Lambeth Academy and SW London alternatives

[TheWomanOnTheBus]

Need to chose a school for DC and as I live in Clapham I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of Lambeth Academy?

What other (state) alternatives would people recomend? Stockwell? Pimlico?

Kingsdale gets good press - but the lottery makes it all so uncertain, and not sure there are many people from Clapham who go there.

Don't go to Lambeth Academy. The students behaviour is absolutely terrible. My friend worked as a supply teacher and hated it so much that she left after a week, even though she needed the money.

Are you close enough to Graveney?
Boy or Girl? Have you got the religious criteria for Archbishop Tennison or La Retraite?
Chestnut Grove in Balham has a very good reputation, as has Dunraven, Streatham. Where do other children from your DC school go?

Have a friend with child in y7 at Lambeth academy- going fine so far (child is bright and diligent, learning mandarin there!)
I'd go and have a look around with an open mind.

My DS is in Year 8 at LA and he loves it there. There are some kids who are disruptive there, but the teachers are great. My DS is academic and he'll have the opportunity to do the 3 science GCSEs. He's learning 2 foreign languages. They've got an orchestra and very good music facilities. If you look at their website, you can get a very good idea of the subjects for each year. They are a fairly new school, so the children who started when the school started are finishing their A-levels this year. Some of them have done very well. Pastoral care at the school is fantastic.
However, if you want to teach there, you've got to be very good at crowd control, especially with the younger ones. The school is definitely improving and you get a very positive feeling when you visit.

Thanks to all. Yes, will go look with an open mind. Most kids from the primary go far and wide. The playground gossip is along the lines of forehead's comments above, but I suspect that it is all pretty unfair. Not many parents who say such things have visited.

Not close enough to Graveney. (And not going to do the short-term let thing that others seem to do from my area.) No religion (and not going to miraculously find god either). Chestnut Grove is possible, but touch and go on distance for us claphamites it seems. Dunraven even more difficult.

Have a couple of years to mull it over (aka "stress to high heaven") ... just planning ahead.

Just bumping this up to see if anyone has any recent experience of this school since the last post over a year ago.

My DS is now at end of Year 9 at LA, still enjoying school. There is a new head-teacher who started at Xmas. The English dept got Ofsted oustanding earlier this year. The school is very diverse and also very inclusive, and yes there are plenty of disruptive kids. By Year 9 they have pretty much settled down in the main academic subjects. The problem lessons for my DS's form are subjects like Drama and Music (god help any supply who gets one of those classes), whereas Maths and Geography have been great. They are in different groups for most subjects by now because of setting in some subjects and because they get to choose some optional subjects in Year 9. His levels for starting Gcses are pretty good and I think he'll do well, if he gets his head down and puts in the effort.

There has been quite a lot of building work this year to improve facilities - quite funny when you think it was a brand new building only 8 years ago.

I think that it's a happy school, on the whole. I would definitely recommend a visit. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for your comments. I will then have a look around!

Hi all. Can I reanimate this and ask similar current advice? Daughter only yr 4 but we are moving house by choice, and can't afford to move more than once, so need to think about a school at this move!

We are thinking Lambeth Academy for my DD. I've heard good things. I'd think that she'd be well in the top 25% of their new banding system, and I just want to know a) 'Thewomanonthebus' ended up wih LA or somewhere else and are they happy wih choice, and b) if anyone knows ROUGHLY how far the catchment goes for that band? Or any relevant information at all! The school won't say and the borough don't hold the info cos it's an Academy.

Thank you!