Secondary schools in East Duwlich

[Pred02]

Hi,

We are moving from SE5 - one of the areas we will be looking is East Dulwich as lot of our friends are there. We have a 4 year old DD starting primary school but the house move is long term so looking at secondaries as well. We are looking at state, just wanted to validate my thinking/research:

I understand there are 4 state secondaries:

Charter North - have to be in a tight 0.5m catchment and properties in catchment are very expensive.
Charter East - newer school up and coming, but so far mixed reviews. About 1m catchment.
Harris ED Girls - got great outstanding but mixed exam reviews (GCSC/A-Level)
Kingsdale - great ratings, but lottery dependent.

Separately we have to think about reception which our daughter would start in September. Most of the places that come on the market are towards the south end of Peckham Rye park (e.g. Rysdale) we would also struggle to transfer mid-year in Heber and would end up with Goodrich (right now we are allocated to Lyndhurst as we live near there).

Any input and guidance would be helpful as analysis thus far has been academic only.

Thanks

You are right to think ahead, but do remember that school rolls are falling, so it is highly likely that catchment areas will widen. I think East Dulwich is as good a place as any in this neck of the woods. Charter East isn't as good as North but it's not bad from what I hear and Kingsdale is so enormous that your chances of getting in in 6 or 7 years are probably pretty good.

I have friends who were really happy with Goodrich. Tbh all state primaries in London seem to be pretty good

A lot will change in the 7 years between now and secondary so I would find a primary you are happy with and take it from there.
the birth rate in Lambeth/ Southwark has massively decreased and in 7 years time this will definitely be affecting secondary places with catchments expanding.