South East London secondaries - thoughts please!

I'm out of the loop here but my daughter (now 22) went to Prendergast Hilly Fields and we looked at lots of schools when my son (now 20) was in year 6. It might be worth knowing that Forest Hill has had a good solid reputation for a long time, not just under the current head, and so have Prendergast HF and Sydenham Girls'. This is not case at some of our other local schools, which seem to go up and down rather more. Decades of good results/steady improvement and oversubscribed admissions suggest that there are good structures in place, a supportive and effective governing body, lowish teacher turnover, mature policies in place and so on and so forth, which I would think are all good predictors that the school will stay on track throughout your child's time there.

We loved Forest Hill when we looked round and were sad not to get a place there for him. His best friend went there (in the end - long story) and was very happy.

We used to live in that area (first Penge and then the edge of Beckenham) and would have aimed to get our children into Alleyns, mainly on the grounds of it being one of the few mixed schools with transport links that worked for us. Also my cousins went there and were very happy. In practice we moved instead. I don't know what as an area it has quite so many single sex schools.

I hope you find an option that works for your ds OP.

thanks pink

I've already searched, but can't find recent posts on direct experience of the school- it's mostly about its reputation, iykwim

There's been threads about Prendergast here before if you do a search. Think people are generally v enthusiastic about it, if memory serves.

I know I'm derailing slightly, OP, and that you wanted advice on schools for boys-

anyone have a d at Prendergast Hilly Fields? It's literally on our doorstep, but I can't work up much enthusiasm about it. I'm really not keen on single sex schools- strike me as v odd and antiquated- I know this is a prejudice but somehow can't shake it off

A friend's high-achieving DD goes to Norwood School on one of their arts scholarship programmes and loves it. She does loads of extra-curricular enrichment type activities and there's really good communication between school and home to help support her progress. I get the impression the SMT really knows what it's doing and it seems much warmer than say Harris CP.

Year 10 Ds at Kingsdale who totally loves this school. Academically thriving , plays trumpet & Flute as part of scholarship program & is actively involved in sport. Most importantly feels safe & happy & has a great friendship group. Sch has organised itself hugely over last couple of years & feels like is back on track & on a massive up. GCSE results this yr very impressive & 6th form starting to take shape. Downside is hugely oversubscribed , Ds was there on sat for open day & huge queues. Lottery makes it frustrating for locals but worth a punt. We were very lucky to get in & would thoroughly recommend , good luck to all of you.

I have Ds1 at Forest Hill School currently year 12 , but been at the school since year 7 , best decision we ever made he has done really well there .Great teachers who are willing to go the extra mile , modern building with great facilities . He did GCSE exams in the summer and passed all ten with really good grades , some of this down to his own hard work but also the excellent teachers who prepared the boys extremely well. DS2 at Harris Boys Academy East Dulwich in Year 7 , again really pleased with our choice so far ( very different academically to DS1 , smaller environment much better suited to him ) , another modern easy to navigate building , approachable informed staff , smaller than average number of boys for a secondary school , small class sizes (20 max ), so far so good . Much closer to where we live for travelling but wasn't an option for DS1 as it wasn't even built when he was in year 6 and we were looking !! Would have been more than happy for DS2 to go to FHS as well if he hadn't managed to get a place at HBAED , but as I say very happy so far . It's such a big decision to make and its really down to the individual child , only piece of advice is if you can try and visit more than once as you often see different things second time around . Good luck , I know how stressful it can be , I thought it was going to be a breeze second time around but believe me there were plenty of sleepless nights in our house !!

I hear very nice things about Forestdale. We're not in the catchment sadly.

My dd is a Sydenham - think it's a great school, very caring.

Seem to be a good number of very clever, quirky, interesting girls there.

Ahhh, another parent with Year 6 DS. Was also 'meh' about Harris CP. Wanted to like it, did not. Did not want to like Forest Hill and did!

Kingsdale is our closest, but such a Lottery, not holding breath...

Choice schmoice...

SpringHeeled: there is definitely a MN with dds at Sydenham Girls, and she is very pleased with it, if that is in your area.

It will be interesting to see if the new City Heights Academy on the S Circular relives pressure on Elmgreen and spreads it's catchment wider towards Dulwich / CP.

Have you seen the current thread about Elmgreen? It's a bit empty at the moment, but might be helpful to you once it gets going.

ooh, can I just mark my place

twin girls, y6, Lewisham area- older ds went to Kingsdale and recommends it v highly- we're crossing our fingers for it, but not being TOO hopeful

Year 6 ds also.

So far I've looked at the Norwood school and Harris CP. Will go to Kingsdale and Harris SN this week.

Was really impressed with tge atmosphere and set up at Norwood school. Ds loved it. Not sure how I feel about sending my high achieving ds to a school with a very low number of other high achievers though...

Harris CP - feel a bit 'meh' about it, though it's still the preference for most m/c parents in the area, despite its declining results (which are probably something to do with it being forced to take more low achieving pupils - it was pulled up about covert selection a couple of years ago).