How is Dulwich Village Infants School?

[Southeastmum00]

Hi there, curious to hear how parents are finding the Dulwich Village Infants School? We have a child at DUCKs and are thinking of sending our youngest into Dulwich Village Infants... it's about 1 year away. We would plan on trying our youngest at 11+ for the local independent schools - provided they are willing to do the work!

Would welcome any experiences from current parents - We went on a tour of the school and were told they have increased their catchment area to 3 times the initial radius as they are getting less of an intake of students (due to out of London moves etc).

--> How is the community feel - what % of the parents live close by?
--> If you have a child in this school and another in independent school, would also love to hear if you see any differences. Particularly re supporting/supplementing their learning at home.

Caveat: I didn't grow up in the UK so please excuse some possibly obvious questions for many of you who might have grown up here :)

It’s a lovely, community school. Almost all the children live in Dulwich or Herne Hill and walk/cycle to school, but the catchment has definitely expanded further into East Dulwich and Herne Hill recently. The head Helen Poyton is fantastic and creates a really warm positive feel.

That said, it’s not going to be like DUCKs or the other local prepreps. It is a state school with state funding, classes of 30 and all the normal challenges. They (quite rightly) won’t prepare your child for 7+ (or 11+ at Dulwich Hamlet junior school ) and you’ll need to organise that outside of school with tutors, or putting time in yourself. Lots of kids do move to private schools at 7 or 11 so it’s very doable. We have been really happy with our children’s experiences at DVIS and the Hamlet. It’s just important to be realistic about the resource differences between state and private.

Thanks appreciate your time and perspective !

Hi, we have a DD there and we love it. Our older DD was also there for YR2.
As above, great head, generally lovely staff, open communication, plenty for families to get involved with. Most families are local to the school so walk/scoot/cycle which helps with play dates, parties etc.
Happy to pm with more info :)

@Southeastmum00 - check whether there is automatic entry to Hamlet Junior school. Previously, you had to apply for y3 entry and it was by catchment area, which can be different from DVI so no guarantee of a place but this may have since changed.

Lots of the local children go to the Dulwich private schools when they would easily get into the DVI and Hamlet and the socioeconomic cohort of both sectors are similar - the private schools seem more ethnically diverse than DVI/Hamlet. So maybe something worth considering/exploring.

I think the previous comment is slightly out of date. DVIS and the Hamlet used to be less diverse ethnically and socially but as the catchment has increased are now just as or more diverse ethnically as private sector locally and certainly more diverse in terms of socio-economic factors. I have kids from reception to year 8 so have watched the change over the years.

there isn’t automatic transfer to the Hamlet so if you were planning to move further out that could be a problem at 7. I haven’t known anyone miss out on a year 3 place coming from the infants for several years now though.