finding Y8 place in SE London

[lilalien]

Hi - moving to SE London at Easter from the country so will need a Y8 place for DD. She's currently at a state grammar school but I'd be happy with a good state comprehensive. Can't afford and don't agree with private.
She's bright (but a bit lazy), quite sporty and loves drama.
Any suggestions? Is this going to be as hard as I think it is?

Are you going to look for a school place first and then decide where to live? I'm not sure if you can get a firm offer of a place until you have an address, which is a bit chicken and egg.

In my part of SELondon the comprehensive schools to look at would include Prendergast Hilly Fields (girls only - good on languages, quite good on music and sport), Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham (mixed but girls are taught separately from boys from Y7-Y11 - very strong on music and sport), Thomas Tallis (mixed - takes children from Blackheath, good reputation for arty stuff), Charter (mixed, don't know about the extra-curricular stuff). Faith schools are out of my ken, but also worth a look. You could look at the grammar schools in outer London but my impression is that it's pretty difficult to get a place in year 8 in any of them. Your best bet might be to have a good look at the comprehensive schools in Bromley and Sutton, which are less polarised than the ones in Inner London - more like grammar schools in many cases, I would expect.

Good luck!

It depends very much on exactly where you are going to live. The good schools, mostly, have tiny catchment areas. SE London is too broad a starting point.

I can't imagine you'd get a place at Haberdasher's in Yr8, it's one of the most over-subscribed schools in the country. Knights Academy is a school Haberdashers took over which is also now very popular but probably not as hideously difficult to get into. 'Good' schools are generally very oversubscribed in SE London, but there is also a lot of movement so you may get lucky. If you can be more specific about the area you are looking at I can maybe offer some more ideas.

Thanks all - well, I've been looking at Lewisham as the schools seem to be improving there but have taken a peek at Bromley too. You're right, LondonMother, it is a bit chicken and egg, we could live anywhere in SE london for my work. Guess I'll have to investigate which schools have places and choose from within those.

Wish me luck!