Secondary School 2015

[wonderwoman]

I'm wondering if any local parents out there have made decisions about which Secondary Schools they intend on applying to come September for admission 2015. It seems to be a tight squeeze as most open days are around Sept and Oct when the applications need to be submitted (apparently this is quite normal). We have only visited Charter last year but need to open our search a bit more to put some other choices down in case DS1 doesn't get in. Have also considered across the pond to Lewisham which is not far from us.

[EDmummy]

Be careful of catchment area of Charter. If you're 'cross the pond' from Lewisham it sounds like you might be outside catchment from Charter.

[bonaome]

Charter's last distance place offered for admission this year was 1.544KM.

There is no misleading map here.

[edanna]

Bonaome, is that as the crow flies? In which case it may be a bit misleading when Charter measures by safest walking distance.

[LondonMix]

Safe walking distance means that the last distance offer doesn't go East of Lordship Lane for most of ED but the further south you go it can extend out as far east as Crystal Palace Road.

That green dot is way to big.

[bonaome]

Humph!? Apologies. I went to the new school meeting and thought I was told (I thought) by their chair of governors, that they had changed their policy from safest walking distance to as the crow flies - because it was unfairly excluding particular areas, e.g. Dog Kennel Hill Estate.

Clearly I misunderstood.

[LondonMix]

Their published admissions policy on their website for 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 is still safest walking distance.

Charter has changed how the safest walking distance is calcuated for their existing school though. It used to exclude a walking path used by children in Dog Kennel Hill estate. The effect of excluding the path (which was used) was the walking distance calculation for applicants living there was longer than reality and reduced the likelihood they would get in.

The Ombudsman, after local parents mounted a campaign, forced Charter to acknowledge the walking path in its distance calculation. I imagine that?s what they were referring to.

I believe Charter is planning to use distance as the crow flies as its admission policy for the new school if their bid is successful.

[Mrs TP]

Charter offers places on nearest to school, so even if you are within previous year's max distances you still never know how many applicants live closer than you. It could suddenly be very tight one year or, and very unusually, very broad. Southwark and Lewisham produce secondary transfer booklets listing all their non-private schools and admission policies. Not sure when they come out for each new year but defo in time for the Sept /Oct open days - look in the schools part of their council websites for details. Research your schools and check out their open days and any exam / scholarship dates (particularly Kingsdale) - some only have one or two open days and plan your visits. Primaries let their yr6s take time off for secondary open days. It is a whirlwind and quite busy. Good luck.

[Phugh]

Have a look at http://LondonSchooling.com?if you'd like to widen out your?search for secondary schools in East Dulwich, Southwark, Lewisham and any other London boroughs.

The Map page will help you find London secondary schools near you and then you can click through to information pages on each school.?

Or look at the Overview page to compare secondary schools in each borough of London. The A-Z and Borough pages provide links to more detailed pages for each school. They show recent assessments and GCSE results for the last 2 years - so they're recent but not skewed by a single year group doing particularly well or badly.