SE London Schools - Alleyn’s, St Dunstan’s, Colfe’s - 2026 entry

[hereandthere14]

Hi everyone,

I’m not sure if there’s already a thread for 2026 entry to the SE London schools, so I thought I’d check in. How is everyone getting on?
Our DD has just completed her first sports scholarship assessment for Alleyn’s and absolutely loved the experience. She came out beaming, which was lovely to see.
Would be great to hear how others are finding the process, and how your DCs are getting on with assessments and preparation for Alleyn’s, St Dunstan’s, Colfe’s, or any of the nearby schools.

Hi! I’ve been searching for a thread like this! Have you heard back from Colfes yet? I’ve been cheap long my email maniacally

The waiting time is a killer! Yes, we have heard back. My DD is doing the sports scholarship today. It’s likely that they have first notified the scholarship kids? Hope it won’t be long before you know.

St Dunstans you should know if you have an interview by now but don't get a final decision until the Friday before February half term.

We have an interview with SD next week and heard from Colfe’s today - DS is still being considered for a place but isn’t eligible for a means tested scholarship because he didn’t score in the top 15%.

Does anyone know how many Alleyn’s take to interview?

Best of luck to your DD!

I was searching for a thread like this! This is my first MN post so be gentle with me! We have an interview at St Dunstan's and at Dulwich College - feels like such a long process. We only applied to 2 and wasn't expecting to get this far so was pleasantly surprised to have an interview at both. Good luck to you all!

MN feels surprisingly quiet on these schools this year. We are also at St Dunstan’s next week. Good luck to your little one.

Thank you and you too!

My son’s interviewing for Dulwich next week. It’s our only independent school application. Took a punt on it after my son’s yr 5 teacher gently suggested he should try. Not having done all the tutoring that seems the norm for 11+ I’m thrilled that he’s made it this far.

But now I think I’m more nervous for the parent interview than my son’s.

We didn’t go down the tutoring route either - just went through a few past papers at half term which is why I was pleasantly surprised too! From what I’ve read/heard they don’t interview the parents it’s just an opportunity to speak to the head/senior staff and to ask any questions so don’t be nervous! Best of luck to your DS!

We also didn't go the tutoring route - glad there's a couple of us!

Good luck to everyone. My eldest is at St Dunstans and very happy, so my current year 6 DS applied. But he much prefers Forest Hill boys. Hopefully we’re not too far away to get in there.

We liked Forest Hill too. If you haven’t already seen it there’s a last admitted distance on the Lewisham website for last years’ intake which will give you an idea of whether you stand a chance - although I suspect the catchment will get smaller as it’s becoming more popular again…
https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/education/schools/school-admission/applying-to-start-secondary-school/school-admission-distance-map

Thank you. and good luck to yours too!

We’re the other way in Lambeth so our local choices are a bit rubbish. Cast a wider net for state schools.

Despite the distance we applied to Graveney. but I didn’t know that the Wandsworth test wasn’t curriculum based so we didn’t do any prep (lesson learned to look at practice papers fo the Dulwich test). Poor boy we a bit 😱 by the questions. He scored relatively high but not high enough based on previous years.

DS didn’t like Charter North or Dunraven. And Kingsdale is such a lottery (DS was reluctant about it too). The only schools he liked besides Dulwich were Graveney and Westminster City. I really liked both these too. So will be happy with either of those if he’s not offered Dulwich.

My daughter had her St Dunstan’s interview today and there were noticeably more boys than girls in her group. Was this just our slot, or is that fairly typical? Would be interested to hear others’ experiences.

Our son has his tomorrow so will let you know! How did it go? What were they asked to do?

Just had a quick look at the stats on the .gov school performance site and at the end of key stage 4 St D’s had 115 pupils, 71 of which were boys and 44 were girls so 62% boys, 38% girls - this isn’t the whole school only GCSE year but may be indicative??

Actually I’ve found the whole school data and it’s 46% girls and 54% boys overall on the roll. So more even though a slight boy bias.

How did your DD find the interview? We’ve got ours tomorrow- hoping it’s relaxed!

Thank you. That’s actually not too bad.

The lady who interviewed them was apparently lots of fun and friendly. My DD left in a good spirit. You will also have a chance to ask all sorts of questions. Good luck x

How's everyone doing?

DS's Dulwich interview was yesterday. He thinks he did well. I can see he's really trying to keep his excitement tamped down so he won't be disappointed if we don't get an offer.

I'm so proud of how well he's done regardless. His offer is bursary dependent so I've made sure to let him know in case we don't get one that it won't be because of his ability.

For those of you that have been through this before, how do you handle the wait until offers.

Fingers crossed for your DS! Such a massive feat to even pass the Dulwich exams!

How are we coping with the wait til offers?....Not well at all😂I've just had a bursary interview for St Dunstan's, which I was unreasonably nervous about. I'll be glad when March comes and we all know exactly where the kids are headed.

Bizarrely my DS is as cool as a cucumber, not phased in the slightest - which I'm quite happy about.

We had St Dunstan’s this week which seemed to go ok and then Dulwich next week. Any insights as to what they might ask for Dulwich much appreciated as it seems the interviews are quite different to St D’s.

The waiting feels like an eternity - still 3 weeks to go!!

Dulwich started with group chat of 7-8 biys with head of lower school. I chatted with her after and she said the boys are all so quiet so she tries to put them at ease (I really like her she’s been a big reason for our applying)

Then the boys go off for their individual interviews. So there are 8 different interviewer options. My son was with head of science/science teacher and said it was more of an oral exam rather than a lot of the questions about himself and the school. So mental maths problems and questions about some images. But he said it was fun and not stressful.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

(let me know if you get any questions in during the parent session or if yours was also dominated by a couple of parents 😂)