Best London state secondary school in your opinion?

[Simplegal]

I’m overwhelmed with school choices for a Year 10 entry for my DD into an Co-Ed state secondary school. We have a last minute, frantic move to London from abroad and looking for entry for my DD. Somewhere within 30-60 mins travel to Canary Wharf? Open to faith schools as she has been in a traditional catholic school previously. We haven’t even started the accommodation hunt just focusing on schools first! Please comment if you love your school! Thank you!

St. Ursula's admission criteria are quite clear??

Recent research shows that Local Authority schools are outperforming academies.

All schools' admissions oversubscription criteria has to be clear. Places are ranked and offered in the order of the Law (EHCP first, then Looked After/adopted from care - can be Looked After of the Faith), then whatever the criteria is - Catholic observant/not, sibling, other evidenced faith, performance in 11+ in applicable areas, attending feeder schools, etc, with a distance tiebreaker in each ranking as per the Law.

Schools aren't undersubscribed until they fail to meet PAN.

Do you have a source for this? I'd be interested in reading it. I live in an area considered good for schools and they are nearly academies.

La Retraite in Clapham / Streatham has always done really well, and recently I saw was not oversubscribed. It is girls only but it might be needs must for a couple of years.

Also Bishop Thomas Grant is a Co-Ed catholic school in Streatham. Other local schools with a good reputation are Dunraven, and increasingly the Norwood school.

You don’t need ‘the best school’, you need a good enough school that will teach the National Curriculum to a standard that fulfils your DD’s potential in an environment in which she is happy.

Yes, I believe La Retraite is wonderful.

Thank you

La Retraite is Balham/Clapham borders, not Streatham!

Also you ideally want a school that's full/oversubscribed due to falling pupil rolls & the way funding is dictated by headcounts.

Oh yes, sorry,
But if you moved to that general locality you could also see if there was a place at Chestnut Grove, a well thought of comprehensive in Balham.

There's nothing wrong with Chesnut Grove but it's no way considered to be one of the best secondary schools in London!

And the people who buy in Balham & spend 1m plus on their homes generally aren't sending their dc their!

there even

I agree, it probably isn’t.

But the whole notion of ‘the best secondary in London’ is ridiculous.

But those that would have parents chivvying for their school to take the title probably attract a wealthier than usual average demographic.

But the OP hasn’t given us an indication of her housing budget.

Also, this is London. Multi-million pound houses are next to LA estates.

The Yr 7 ‘last distance’ for Chestnut Grove is quite small and getting smaller. As it happens I know several Balham home owners with kids in CG.

As I said, the OP needs somewhere she can access a few ‘good enough’ schools within potential travel distance.

The Yr 7 ‘last distance’ for Chestnut Grove is quite small and getting smaller. As it happens I know several Balham home owners with kids in CG.

I know plenty that don't send their dc there... Wandsworth has a high % in private at secondary & loads tutor for Graveney or grammars & then many just leave.

Also, this is London. Multi-million pound houses are next to LA estates.

And why so many panic about state comps

As I said, the OP needs somewhere she can access a few ‘good enough’ schools within potential travel distance.

That's pretty difficult in London though although easier if you can access faith schools, eg if you are aiming for Chestnut Grove, there aren't many other options.

The best options are going to be faith schools and the advantage of that is you can live a bit further away.

A lot of the schools mentioned on this thread really aren’t up there as “best London secondary schools”. Just looks like posters recommending random schools around London.

I usually work on the assumption that there's one state secondary school for about every 10k of the population, which means hundreds upon hundreds in London. as others have pointed out, very few people are in a position to be very familiar with much more than a handful of these. I agree with the comments that most of the highest achieving comps are church (plus the of odd synagogue etc) schools. a few such as the London Oratory are well known enough to have been widely heard of outside of its local area. not many others are.

Kingsdale is an Outstanding state school in Dulwich/Gipsy Hill. No catchment and not a faith school. We have been so impressed with the small classes and opportunities that would rival any private school anywhere tbh.

Small classes?? Isn't it one of the biggest schools in London?

@HarrietJet yes Kingsdale is huge but apparently the individual classes are small. I know some teens who go/went there. I don’t know if they still do but they were doing GCSEs over 3 years so options were taken in Year 8. Apparently one problem with having so many classes was some hadn’t even done some of the subjects that are taught on a “carousel” system - like Food Tech, Art subjects, DT subjects. So they were being expected to choose options having no experience of some subjects and wouldn’t know if they enjoy the subject or are any good at it - because their class hadn’t done them.
Most of the parents and children I know who have experience of Kingsdale say it’s “ok…but nothing amazingly different to other schools in the area”.

Interesting, @Needmorelego

I wouldn't say Kingsdale was one of the best London schools.

its defo a good school & in bit of a blackspot for good schools so parents tend to get a bit evangelical about getting in. It wants to expand which is pissing off other heads eg Dunraven as I assume they are scared they will lose future pupils.

Well I don’t really have anything it to compare to but our two are having a great experience at Kingsdale. One with SEND going into Y13 but had small classes for maths leading up to GCSE. It is big in terms of intake I agree but I think as a plus it means they all seem to find their tribe. They’ve also had some amazing trips - Paris, Berlin, Brussels for Science and Pompeii for Latin. We’ve contacted school in the past to ask about certain things we were not sure about and always had someone ring us - the staff seem to work around the clock! Sadly neither are doing music anymore but they’ve benefited in the past from being part of some great concerts too and both loved learning to play steel pans.