Beckenham Schools St Davids Prep or Bishop Challoner

[Noli23]

Hi all, looking for advice pls.

Our dd is currently in nursery at Bishop Challoner and absolutely loves it. We can see how much she has come along since we moved her there and she is realy happy, learning alot and thriving.

We also put her forward for St Davids and she's been offered a place (we've paid the deposit and accepted just so we have the option).

She's now due to start reception in September and we're realy torn about which one to send her to.

We know that St Davids probably has a better rep academically (and is a better place to prep her for a good grammar/private for high school which is hopefully the plan in the long run), but she's so happy at BC and we love that it is quite a mixed school with great pastoral care and staff that really seem to know and care alot about the kids.

The senior schol seems to go a bit downhill so the plan is to move her away at age 7 or 11.

I suppose the question is to hear from people who know either or both of the schools and get some thoughts about the pros and cons of each one, or just some general thoughts. We of course want her to get a great education but also want it to be somewhere caring, inclusive and positive.

Thanks

Are they both just as easy to get to? If equidistant I'd probably keep her where she's settled and happy personally. This is primary school ; I can't really imagine that there's a great difference academically between two good independent schools at this age. OTOH the advantage of a Prep school is that they will help your child with entrance preparation for whichever secondary school they apply to, whereas the junior school with its own secondary has no incentive to do that. But - you can do that prep work yourself with some Bond books after school, in year 5.
If the prep school is heavy on homework I'd avoid personally as there is plenty of research suggesting that it has little benefit at primary age.
I think I'd choose the primary school according to what she needs right now, rather than second guessing what she will need in 5 yrs, but that's just me.