Secondary in SE10, SE3, Lewisham and Lee

Just bumping this as I’ve just been to a sedgehill open morning and was really impressed. Calm atmosphere, polite, engaged pupils, great facilities and set in masses of parkland with sports pitches (very rare to have that amount of outdoor green space in SE London). I’d discounted it completely based on the reputation it had locally a couple of years ago - it’s now been taken over by an academy chain and are expecting to be Ofsted-ed next year, as far as ofsted are concerned they are a brand new school so currently have no rating. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that ofsted report but it’s on our list.

Hi All

Am sure this thread is long gone, but I was on here looking for recommendations for myself for Lewisham Schools. Moved from Southwark two years ago.
Love Lewisham and have two daughters, one in year 4 and one in year 5.
I know its early but need to start thinking about secondaries this Autumn!
My neighbours daughter attends Sedgehill and I've heard great things about this now- has anyone else?
Students are given a violin in year 7 and are taught this for three years under the MiSST programme (Andrew Lloyd Webber). Heard it has superb facilities too.
Does anyone know anything about Connisborough or Prenderghast? Not sure we're in the catchment for this?
Thanks in advance

not sure about the vibe of st mathews being great .. st mathews should be a great but it is hard shake off the stigma of being a sink school ..

@jessstan2 - there is no Bromley test. There are two super selective Grammar schools - one boys and one girls. There is no 'pass rate' - the admission is by the highest score for the boys and score then a distance criteria for the girls. As a result, Bromley is almost a comprehensive school Borough as there are relatively few local children at these schools. It has some very good schools such as Langley and Bullers Wood for example.

Colfes has always been a 'back up' independent school for those who did not reach the 11+ pass grades but lately has had more applicants which has made it more competitive to get into. They're generous with their scholarships as they're not the academic first choice for local families who have other options such as Jags, Dulwich College, City etc. It's a lovely neighbourhood school with nice grounds and good sports. Its results last year weren't great but in general it adds good value.

To answer the OP, a lot of children take the Kent, Bexley and Newstead/St Olaves tests. The latter two schools are super selectives. The eleven plus exams forum has a wealth of information and a talk forum about the Grammar schools in these areas, criteria, distance etc.

Eltham College has now gone co-Ed and is more academic than Colfes. St Dunstans is in Catford and is also a nice independent but the traffic there is a 'mare.

Eltham Hill is the current good choice of comp for girls. Leigh Academy is still being built but looks promising. The children look smart and their behaviour is certainly better than its previous incarnation. I don't know much about the Greenwich Free School. Tallis, Crown Woods are good but have their problems. Roan is in trouble at the moment. St Thomas More is the best comp in the Borough - it's in Eltham - good results too. Kingsdale is also popular but a trek from SE3/SE10 and has a convoluted admissions system.

Unfortunatly the secondary choices in Lewisham are not brilliant.

We have two daughters and are both educated outside the borough.

We opted for a central london primary (faith based) as our nearest local one had us one road too far away and the next nearest one was 4+ miles away and I would have had to cut my hours for her to attend.
It made our morning/evenings much simpler to drop baby at nursery and then jump train with DD1 and drop her at school and then boris bike to work in 10 mins.
It was handy when they were ill I could get to her in 20 minutes rather than being a train journey away.

We did consider her coming back towards home for secondary but wasn't impressed.
DD1 is now in Yr 9 and DD2 starts Y7 (different school) tomorrow.
Both in central london.

I would look at what the school thinks is their specialist areas - the only school that seemed good was sports orientated. Neither of ours were that intrested they are more acedemic / drama arts based.

Good luck.

Thanks CBong.

It is such a minefield.

My child has not done any revision for the last 2 weeks so I am feeling as though a grammar place is slipping well out of reach.

11+ exams for grammars and independents are very different.

It's pretty common for the grammar results for Bexley/Kent/Olaves to be very different - know lots of kids who were top 180 and then didn't get into olaves on first round for example.

And it's even more common to not be deemed selective and then get a place at an independent.

There is no ‘surely the primary school will tell’ especially when state schools are involved. Also when there are all through private schools who want to maintain their good students and are not needing to advertise destinations for selective schools. DD was in a private lower school, they almost purposely took the pedal off things to hold back children and encourage girls into their senior school, or that was my experience. We were happy to leave the private sector and DD is happier which is the main thing.

