of governors is Dr. Mary Howard, and the current democratically-elected Head Girl is Donatella Direnzo. There are also two democratically-elected Deputy Head Girls. It also has Technology and Language College Status.[1]
The current school headmistress in Ms Noone as of September 2011.
The school was founded by the Daughters of the Cross in 1893 and is situated in twenty-five acres of parkland with some notable buildings.[3] A new learning resource centre was opened on 1 May 2007,[3] providing state-of-the art facilities, exceptional computers and a library for any student to take out books for free, including video conferencing. In 2004 it was awarded Technology College status. In April 2006 it was awarded a language college status alongside the technology college status. The school does not allow non catholic headteachers.
The school provide the ball girls for the tennis tournament the AEGON Championships, held annually during June at Queen's Club, West Kensington, London. The school was featured in a music video by Travis, called Driftwood.
In September 2010, code-protected doors and identity badges were introduced to maximize the school's security. In the same month, upper leadership decided that the 2011 Sixth Form will now abide by a dress code.