Started Year 5 today....South London Secondary advice needed!

[BoringSchoolChoiceNickname]

DD has now started year 5 so I can no longer stick my fingers in my ears and sing "la la la" about secondary school choices - I have to start going to open days, and decide whether we need to tutor, or move, and which of the umpteen local aptitude tests are of interest (a bit too late for a Damascene conversion apparently)

I know the Lambeth and Wandsworth schools list backwards, but I've now done the government website search by distance and half the closest schools are Southwark or Westminster, so I need to know more from the experts.....

Just how small is the Charter catchment?

Is Pimlico Academy any good, and how small is its catchment?

Greycoat's publicity makes it look very religious indeed. If my atheist DD managed to get in on a languages place, would she be made to feel hugely out of place?

And given that DD is definitely academic in inclination, should I cross any school without a sixth form off the list?

Oh I'm sure it's only some (and it's probably one group ), and by all accounts the school is doing brilliantly academically, so it's even more of a shame that this one aspect still needs sorting. Although I say that, it might have sort itself out - new school year, who knows. When we first got a flat in Streatham we had a problem with BTG children using our stairwell to sneak crafty cigarettes at lunch time (we lived about 5 minutes away from the school) and we also had our windows smashed a few times. BTG got it all under control eventually, it's still not my cup of tea as a school, but I can't fault how well they (appear to) behave now.

Lambeth Academy not mentioned as yet. Anyone got any news about how that is doing these days? That is also starting to admit by banded testing I think to compete with Dunraven etc on ensuring it gets a full spread of child.

I know (and have posted before) that it gets bad press, but I do know a few children there who do seem to be happy (and their parents).

Elm Green is also very popular - a friend has a boy there and is very impressed, and that's not far from the Kingsdale / Charter area.

re Graveney- actually the change to the sibling rule isn't making much of a difference at all. Remember that siblings still get if their older bro/sis got in on distance. also - the small gap that opened up as a result of this has just been closed again by families moving into the area or worse still renting for 6 months to get in on location. it is rife around here. i live in furzedown but we are not sure of a place. 761 metres for the 2011 intake.

The intake that have just started are the last year to get in as siblings of those who gained places as a result of the test.

madgirl do you think the school connives at the renting for six months thing? You would think there are ways of checking

Unless your child is in one of the selective top two streams, what are the advantages of Graveney over other schools? Surely it's good results are due to the selective intake?

Well I guess there's only so much 'checking' regarding renting that you can do without disadvantaging parents who genuinely rent privately as their sole address.

I have heard (rumour) of over-subscribed schools that do require you to prove that you will be at your current address for 12 months after application. Even if I lived on the doorstep of a school like that, I would fail that test as my landlord will only do 6 month's lease at a time, and my last tenancy was a 'rolling tenancy' which meant that my landlord could end my tenancy at any time with two months notice, so I would have failed then as well.

But I guess as long as the property owning classes can buy their way into the good state schools then all is OK...

The whole system is a mess isn't it.

I just wondered because I have heard it mentioned that some schools are very strict about checking. I have never heard that Graveney is.

Cynically, I expect it suits some schools not to check too strictly, if the right kind of parents are getting their children into the school.

(This is NOT a reference to any particular school on this thread btw, and certainly not Graveny, whose appication process I don't know much about.)

EssW2 that isn't necessarily the case. If someone got in on the test in 2007 and they have a bro/sis 5/6 years younger that sibling would still get in. It's only siblings of children who got in on the test post 2008 who would not. And yes, they do call it a school of two halves....

Every school presumably wants children whose families are committed to the importance of their education, and temporary renting definitely proves that - whatever the costs to social justice.

yes i agree, and who's to say i wouldn't do it if i had the cash?

Yes, it's not a school's fault that they need to compete for the 'right' intake in order to survive, nor would I actually blame any one for doing what they reasonably could to get their child into the right school for them.

It is all a bit of a wretched mess though - you are doing the right thing by trying to get handle on it from Year 5! Though that does mean you will have an extra year of being confronted by what a palaver it all is.

I like what I know of Evelyn Grace - DD has friends there & they seem quite happy. I think it would a struggle for the terminally rebellious, but fine for a child who can see that the discipline is there for a reason. AFAIK it's catchment is shrinking year by year as it gets more popular, but you can still get in from a fair distance away.

Be warned that a lot can change in 2 years though, with schools suddenly becoming flavour of the month & applications going into overdrive.

Thanks for that clarification, Madgirl.

I also have had reports (from a staff member) that Evelyn Grace is doing an excellent job. The Head is very impressive.

I agree there is much madness over getting into Graveney and the system is far from perfect.

But as the school points out, with the current system and at least in theory, a bright child from, say, Brixton, has a chance of getting a place. It's not just open to bright children whose parents can affort to catchment-rent or buy houses in the streets nearby.

sorry, but Graveney catchment is much bigger than it used to be .. used to be insane, especially when 30% of children were admitted on the test plus test siblings. Now it's 25% selection and no (more) test siblings and it has had a noticeable effect on the size of the catchment. E.g. a couple of years ago dc at my kids' primary were in no way guaranteed a place, and once you got outside 500m that was pretty much it. When we moved here 10 years ago the family opposite us only got their dc in on appeal, this year all of our primary's y6 got a place at Graveney if they wanted it, including dc from the other side of Mitcham Lane.