Brockley secondaries

[lazysummer]

Does anyone have experience of schools in Brockley? My daughter and family are looking to move there but she doesn’t know anything about the schools. The DC will be starting primary soon but they are hoping to be in the area long term. It’s Tressilian Road area of Brockley. Thanks in advance.

We are one stop further down, so possibly smoe overlap and some we won't have thought of.

This site gives you last distance offered places (these will change each year but will give an indication of chance of getting in via general applicaiton process):
lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/education/schools/school-admission/applying-to-start-secondary-school/school-admission-distance-map

I'm assuming state schools here. There are also some grammars out in Kent that some will commute to. You can also apply to schools outside of Lewisham.

There are some all boy, some all girl and some Co-Ed so if you can add if it's a girl or boy that can help narrow things.

Kingsdale is the only school I am aware of close enough that does not operate a catchment area.

Some schools allocate a percentage of places for those particularly talented academically, musically, art etc and they all seem to have slightly different criteria, but distance is the most common general one.

You can try the IloveSE4 fb page which may be able to help, as well as searching past threads on here for particular schools. The .gov website also has academic and other breakdowns of the schools.

When the time comes the best bit of advice is always to visit the schools - it really changed our minds both positively and negatively on some schools.

Thank you. My daughter will be sending her DCs to state school.

The catchment information is really helpful- thank you. She will be looking at co ed or boys’ state schools. Any information would be really useful. Thank you.

Prendergast has a good rep. I live on the border if Brockley. Join local fb groups and do some digging.

Thank you. Is Prendergast co ed?

@lazysummer prendergast ladywell is mixed, prendergast hilly fields is girls (I think).

I should add that i also see a number of girls walking from honor oak/brockley way towards harris girls' school East dulwich (located at the top of peckham rye park).

There are 3 Prendergasts.

1. Prendergast Hilly Fields is all girls
2. Prendergast Ladywell is co-ed. It's increased in popularity a lot, and catchment is much lower than previously, and the primary school is a feeder school for it.
3. Prendergast Vale is co-ed.

Other schools I think people will attend from Brockley will be:

Forest Hill Boys (boys only)
Harris Boys East Dulwich (boys only)
Kingsdale (co-ed).

I visited the last 3 listed and Prendergast Ladywell. Yiou'd have a good chance of getting into Forest Hill Boys and Harris East Dulwich I think, quite possibly out of catchment for Prendergast Ladywell and you Kingsdale is a lottery so you can't bank on it.

There will be other schools closer to Brockley we didn't look at.

They all have plus points and negative points academically, extra-curricular club wise, pastoral care and distance etc. A good school for one is a bad school for another based on the child's interests and strenghts in different areas.

My friend lives near there and absolutely loves it. The streets are gorgeous, the transport links great, they have a fabulous food market on the weekends, great community feel. The primary schools are excellent locally. The secondaries are mixed - some great, some average and catchments can change. Haberdasher Askes was the most in demand school years ago and after a blip, is on course to being very good again.

Yes you want to keep one eye on secondaries but I also wouldn’t stress over that given how young the DC are as school cohorts and heads can and do dramatically change every few years. If her number one priority is secondaries then she needs to look in Kent but only if it is highly likely that her DC will get into grammars which is tricky to determine if they’re only just primary age.

Thank you all. Very helpful.

I would dispute that it’s on course to being very good again! The admin is woeful (little wonder they were swindled a few years ago): www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2699331/amp/Nigerian-accountants-4million-fraud-academies-Gove-hailed-Staff-member-said-spent-cash-extravagant-lifestyle.html

They still have an issue with communicating with parents in a timely manner. They’ve changed heads multiple
times recently.

Trying to socially engineer/ethnically cleanse the intake by switching the feeder school to the Pepys Road primary rather than one in New Cross proper was not just immoral but has not worked. Many parents with DC in the leafy primary area have now decided it’s not worth going to the secondary. Bullying, lack of leadership and huge churn in teaching staff are still problematic.

My academic DS switched to Deptford Green for GCSEs. Best thing we ever did. All 8s and 9s. He was being distracted at Haberdasher’s and would not have got those grades. Has made lovely bunch of friends from Telegraph Hill and Brockley and Greenwich too.

We have several neighbours selling now on Telegraph Hill but there is little demand for their homes as school is not what it was.

@TelHillTubby I have heard very similar! We are just at the top pf peckham rye park (on the 343 bus route) and considered Habs but really not impressed at the open day or, frankly, the awful behaviour of some of the students we see round and about. I totally agree re your comments about the feeder school.

My DS goes to St Thomas the Apostle and, overall, we are happy with that. N0t a clue what we will do with our younger girls though.

I wonder whether Prendergast Ladywell is now on the way up seeing as the local area is increasingly gentrified. Still find the lack of decent secondary options especially for boys mistifying

I’ve heard good things about PL. Totally agree about the imbalance re girls/boys options locally.

Yes I think PL is on the up. The catchment is also big enough. A friend lives near Lewisham Way and sends her DS and DD there, even choosing it over Prendergast HF for her DD.

I think the complaints about there being more for girls than boys in terms of secondaries is a bit overblown as everyone seems to just be referring to Prendergast Hilly Fields for girls.

