Dulwich Village Infants / Hamlet - experiences or advice?

[Evaexpat1]

Hi all - after an insane amount of stress because of an unexpected move, we now have TWO good schools to choose from - Dulwich Village Infants and Bessemer Grange. The former was unexpectedly offered today, after I already sort of fell in love with Bessemer Grange.

We are NOT religious and our boy will only have turned 4 when he starts - he's bi/trilingual (Danish/English and passive German). Guys, I just don't know which school to choose! I know DV outperforms BG academically quite significantly, but considering how young our son is, I also just want him to... you know, be happy and play outside (which he loooooooooves) . BG seems the better fit for that - or am I wrong about that?

We also live outside the current and last catchment areas for Dulwich Hamlet - does anyone know how that works out? We're new to the UK and to London.. TIA!

Hi- I'm local - and both are very good schools. When you mean you are out of catchment is this for the junior school? Well dulwich hamlet does very well, I would say that BG does v well with a much more mixed intake than Dulwich hamlet so potentially is a better school. A lot of Dulwich will be tutored as well for private schools so this will also skew data. If you like BG go with it - you know your child best

BG has the most amazing playground! I used to go to the children's centre a lot when my eldest was a baby and I was always impressed by the school's facilities which you could see. They do outdoor learning in the woods too.

I am currently looking at schools for Sept 2017. We're out of catchment for DH and BG would be a bit of a trek (although v handy for commuting from Denmark Hill for me!) so I haven't been to either school. You could try posting in the Family Room section of the East Dulwich Forum for a range of local views...