I don't know that you'd have to let the school know about an eleven plus failure but surely the primary school will mention it in their reference. Maybe not. However if he passes the entrance exam it won't matter.

I think it’s just fair to get academic results compared as many parents opt for grammars due to their academic nature and only choose the independent sector of they children don’t get in.

However, there’s always the bigger picture and my personal intention is for DS to go to a more mixed ability, all around indie that’s similar academically to Colfe’s and no plan for him to sit grammar school exams.

Sorry perhaps I misinterpreted the tone. I have no vested interest in Colfe's reputation as have no personal link to the school.

Agree that it has traditionally been the preserve of kids who did not get other offers. However its scholarships are very generous and I do know several who have been tempted away from grammars and other independent school offers and scholarships.

iGCSEs might not count but whenever I've seen a full league table (am thinking probably in the Times) Colfes compares quite favourably to the likes of Beths/Chis & Sid.

I'm not furious @ChnandlerBong but am interested, especially in the comparative data and whether or not it's actually comparable. I had a look on the school comparing tool on the DfE website but iGCSEs don't count on there.

I don't know anyone who has made a choice to send their child to Colfe's over and above local grammars or other local independents. Those I know who attend the senior school (incoming Y7 upto Y12) either do so because their parents teach at the school or because the child didn't pass the Bexley test. I don't know every child in the senior school though so there may well be others for whom that isn't true and no doubt there are many happy pupils and parents.

Why is everyone so furious about the 'outperforming grammars' comment I made?

There's full disclosure of GCSe results by grade by year on the site.

Last year over 50% were grade 7 or above.

In the league tables every year they outperform some of the Bexley Grammars at GCSE and A level. I'm not saying they are consistently Olaves or Tiffin or Henrietta Barnet but they do outperform some of the local grammars.

Colfes is my local school. The intake always includes kids who have not passed grammar or other independent exams. Colfes does not require parents to disclose these results but that doesn't stop them being true.

This will change though I would think. Again - from DS' year going into yr 7 in Sept 2020 we know kids who didn't pass Bexley didn't seem to get Colfes either. Eltham is now more competitive and co-Ed, and I suppose this in turn puts pressure on other schools which were previously seen as more accessible.

Their results were not good last year.

Colfe’s pupils celebrated GCSE success, with over half the year group achieving the top grades of 9-7/A-A – more than double the national average – and 75.5% of pupils securing 9-6/A-B grades.

That’s what it says on Colfe’s website.

They aren’t very forthcoming about disclosing headline measures. However, they talk about more than double the national average in relation to grades 7-9. Given what the average is, I think they imply 50-60% of grades 7-9 and 75.5% of grades 6-9. That’s not a patch on any grammars really.

@ChnandlerBong where's the comparative data showing Colfe's outperforms the grammars? From what I can find, Colfe's does iGCSE for at least English and maths so those results can't be directly compared with state school results because the qualifications are not regulated by Ofqual. In English lit, Shakespeare is an optional subject for the iGCSE but compulsory for the regulated GCSE.

The top 180 scorers in the Bexley selection test will be given their first choice of grammar regardless of home to school distance. After this, for everyone deemed selective, it generally comes down to distance from school (LAC, those with an EHCP, siblings etc are usually priority categories ahead of distance).

Colfes always outperforms the grammars at GCSE but regularly still admits kids who have not passed the 11+ - make of that what you will.

Think Canary Wharf College is pretty new and untested?

The Kent grammars do require a higher grade from out of catchment students.

The Bexley ones do not. Once you are deemed 'selective' then it's purely on distance from the school. Some years SE3/SE10 are in the first wave of entrants and some years they're not. But quite often a persistent family (ie prepared to wait until the bitter end of the summer holidays) will be allocated a place at a grammar school for their selective kid.

As someone said, Newstead is 9 miles catchment so covers some of this area. And Olaves is purely on score.

My (anecdotal) thoughts having had a child sit bexley grammar exams and local independent schools last/this year is that Colfes probably wouldn't admit a child that had failed the Bexley test. It's now pretty competitive and on a par with the local grammars.

On the IoD I was looking at George Green's and Canary Wharf College. Bacon's in rotherhithe maybe too.