Sacred Heart at a Glance

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in Paris in 1800. She felt strongly that providing girls with an education based on Christian values was essential for a healthy society to emerge from the upheaval of the French Revolution. St. Madeleine Sophie envisioned a school that, while laying the foundation for an active faith and compassionate service for the poor, would develop each student’s gifts and awaken a thirst for lifelong learning.

In 1818, St. Philippine Duchesne led a group of five French-speaking Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJs) to the New World and started the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi River. Thirty years later in 1848, on Bleecker Street in Manhattan, Mother Aloysia Hardey, RSCJ founded our School, Convent of the Sacred Heart. In 1904, the School moved to Maplehurst in the Bronx, and in 1945 moved to its present location in Greenwich, the former Overlook Farm Estate, to accommodate a growing student body. Since then the School has continued its 164-year-old tradition of educating young women to learn and to lead. We currently enroll approximately 775 girls, and are part of the Network of Schools of the Sacred Heart, all of which are committed to a set of principles known as the Goals and Criteria of Sacred Heart Schools.

Accreditation
Convent of the Sacred Heart is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is approved by the Connecticut State Board of Education. We are also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools and the Network of Sacred Heart Schools in the United States.

Daily Life
The first academic period begins at 8:15 a.m. and the day ends at 3:25 p.m. Athletics and a variety of other activities occur after school. Students can buy or bring lunch. Lunch is provided for a yearly fee. To see what a typical student’s day is like at Convent of the Sacred Heart, go to A Day in the Life: Upper School, A Day in the Life: Middle School or A Day in the Life: Lower School.

Admission and Financial Aid
An education at Sacred Heart is an investment that will provide many important and valuable opportunities. Currently, Sacred Heart students come from more than 60 different zip codes in Westchester and Fairfield counties. Sacred Heart is committed to making efforts to increase the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the School’s student body. To become part of the Sacred Heart student body, please complete your application by February 1. Decision letters will be mailed by March 1.

Applications for financial aid are due by January 1. The financial aid committee is committed to helping families find ways to make an education at Convent of the Sacred Heart affordable and works with them to determine personalized, need-based assistance. Applying for financial aid has no bearing on admission to Convent of the Sacred Heart.