My son was up for a bursary for Dulwich College but for various reasons, we didn’t go for it. The school coach also doesn’t really stop near us (nearest stop was somewhere near Lewisham College). If boys are academic, there are other options, even if you are quite skint like we are. Eltham also offers good scholarships if you’re DS has a talent in sport or art or drama or music I think.

I don't think you will get in from Lewisham Way now. The catchment not that long ago was at least 5km, but it's now 1,030 metres (well for 2022) - I don't expect it's going to increase but obviously it depends on birth rates etc. We were in catchment for every year for the last 10 years but out would have been just out this year.

lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/education/schools/school-admission/applying-to-start-secondary-school/school-admission-distance-map

As I mentioned above, the primary is now a feeder school (and the primary was new itself, the first Y6 was only 1 or 2 years ago). It's definitely more popular for SE23 / SE4 parents and I guess is best described as becoming more of a local school school than it was before when kids came from quite far away.

I found the head really impressive, sounds like he is here to stay, I think it will get better and better. That does mean you won't get in if far away though (other than waiting list of any of the priority categories).

Where do boys go from Honor Oak Park?

I'd say the primary destination from Stillness was Prendergast Ladywell, and from Dalmain was Forest Hill Boys. I think this is partly due to catchment also (lots of girls from Dalmain go to Sydenham Girls), quite a few girls from Stillness go to Prendergast Ladywell now as well.

A few go to Harris East Dulwich and Kingsdale. I am sure there are quite a few other destinations but I believe those are the most common destinations (completely anecdotally from speaking to other parents etc).

I expect some will go to grammars in Kent (I only heard of girls going though, though know kids from my son's football team who went, from elsewhere in Lewisham though).

Some will go to St Dunstan's or Colfe's (private schools) also.

Thank you. This is very useful.

Don’t forget that the catchments for the current Year 7s will be the smallest ever as it coincides with the explosion in birth rate. It has dropped off since in a big way.

Despite this, around a significant number of my DS friends made it into grammars from Tel Hill.

@lazysummer We are actually quite spoilt for choice if you go and see the schools for yourself. Really remember though that if the DC are just starting primary school (twins?!) the state schools
will change dramatically. I love the views from where we are but I would look around more at the Brockley Conservation Area. Better transport links and closer to shops and lovely big roads. If your DC wants a spacious flat, look around Breakspears Road. If they’re bankers, there are houses there for over £2m that are forever style homes! If they want houses on leafy streets, Tyrwhitt Road, Hilly Fields Crescent, Drake, Avon and Darling Roads are lovely. Lewisham town centre has just been given £20million for an upgrade around the market area (which I quite like as it is! So useful). Bakerloo line may also extend to Lewisham which means there is growth to be had in prices, despite the best efforts of the government to crash the economy.

(Sorry I assumed they were buying as you mentioned they want to be there long term. Rent is very expensive - I would look at Crofton Park/Ladywell if renting. Not sure what budget is if buying but plenty of houses for 800k-1million though they’re not a patch on Hilly Fields area or Tel Hill (though ours tend to be narrower).

If secondary schools are needed urgently and the grandkids are definitely academic, Hayes is a good bet but it’s much further out and very suburban.

How confident are we that Prendergast Ladywell is improving? Whenever I see kids being little sh**s terrorising people on the buses or skiving and eating crap in the middle of the day, the uniform is always Prendergast Ladywell’s.
Although we love living in Crofton P the behaviour from kids at these school made us low level assume we’d want to move eventually for a good mixed state secondary (DS is only 2). But happy to be proven wrong.
There doesn’t seem to be be he many secondaries at all in Ladywell / Honor Oak / Crofton Park / Brockley…

@sellotape12 I’d watch and see for now. As your DC get older you’ll have a more contextual view of older kids’ behaviour, and you’ll start to meet people at primary school with older children at this or that high school.

(I live in the area and I expect that PL will continue to improve, especially given the intake from the primary feeder.)

Yes that’s true, and it might just be me being totally naive that my little angel won’t himself being an awful teenage boy one day 😂. I think it’s just that both my husband and myself remember the highs and lows of high school. It’s such a delicate time for adolescence. My husband’s life definitely took a downturn because of the school he ended up in, and in the opposite direction, my life took an uptick because an amazing high school pulled me out of (the challenges of) poverty.

But - not sure why we are worrying about this now. It’s because we don’t know whether to try and move to a bigger place in the early years of messy parenting or wait until the end of junior. But first world problems!

@sellotape12 obviously I don't know exactly where you are and your situation, genders of other children etc - but fwiw we ended up hedging our bets, albeit in the other (geographical) direction. Stayed in SE14 long enough to get DC1 into Habs primary (which we love - though I note the concern of the PP above re the secondary), and then moved into Brockley near Prendergast. You might consider similar - stay long enough to get DC into whichever Prendergast is a feeder to the high school, then move out. Come high school, if their admissions policies haven't changed and you haven't moved somewhere un-commutable, you can choose whether to apply to Prendergast or a nearer school.

But more generally - the nearer my own child gets to secondary the calmer I feel about all the local options.