Secondary school options in SW London... losing sleep!

[Tisane]

Hi all, have namechanged in an attempt to feel better about putting so much identifying info on the net - couldn't resist as tying myself in knots over this whole thing and you all seem so knowlegable.

DS is 9, year 5 of good (for the area), state primary. He is academically very capable. We are looking to start kumon as he is especially good at maths and school is not stretching him as yet (could be a new year issue as he has always been put in additional/accelerated maths before).

We live in Clapham, SW4. Near Clapham North/Wandsworth Road. The 'plan' was to move before DS hit secondary school age or to pay for ind/private school but for various reasons moving will be completely impossible and finding full school fees may well be too. Certainly the option of sending DS to a 'not very competitive' fee-paying school feels like something we cannot afford.

The Good Schools Guide catchment area tool is depressing; only state schools nearby which seem halfway decent are Graveny and Dunraven, both of which are quite far away. A far closer (and therefore more likely?) prospect is Lambeth Academy which doesn't fill me with joy.

We are dithering between throwing everything we can at tutoring DS with a view to trying for a grammar school or ind/private school (the only two I can think of nearby are Emmanuel and Dulwich College), and doing what we can for fees, or taking our chances and getting DS help while he's at state school.

He's a sensitive soul though and I am a bit worried about the social aspect.

Can anyone help me with options I may not have considered? May be eligable for bursaries but am not sure want to put DS through the pressure of trying for a scholarship (I went to SPGS and have very mixed feelings). Is hard to know without trying past papers etc if DS will take to 11+-style teaching/learning.

When we go to apply for secondary schools, what happens if he doesn't get into any? Do we put fee-paying schools on the same form? I was thinking about applying to a couple of grammars and then the better schools which are further away but presumably there's a chance he may not get into any?

Can anyone help? The change in circumstance has been swift and brutal and I am a bit at sea really.

Another positive word for Lambeth Academy. I am in the sasme area as the OP, and similar issues but a year or so behind. The playground chat is not good about LA - many people beginning to move away to avoid it. However, it is true that at least for my friends who are moving away they have not actually visited.

I know two families with children there, both think its great. One has had a string of excellent GSCEs and is pushing for top universities.

The exam results are bad when taken as absolute, but not all things are equal. However, you need to remember this is a very inclusive school. There are huge number of special needs children who - no matter which school they were at - would likely not receive the 5GSCEs. There are huge number of children from families that might otherwise be described as unsupportive or perhaps deprived. These will of course depress the test results - and it is wrong to simply compare this with the Graveneys of the world which are at least partly selective academically and wholly selective socially (on grounds of the inflated property price in catchment), and so on....

What is more important is to judge (and league tables do not do that) whether your children can do what they are capable of at this school. If the child is capable of getting 4 As at A level, will they get them here. Lambeth Academy now does banded entry (discussed above) in order to compete with the other local schools which do the same, and there is streaming/setting so that different abilities each get appropriate extension and guidance.

I know you have visited, and so have reached your own view- great that's how it should be.

Its just that I am a little fed up with people writing it off on the back of playground gossip. (Not you, as I say!)

Yikes. Excuse the typos!