Best London state secondary school in your opinion?

You’ve got Bow School not far away. Most schools in Newham are decent.

Interesting!
It makes send wrt Elmgreen (now run by Dunraven Trust) which always struggled being so close to Dunraven, which remained/s the go-to choice of most Streatham side families.

I can see Lambeth is concerned about falling rolls, they undertook a schools building programme over the last 12 years or so Evelyn Grace, City Heights, Woodmansterne, Trinity in Brixton sprang up, but Le Retraite, long-standing high achieving school, has been able to admit way down the admissions criteria. St Martin’s girls has closed.

Southwark have no LA run / community schools for secondary.

@TakenRoot my error it was a head from the Dunraven trust. But Lambeth is worried as 16 heads have signed a petition because Lambeth is heavily impacted by the falling rolls.

Kingsdale are being preemptive, they know they need to get more funding & attract a bigger % of pupils as there are less of them around.

schoolsweek.co.uk/heads-revolt-over-planned-expansion-of-london-school/

Kingsdale’s expansion would have to be immense to leave Dunraven under-subscribed. Especially as Kingsdale’s intake isn’t geographically defined.

The frenzy for Kingsdale is because people who are not in catchment for a decent secondary are in with an equal chance at Kingsdale, and they could get two goes: Lottery and Scholarship. Families local to Dunraven, the Charter schools etc don’t need to join the frenzy (or swap a local walk for the meandering P13 bus). Some may put Kingsdale first as they do now if they have a particular interest in one of the scholarships or just prefer the school. But Dunraven has a fantastic music department anyway .

No I totally get that. It would frustrate me if I lived next door and didn’t get in. I’d heard they were going to close it down years ago when it wasn’t popular and gave them some time to turn it round so created the scholarships and made the catchment nonexistent to try and get numbers up and attract from further afield but local primary schools would be fairer now that it’s so popular.

@PeckhamPam I just get a bit irritated by Kingsdale’s lottery admissions which makes me have a (probably irrational) dislike of it.
I don’t think it’s fair that a child that lives miles away on the other side of London has an equal chance of a place than someone who lives next door. Parents apply for the school even though they live miles away because of it’s reputation meaning local children end up missing out and they in turn have to travel miles to get to a school. It’s all a bit daft.
I believe they are changing to having some local primary’s as feeder schools though - so things might change.

Yep it is just a school, but my kids love it. They also had a recent Ofsted who upheld the Outstanding status. Not that Ofsted always get it right (!) but it’s one indicator and that’s recent. Of course we are lucky that there’s lots of other schools in the area too who probably offer similar provision. We also have friends whose children enjoy going to Charter North and Sydenham Girls.

@PeckhamPam most of the parents I
know whose children go there do like the school and their children have done/are doing fine but they wouldn’t say it’s the most amazing school in London. It’s just a school.

Well I don’t really have anything it to compare to but our two are having a great experience at Kingsdale. One with SEND going into Y13 but had small classes for maths leading up to GCSE. It is big in terms of intake I agree but I think as a plus it means they all seem to find their tribe. They’ve also had some amazing trips - Paris, Berlin, Brussels for Science and Pompeii for Latin. We’ve contacted school in the past to ask about certain things we were not sure about and always had someone ring us - the staff seem to work around the clock! Sadly neither are doing music anymore but they’ve benefited in the past from being part of some great concerts too and both loved learning to play steel pans.

its defo a good school & in bit of a blackspot for good schools so parents tend to get a bit evangelical about getting in. It wants to expand which is pissing off other heads eg Dunraven as I assume they are scared they will lose future pupils.

I wouldn't say Kingsdale was one of the best London schools.

Interesting, @Needmorelego

@HarrietJet yes Kingsdale is huge but apparently the individual classes are small. I know some teens who go/went there. I don’t know if they still do but they were doing GCSEs over 3 years so options were taken in Year 8. Apparently one problem with having so many classes was some hadn’t even done some of the subjects that are taught on a “carousel” system - like Food Tech, Art subjects, DT subjects. So they were being expected to choose options having no experience of some subjects and wouldn’t know if they enjoy the subject or are any good at it - because their class hadn’t done them.
Most of the parents and children I know who have experience of Kingsdale say it’s “ok…but nothing amazingly different to other schools in the area”.

Small classes?? Isn't it one of the biggest schools in London?

Kingsdale is an Outstanding state school in Dulwich/Gipsy Hill. No catchment and not a faith school. We have been so impressed with the small classes and opportunities that would rival any private school anywhere tbh.

I usually work on the assumption that there's one state secondary school for about every 10k of the population, which means hundreds upon hundreds in London. as others have pointed out, very few people are in a position to be very familiar with much more than a handful of these. I agree with the comments that most of the highest achieving comps are church (plus the of odd synagogue etc) schools. a few such as the London Oratory are well known enough to have been widely heard of outside of its local area. not many others are.

A lot of the schools mentioned on this thread really aren’t up there as “best London secondary schools”. Just looks like posters recommending random schools around London.

The best options are going to be faith schools and the advantage of that is you can live a bit further away.

The Yr 7 ‘last distance’ for Chestnut Grove is quite small and getting smaller. As it happens I know several Balham home owners with kids in CG.

I know plenty that don't send their dc there... Wandsworth has a high % in private at secondary & loads tutor for Graveney or grammars & then many just leave.

Also, this is London. Multi-million pound houses are next to LA estates.

And why so many panic about state comps

As I said, the OP needs somewhere she can access a few ‘good enough’ schools within potential travel distance.

That's pretty difficult in London though although easier if you can access faith schools, eg if you are aiming for Chestnut Grove, there aren't many other options.

I agree, it probably isn’t.

But the whole notion of ‘the best secondary in London’ is ridiculous.

But those that would have parents chivvying for their school to take the title probably attract a wealthier than usual average demographic.

But the OP hasn’t given us an indication of her housing budget.

Also, this is London. Multi-million pound houses are next to LA estates.

The Yr 7 ‘last distance’ for Chestnut Grove is quite small and getting smaller. As it happens I know several Balham home owners with kids in CG.

As I said, the OP needs somewhere she can access a few ‘good enough’ schools within potential travel distance.

there even

And the people who buy in Balham & spend 1m plus on their homes generally aren't sending their dc their!

There's nothing wrong with Chesnut Grove but it's no way considered to be one of the best secondary schools in London!

Oh yes, sorry,
But if you moved to that general locality you could also see if there was a place at Chestnut Grove, a well thought of comprehensive in Balham.

Also you ideally want a school that's full/oversubscribed due to falling pupil rolls & the way funding is dictated by headcounts.