Sydenham School & Prendergast Hilly Fields, SE London

Apologies for multiple messages- couldn't work out how to post two images.

Replying as we were in a similar dilemma as you last year. My daughter will be starting secondary next September and we decided not to move in the end, but that was unrelated to schools as we loved both and felt like a well-supported kid would do well in both. We also know children at both who are very happy so felt reassured by that. I don't think the student populations seem drastically different - the first is Prendergast the second Sydenham from gov compare website.

I have boys but I know many girls who have gone to Sydenham and done extremely well. Hopefully someone with first hand experience will post soon.

My daughter is in her 30s now but she went to Prendergast. A great deal will have changed since then but I can confirm that the split site is really not an issue. We regularly walk through the park at changeover time and I feel it's good for the girls (and the Sixth Form boys) to get the chance to stretch their legs walking up and down the hill between the two sites (which are extremely close together, far closer than most split site schools). They also get plenty of exercise going up the stairs in the main building which from memory are quite steep!

I would hazard a guess that the difference in results has a great deal to do with catchment and smaller year groups. Houses and flats close enough to Prendergast to guarantee a place there are now eyewateringly expensive. There's some social housing, but I would think greatly outnumbered by owner occupied and privately rented dwellings. Most girls will be coming from families with the income and educational background to give a lot of support to their children.

I can't offer any experience of Sydenham because my DDs went to Prendergast. One stayed on for sixth form, the other left at the end of Y11 to do sixth form elsewhere.

The intake at Prendergast is half the size of that at Sydenham. They are schools with a similar history but Sydenham takes almost double the number of girls as Prendergast does. When we looked at schools for DD1, we visited and liked both schools and would have been happy to have been allocated either. For us, the key advantage Prendergast had was that we live within walking distance so as well as being convenient and meaning our DDs' friends are mostly local, DD1 wouldn't have got into Sydenham on distance anyway.

My DDs have done well at Prendergast and it was a good school for both of them. The teachers (including science) are subject specialists who know their stuff and build positive relationships with their students. All the students are expected to take a language for GCSE and most will do combined science (triple is offered to a single class of students). GCSE further maths is an after school club available to those in the highest maths set. I don't know if Sydenham does any of those things differently.

The split site at Prendergast was something both of mine considered to be a positive. It means the timetable is organised so most lessons are doubles e.g. double English - break - double history - lunch - double biology. There are fewer transitions and also fewer books to lug up and down the hill. The DD who moved for sixth form has found it strange to feel locked in to one site for the whole day and also to have six shorter lessons.