ED state secondary schools

[Jerry88]

Looking to move in to the area with our 11 year old son from the US this summer. Having to do a late application for secondary schools. Would appreciate any and all insights on Harris, Charter Herne Hill (likelihood of entry) and Kingsdale and Charter ED (currently Camberwell). We would moving towards the top end of Lordship Lane, near Heber School.

[redjam]

Gosh, poor you having to do it all from afar! I live quite near where you're moving and I'd say you're unlikely to get into Charter on Red Post Hill - not impossible, but unlikely (and I'm not sure how a late application would affect your chances). It's a very sought-after school with a correspondingly small catchment, though I would assume the new Charter ED would have eased the pressure on it a bit. It's generally thought of as an extremely good school with consistently excellent results, though not much outdoor space.

Kingsdale is a massive school with a lottery-based admission system so you'd have a decent chance of getting in there. It's very strong on music and sport as well as being good academically, and there's lots of outdoor space and excellent facilities (full disclosure - my daughter goes there, so I'm biased!). Might not suit shy and retiring types so much, though, simply because of its size.

Charter ED is brand-new this year but I think it will be an excellent school, particularly once it's moved to its shiny new permanent site in central ED in a year and a half's time. I've got friends whose kids go there and are happy and impressed with the head and the teaching, though of course it's still very small at the moment.

Harris Boys I don't know so much about, although it has a reputation as being very big on discipline. It's maybe not perceived as being as academic as the others, though I'm sure someone with direct experience will come along to shout me down on this!

Good luck with the move and the application.

[Sol]

The cathment for The Charter in North Dulwich went to 1.3 kilometers last year; not sure about the one in East Dulwich.

[tomskip]

How does Kingsdale handle in year applications? anyone know?

[Jerry88]

Thanks everyone. It has been rather a steep learning curve over the past few days! We're excited to be back in the area (lived there before moving to the US), but the school situation/catchment areas/Southwark application procedures etc is a little more complicated than we'd imagined!

We've been told by Southwark that we can't actually apply until we live in the UK, which wouldn't be until school finishes here in June. So we'd be a *really* late application! We were liking the look of Charter N Dulwich and E Dulwich and Kingsdale primarily for our son (lots of good things that people say about them and other schools, but honestly, also proximity to where we'd be living - looking to make the move for the kids as easy as we can), as well as looking into Elm Green, Harris, St Thomas and Habs.

redjam - how does the lottery process work for Kingsdale? Do you apply via the CAF and then they choose the kids much later? I went to a v large S London state school back in the day and found it fine, so am sure my son would adjust to the size in the end.

Sol - are you aware of how the Charter two schools deal with such incredibly late requests for a spot? Do schools even have spots left that late in the day, late summer?

Southwark have told us that we'd apply when we lived back in the borough, they'd offer us a spot at one of our CAF 6 listed schools if there was one, and if there was no spot, then we'd be offered a spot at any secondary in Southwark, closest first. All a little hairy! Unsure if local schools have even one spot after the CAF applications?!

Thanks for all your help.

[nunheadmum]

I understand that late applications will be allocated a place at the schools on your list if one is available - the highest choice where one is available. If none are available you'll be offered a place at your closest school with available space and then you can go on the waitlist for any other school you are interested in.

At that point, you'll be in the same place as all the rest of us who have applied on time and are unhappy with our allocation / holding a preference for another school and are sitting on waitlists in the hope of a preferred choice. You'll be placed on the waitlists in rank of how you meet the oversubscription criteria - so if we're both on the waitlist for a school that is decided on by distance only and you were closer, you'd go higher up the waitlist than us.

I'm told that there's lots of movement on the waitlists over the summer so don't despair totally at going on the lists a little late. If you've got the chance to chose where you decide to live, you may want to consider moving closer to your school of choice (if it is decided on distance) to improve your chances. And even once your kids start in September, you can always stay on waitlists and see if spaces come up. There are lots of stories of kids buying uniform one day and getting a place at their preferred school the next.

Good luck with the move and getting a school!

[tomskip]

So how does the waiting list operate in a school that allocates places by lottery rather than distance?

Jerry, both the Charter School Herne Hill and Kingsdale are very over-subscribed and have long waiting lists. If you move to within the Charter School "catchment" area you will automatically go above someone who lives further away from the school than you do, no matter how long they have been on the waiting list. Distance is all.

With Kingsdale, there isn't a catchment, so I'm not sure how they manage their waiting lists when new people apply.

[Medusa]

Kingsdale 'shuffles' their waiting list regularly with the stated aim of keeping it a fair lottery for anyone who joins the waiting list later along the line. I suppose this might work well for some people. My experience of it was that I had 3 kids all high (as high as 4th) on the list for almost a year without any of them being offered a place.