Secondary schools west Dulwich

[Rasnos]

We’ve recently moved to West Dulwich, near Thurlow Park Road, and this is our first time living in London. I’m feeling quite overwhelmed, as I work long hours in the NHS and I’m trying to get my head around schools and the area in general.

I’m particularly concerned about secondary schools. Elmgreen is only a 4-minute walk from us and seems to have fairly good reviews overall, though I’ve also read about the tragic incident there a while back, which has made me anxious.

If anyone has children currently at Elmgreen (or other nearby secondaries under Lambeth), I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences — especially around safety, the learning environment, and general atmosphere. I’d also love to know how people find the community within the school — we’re keen on a diverse and balanced environment for our children.

Any reassurance, insights, or recommendations would be hugely valued!

It's better to use public transport.
Traffic is chaos in that area and there's plenty of public transport.
If he uses a bus it's free (but @Rasnos you need to get him an Oyster Zip Card to get the free bus transport)

That is one thing I would never do in that area. Seen far too many horrible accidents.

Nice, safe buses

Kingsdale doesn't have a 'catchment' as such because they operate a lottery system. It's a very big school.

The current progress 8 scores are a bit tricky to decipher because children didn't do SATs in the normal.way (covid) so I wouldn't set much store by this year and last year's assessments, and it might be those schools have students who were even more impacted by covid, e.g. overcrowded accommodation, parents out the house working and not being able to help with schoolwork.

I don't think any of these schools are terrible- dont forget London has the best schools in the country. I live not far away and there are a lot of Harris schools near us and they all have a slightly different flavor re. strictness. Quite a lot of the kids in the area do cycle, I see lots biking through W Dulwich in the mornings but I think it's the cool thing to get the bus. A 4 min walk is pretty amazing though. Elmgreen was on that School Swap documentary on channel 4 this year and the kids all seemed nice types.

@Dinnerplease there aren't any progress 8 scores for this year or not due to Covid.

The ones on the government pages refer to 23/24, they won't have been updated yet for the last academic year.

next not not!

Both my children are at Dunraven, both are doing well and enjoying their time there.

My kids are at Elmgreen. I live near you. I went for local, as did many friends but its a marmite school as it is not as academic focused (has no banding test etc) vs others. Kids have friends at most local schools- dont see big differences. I wouldn't myself do the bus for Harris but I know one boy in yr9 very near you now who is so some do.

Kids at Elmgreen seem the normal mix of kids. As someone said was on US vs GB school swap series but you dont see much of the school really.

Yes sorry there aren't any proper ones, you're right- we've done approximation with the school assessed grades for this year but they're not proper progress 8.

Which means everything is a bit out of date anyway.

BTW I think the Harris ED has a falling roll as they wrote to our kids' Harris primary, which is quite a way away, suggesting parents come and have a look because they'd have places. Function of location, not indicative of anything quality wise though.