Secondary School in Bromley

[wishtobuyadog]

Hello. I'm very new to this forum.
I would appreciate if you could give me some information or knowledge about Bromley.

We live in Purley and have two daughters Y3 and Reception.
We've started thinking of moving for a good secondary school.
My husband commutes to Canary Wharf.
Thinking of these two, we thought Bromley area is ideal.

We would like to move somewhere nice area with a good primary and a secondary school.

Which part of Bromley borough is nice to live?

My DD1 is doing well. She is in top table in all subjects so far so I'm thinking of a grammar school but even if she is tutored, it doesn't mean that she could get a place so I would like to know a good non selective Secondary School too.
Obviously if we decided to move this year, these two girls are still in Primary School so I would like to know about primary schools too.

Regarding commuting to London, I presume almost all train stations in Bromley borough goes to London bridge in a reasonable time.

Thank you very much in advance.

[airedailleurs]

Hi OP, and welcome!

Bromley is a good choice for quality of life and schools...Hayes (mixed), Bullers Wood (girls) and Langley Park (girls) are all excellent non-selective secondary schools, but the catchment area is small (about 1 mile) for the first two. The areas around all 3 are lovely to live in, very green, nice houses etc...These areas also have very good state primaries.

Newstead Wood in Orpington is a super-selective girls grammar, with a 9 mile catchment area.

The Bexley grammars (Townley - girls, Bexley and Chislehurst & Sidcup - mixed) are also accessible from Bromley but very high scores in the 11+ are needed for non-Bexley residents so not a guaranteed option at all.

Trains go to London Bridge/Cannon Street or Charing Cross/Waterloo East, or to Victoria from Bromley South, so not that direct a commute for your DH.

[selondon1]

Hello, I agree with airedailleurs - Hayes, Bullers Wood and Langley are the ones to go for. Hayes (Hayes station) and Langley (Eden Park station) are on the same train line to London Bridge. For Bullers Wood you'd be best travelling from Chislehurst station I think. I know Langley well and it's a superb school. I hear really positive things about the other two as well.

Just watch out for the ever shrinking "catchment areas". Bromley Council secondary admissions booklet gives the information on the furthest distance pupils can live from the schools and still get in. I agree that I wouldn't go more than a mile from any of those three. Langley catchment is a bit over a mile at the moment i think but bear in mind the rising birth rate will mean the distances will probably reduce from whatever is published in the latest one.

They're all great areas and great schools so you can't go far wrong. Good luck.

[Iggly]

What's your budget? I thought you'd have decent secondaries near purley?

[wishtobuyadog]

Thank you very much for all of your reply.

We actually drove around Hayes this morning.
We found a very nice pub called The George.
We didn't go inside but my husband really liked the look of the pub.

I only found a small Sainsbury Local and Iceland.
Where do people go food shopping?

About 1 mile catchment area doesn't sound unusual if you want to send your child/children to a good non selective school.

Our budget is up to 700K and prefer a detached house.
We haven't started looking for a house yet but hopefully we can find something.
We will look around the other area next time.

Purley is nice area to live. It's Croydon Borough but I would say South Croydon, Sanderstead, Purley and Coulsdon are nice place to live.
Actually there are many expats live these area and their children go to a private school.
Going to Central London(London Bridge) is also good from Purley Station.

However choosing a School is ... difficult.
Good schools in Croydon borough are either private or religious schools.
Sending two children to a private school would be stretching us and we are not catholic so the option we have would be either taking the 11+ or sending them to an O.K. secondary school.

As I said before, even if your child passed the entrance exam, you need to wait until March to confirm the place.
Also if your child came out lower score then he/she would more likely struggle after getting in so I would like to have a back-up.

Thank you very much for your help.
We will continue looking into Langley Park school for girls, Bullers Wood, Newstead Wood and Bexley area.

[eatyourveg]

If your budget is 700K I'd come outside the M25 and go for the grammars in West Kent.

[wishtobuyadog]

Thank you very much for your reply, eatyourveg.

Could I ask you the reason why coming outside the M25 and going for the grammars in West Kent is good?

I don't know anything about grammar schools in West Kent but it's a grammar school so it's hard to get in I suppose.
Or less competitive?

The Grammar schools my DD1 could try are Wallington High and Nonsuch.
I've heard that more than 1,500 people applied for 210 places in wallington High and Nonsuch is usually worse.

[eatyourveg]

More house for your money, a good train service to London and the West Kent grammars are some of the best in the country.

Check out Tonbridge grammar (superselective but this year's Sunday Times state school of the year and IB school of the year), Weald of Kent grammar (not super selective) and Tunbridge Wells girls grammar. All of them are high in the tables

Primary schools - if I were moving to Tonbridge I would go for Woodlands, Stocks Green or St Margaret Clitherow or Hilden Grange and Derwent Lodge preps - but there are zillions of good preps around to choose

[springalong]

Best of luck getting into the West kent grammars. Totally oversubscribed. I believe that it is a better situation in east kent. Budget of £700k - you might get a detached house in Sevenoaks - but not many bedrooms.

