help - nursery / primary school advice please!

[spells]

Hi, we are very much in need of some nursery / primary school advice.

We are hoping to move to East Dulwich with our 2/12 year old by the end of May. We are property hunting now and would love any advice we can get on the best local nurseries / primaries.

We need to register our daughter next Jan (for primary) but in the meantime will need to find a good nursery - so any advice on nurseries would be massively helpful.

THank you!!

[ludoscotts]

Our daugther is at dulwich village preschool. They can go there from 2 years old. Term time only. Lovely atmosphere. Surrounded by fields. Massive garden and play area. It is the rugby club house with a big veranda so even if its raining they get to play outside.

the staff are lovely, and our daughter has thrived since being there.

they are hatching out baby ducklings at the moment and always doing little plays, projects etc. So sweet.

[Carbonara]

You need to make your housing choice based on primary school location if you are planning to send her to state primary (which it sounds as if you are). Catchments are very tight for many of the primary schools. What sort of atmosphere and facilities do you think will suit your daughter? Will you qualify for a place at a faith school? Is there a particular location you are looking for housing in?

[spells]

Ludoscotts & Carbonara - thank you both for your replies. I love the sound of the Dulwich Village preschool but need something year-round rather than term time only.

As far as primary schools - yes, we are planning on sending her to a state primary but wouldn't qualify for a faith school. Area wise - we are completely open, we both really like East / West Dulwich. Atmosphere of the school - creative, spacious (lots of outdoor space if poss), warm, friendly...prob stating the obvious but she's 2 1/2 & it's hard to even imagine her going to school let alone figuring out what type of school she'd be best suited. How do parents decide besides going on gut instinct? It all feels like a bit of a minefield at the moment!

Thank you for taking the time to respond - I realise I wasn't very clear in my first post and needed to be more specific.

Now we've just got to find somewhere to live...another small minefield!

[DVnewbie]

Hi Spells.

We moved into the area last year and only looked at houses near what we thought were good primary schools! Totally agree with Carbonara that you have to find a primary school, or schools, you are happy with and try to buy near there. There are lots of good nurseries around and you should be ok getting a 2 1/2 year old into one without being on a waiting list for years... (I think it's the baby places that you have to sign up for as soon as you're pregnant...!)

You don't have to be religious to get into most of the C of E schools. I think you do for the Catholic ones. You definitely don't have to be C of E to get into Dulwich Village Infants C of E Infant School for example (known as "DVI"!). Half the places are "open" and half are church places. But, you would have to live very close to the school to get an open place. It is very good ("outstanding", in fact) but only goes up to 7. Most people then go to Dulwich Hamlet (ages 7-11) I think - and some go into the private system at 7. Those are the primary schools in Dulwich Village.

In relation to West(er) Dulwich, Rosendale is the primary school that gets the "outstanding" rating and has very impressive SATs results.

East Dulwich has quite a few good primaries. I'm not familiar with all of them but pretty sure Heber is very good/popular (due to it's tiny "catchment" area) and I've heard Bessemer Grange is very good now (and getting better all the time) - there are quite a few other ones too.

You can find tables of primary school SAT results on the Guardian website. (Probably look at Southwark and Lambeth - West Dulwich is Lambeth I think.) And then there is obviously the Ofsted website for reports on the schools, although some will be out of date. But the best way of getting a feel for a school is to have a look round. Just give them a ring - they should all give you a short tour.

I'm sure you know how the "catchment" thing works - i.e. there isn't one, it depends on the numbers of children applying each year, but you can find out from the councils how far away children (without siblings already at the school) lived from the various schools in the last 3 years who got offers in the first round. With academies or church schools, you'll have to ask the school itself. Also, "bulge" classes can skew the catchments - as siblings of children always get priority.

Re nurseries - no experience of year round ones but Nelly's is supposed to be excellent and is full time childcare too. It has 3 sites I think. (Definitely 2 anyway.)

Good luck! We found it v stressful moving but are very pleased we're here now!

[sallybash]

Hi Spells

We are in the same situation looking to move to ED around June/July time with a 3 year old and 3 month old! re primary schools I have heard good things about Horniman, Goodrich and Fairlawns although catchments seem to be rather a nightmare. Will keep you posted once I get into nurseries once we have found a property and be great to hear any good nurseries you may come across! We are looking at East Dulwich/Forest Hill borders.

Good luck!

Sally

[EricaT]

Fairlawn is great, my kids are there. I have heard mixed things about Goodrich.

[duffy10]

Hi - You might also like to take a look at a website www.locrating.com which shows schools on a map with their Ofsted ratings - great site. It links to all the exam results, Ofsted reports and other uesful information - saves you going to Guardian website, Ofsted website etc. You can just scroll around and see clearly all the schools and their ratings and click on the button to find out more details about the school. Although I agree, best to visit schools rather than rely purely on ratings, but it might help you.

[sillywoman]

We live opposite ED Hospital,and I have posted about this before so apologies if I'm boring anyone. I love where we live. There - I've said it!!

Our houses are large, wide Victorian natural 4 bedd-ers; our streets are friendly; we're right halfway between ED & DV; with the station a 10 minute walk, but from your perspective the big plus is that, to date, we always get in to the DVInfant school (on community,not faith places), Dulwich Hamlet Junior school (though in recent years we've had to wait a week or two for places down our end of the road) and The Charter Secondary school. There, I've given our secrets away - I hope I don't jinx us for the future!

The downside is that our gardens are small (though big enough for a large climbing frame/ playhouse or 12ft trampoline). I feel that because our area is a mixture of Housing Association & private ownership, & we're tucked away our natural advantages can be easily overlooked. But you could do worse than come & look around our streets. :)

Good luck wherever you go. You'll love ED I'm sure. It's a lovely place to live and a really, really lovely place to raise children. :))

[spells]

Sally - thank you for your post and good to know we are in the same boat! Yes, please keep me posted and I will you.

[spells]

And thank you all very much indeed for taking the time to post - all invaluable information. Thank goodness for online forums - makes you not feel quite so alone :)