State Secondaries around Dulwich // Herne Hill

[Pred02]

Hi,

We are looking to purchase a property in the Herne Hill / East Dulwich area, and are specifically looking at a property on Croxted Road. Am i right to assume that for Croxted Road (near Turney Road), while there is abundance of great primaries (Rosendale, DVIS, Judith Kerr) in catchment there are no good secondaries that would fall within the catchment?

Charter North and East are too far out, Kingsdale is lottery, we would need to consider private for secondary?

For Charter North - need to be in North Dulwich Triangle - e.g. Herne Hill to North Dulwich station (500m), for Charter East really near East Dulwich station, parts of Lordship Lane, Peckham (SE15) and Denmark Hill (SE5) near DKH. Harris Academies you are near east of Lordship Lane (e.g. Dunstand Road, Barry Road) near Peckham Rye Park?

Thanks

Are they musical? KFS has music and sports scholarships which give priority over the lottery for the top ranked.

Girls or boys?

Herne Hill has a train into Victoria and I know girls who are at Grey Coats on language places.

Hi,

Our daughter just started reception so no idea at this stage.

thanks

I think from there you’d need to decide whether you’d be happy with Elm Green or perhaps Evelyn Grace. Check offered distance for charter but imagine at best would be a late or in year wait list if at all.

In which case relax - none of the schools at the top of our list when DD was in reception even made the short list when it came to applying as they were no longer as desirable. A huge amount can change in the next 6 years.

I think this is correct. Given that the area is fully gentrified, I cannot see the reputation of the Charter North Dulwich really changing, if anything it will become tighter and tighter.

I also don’t agree that you shouldn’t worry about it now- it is true that schools can change a lot in 6 years and some may improve, but in terms of buying a house in Dulwich the stamp duty makes moving again unlikely so considering whether alternatives would work or if you’d be happy to pay for at least 5 years of private schooling (and associated tutoring to get through 11 plus).

id consider looking closer to charter north or over into the (pretty wide) catchment for charter east to see if the trade off on house size / garden is worth it.

I agree with @northerngoldilocks, you definitely need to think it about now.

Are you catholic? that will give you more options. Excluding catholics I personally only like Charter North or Kingsdale in that neck of the woods.

Not Catholic. Charter North is going to very difficult in our budget, we tried to bid on a fixed-upper but got outbid massively. The best in the area to settle for is Charter East or the Harris in ED.

I think we may settle to make one move out of the area, to Harpenden which isn't cheap but gives more options in terms of secondaries.

We cannot afford both a big mortgage (and stamp duty) and the great private schools in the area. Also of the age (45) where buying again and resetting the mortgage isn't ideal.

Friends of mine looked at houses on Abbotswood Road by East Dulwich Sainsbury’s and also the Dutch estate because they are in the catchment for both charters but obviously there’s a trade-off in terms of them not being period properties if that’s what you’re looking for.

@Pred02 is Charter East that good? Looking at last years results their progress 8 score was unremarkable & GCSEs grade 5 & above were actually lower than the LA average. Harris boys doesn't like great either.

I find that part of SE a bit of an anomaly in that it has high house prices but not many great schools. The housing stock is great but I personally couldn't spend a lot of money on a house & have a so so school. Presumably that's why so many that way end up in private which doesn't help the local schools.

Stamp duty makes frequent moves expensive as you say.

Charter North catchment is about 800m and does include a decent range of housing stock especially on the Denmark Hill side. But it definitely depends if you're set on the Croxted Rd type of house.

As an aside, Croxted Road is pretty bad for traffic and air pollution as everyone is funnelled onto there from all the LTNs in Dulwich Village, school streets on Rosendale etc. During school run times it is terrible, partly because of all the prep and private schools that way.

You are right on this. You are paying 1.2-1.4 for a terraced Victorian with limited secondary options. But everyone else we tilted found the similar problem in SE London - e.g. SE4 (Brockley) lovely houses in the budget but no outstanding secondaries.

Yes definitely an issue in SE London in general for excellent schools.

I'm SW & there are far more options.

If you’d get into Elm Green, there’s a chance you’d also get into the Norwood School which is good in its way. Not in a fancy way, but it’s arty and caring and taught both my dc well. There’s City Heights as well but I don’t know about that, suspect it’s v different to Charter. Elm Green is in a federation with Dunraven now and could be a different proposition by the time your DC is secondary age. One of my dc went to the sixth form there and while the cohort wasn’t dynamite, the teaching was very good and the ethos was aspirational.

In Brockley you have Prendergast school which is an outstanding secondary. Girls only until 6th form which works if you aren’t having another child. It’s a great school and great results. I would go Brockley or Ladywell rather than move out the area.

How close are you to Sydenham School in Forest Hill? Lovely comp, good teaching, nurturing. Catchment is growing a bit as cohorts shrink.

Don't just look at ofsted headline judgements by the way, there's a lot more to it than that.

What's wrong with Kingsdale?

Kingsdale is a lottery distance does not matter.

If you think your daughter might enjoy learning a musical instrument then she has time to get up to a good standard before secondary school. That will open up the options of music scholarships at Kingsdale, Prendergast and Greycoat. All really good schools. She won’t need to be grade 8 to get a scholarship.

Greycoat is Languages not music.

And definitely - you don't need to be grade 8 cello etc.

My DD had a music place at KFS - she didn't do exams at all but was about G6 level. You are expected to be genuinely interested in music and to take music GCSE.

There are also sports places.

Charter East GSCEs and A Levels are getting better each year. E.g. here are the 2025 results (which are not yet updated on the school comparator websites).

^https://www.chartereastdulwich.org.uk/post/year-11-students-at-the-charter-school-east-dulwich-achieve-strongest-gcse-results-yet^

^https://www.chartereastdulwich.org.uk/post/sixth-form-students-at-charter-east-celebrate-best-ever-results^

If you move further to Bromley , lots of great schools there, and will be cheaper too.

Although there are feeder primary schools, i think?

Second the comment on Bromley borough.