[eatyourveg]

this is within a mile of both girls grammars and this one is 2 mins from Weald and half a mile from togs - if you're in Tonbridge and pass the 11+ you will almost certainly get into Weald - Togs some come as far as Hastings, it doesn't matter where you live, it all goes on your score.

[airedailleurs]

OP regarding shopping in Bromley, there is a big Waitrose near Bromley South station (next door to north Hayes really) and there is a Tesco in Bickley which is about a mile up the road from Hayes.

As for general shopping, Bromley is great and has a wide selection of shops including the Glades shopping centre (now called Intu but everyone still calls it the Glades).

[wishtobuyadog]

Thank you very much for your info and reply.

I have never thought about moving out from the M25 so I'm not sure to be honest but if train service is good to London then it would be worth considering.

An ideal house for us would be a 3 bedroom + study detached house and definitely a smaller garden.
If there isn't a study room, we still could put a garden office so it would be fine.

airedailleurs, Thank you very much for the information about shopping area in Bromley.
We will try to walk around the area next time rather than just driving through.

Thank you all!

[meadowquark]

OP is Woodcote not good enough for you? I thought it was a decent secondary school.

[TheReluctantCountess]

I went to Newstead.
If that wasn't a possibility, would you want an all-girl school?

[wishtobuyadog]

I don't know much about Woodcote.
According to the league table, the school seems to be much better since 2013 and it won Croydon Secondary School of the year in 2014 so it must be doing well.

I went to girl's school. From my experience, I think mixed school is mentally healthier but my husband says single sex school would be less distraction, which would leads to academic benefit.
I can't decide which is the better one for my girls at the moment but my neighbour's daughter goes to a girl's school and she is the kind of girl that I wish my daughters would be like in 10 years time.

We will look around Langley and Bullers Wood area this weekend.

Thank you all!

[meadowquark]

I am buying in Langley park area for several reasons, but also looked around Woodcote school, and really liked it. If you in the catchment then I would stay put, unless there are other reasons.

[ToffeeCaramel]

Can I ask why Woodcote is considered to be desirable? The last ofsted in 2013 was requires improvement. Just interested.

[Pooka]

I'll throw darrick wood into the mix.

It is mixed. Has excellent results and I have friends who really rate it. Catchment a little over a mile, so locks bottom and surroundings would be in catchment. Not far to orpington station which is brilliant.

Dd is at bullers wood and I'm very impressed so far. Bickley and chislehurst stations serve the catchment as well as part of petts wood.

My sons will prob go to ravensbourne. Had a bad reputation for some time. But I loved it - great site, great atmosphere and the resulting are showing continuous improvement.

[Pooka]

Yes, bullers new head started last week. Ex deputy head from newstead wood. School seems happy with appointment, but everyone very fond of the old head (dd in year 7 so not really relevant to us in that we didn't know him).

[Pooka]

Yes. Mr Greene.

You've made me think actually - wonder if the new head at Darrick Wood is another woman or a man.

I knew the head at Langley Girls used to be a woman, but not sure if she's still there - after the big hoo ha about the extension of Langley Boys. New head at Newstead Wood is also a woman.

[wishtobuyadog]

We drove around Langley Girls and Bullers Woood.

The houses around there are all big and beautiful and I don't know whether we could afford but we could feel that these two area were quite nice.
I couldn't see any shops or anything around Bullers Wood but I guess this is the kind of area.

Do these two schools have a school orchestra?
Or they focus on different subject more?
My DD plays Cello and I would like her to continue.

Pooka, are you happy with Bullers Wood?
I guess their catchment area is about 1 mile...

Woodcote High - we are out of catchment but if the school is very good then I would like to visit.
We still need to move but at least I don't need to take my girls out from current Primary so it would be less hassle.

[Pooka]

Dd does really enjoy it in general. Still early days for her though - she's only in year 7. It's really strict which has pluses and minuses. Great in so far as limited tolerance of classroom disruption and poor behaviour on site. Not so great in that dd is pretty scared of getting into trouble, despite or because she's pretty law abiding!

The catchment last year was 1.6miles. 1.9 the year before and 1.6miles the year before that. There are shops in petts wood, sundridge park (to a lesser extent), chatterton "village" (lots of girls come from here - generally smaller Victorian terrace and semidetached houses) as well as chislehurst of course.

There is an orchestra. Some of her friends have music lessons at school. There's also a rather well attended choir as well I believe (not her forte). She really likes her music teacher though.

I know of girls in her cohort who come from sundridge park and the school side of petts wood, as well as bickley and chislehurst.

I'm really pleased generally with how she's settled in and from what I can see of the homework she's had, I approve of the quality of feedback from teachers and the extent to which the girls are aware of what they need to do to progress. Achievable but ambitious targets.