Kelvin Grove

[micawber]

Dear residents of Sydenham,

My wife, son and I are in the process of attempting to buy a house on Crescent Wood Road in Sydenham Hill, and I would greatly appreciate knowing where people round there send their kids to school, and what their views of these schools are. The estate agent reliably informed us that we were in the catchment for Eliot Bank and Horniman, which would appear to be optimistic beyond belief. Looking at the map, however, our nearest school seems to be Kelvin Grove. Does anybody have kids there now, and if so how is it? All views and commens most welcome.

[Eagle]

Lovely Road and convenient for The Woodhouse if you are wealthy. I am afraid cannot really assist re schools.
I wish you good luck and welcome.

[gerispringer]

I expect most people round there send their kids to the prep schools in Dulwich. I can't speak for now, but I know a few years back when my children were primary age we wouldn't have touched Kelvin Grove with a bargepole.

[Annie]

Kelvin Grove, although the headmaster there is good,it does not really have the best reputation,
I sent my Children to St Barts, but that was a long time ago, Eliot bank has an excellent Head teacher In Kathy Palmer, but my Favourite is Hornimans, Julia clark loves to bring out the potential in all children,The music teacher Errol is second to none,The sports teachers are great,the Teachers are dedicated,The only down side I can see is the HILLLLLLLL but then you can take a short cut through the Hornimans Gardens, which is a lovely walk.
Good luck

[Satchers]

I think the estate agent might be a bit optimistic about some of the catchment areas.
This year Horniman has a bulge class which means 60 children got a place, rather than 30. Your estate agent might be right about being in the catchment for this year. Next year will be back down to 30 and distance unlikely to go much up Sydenham Hill I would have thought?

Have you tried to find out if Kelvin Grove has any open days at the moment? I have been there once and it had a nice feel to it but I don't actually know anyone that goes there.

Lots of people I know really like Elliot Bank.

Have you looked at the starting school in 2012 booklet on the Lewisham website (see below). Tells you the distances for places at local schools this year. Would at least help you work which are your nearest schools and whether there is a chance you might get a place based on distance?

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/e ... place.aspx

[micawber]

Thanks All,

All very interesting responses. I will certainly check out the Lewisham information. Are there any parents out there with kids at the school now?

[yummymummy]

Both my daughters go to Kelvin Grove school and despite moving from the top of Sydenham to the bottom of the high street (due to house prices) we decided to keep them there. Both girls are always keen to go to school and always have a smile on their face at the end of the end!

Do contact the school about making a visit. The school has a great family feel and the staff care about the children!

[Julsb]

A good friend of mine has a child there now. She's really pleased with the school and said the reception teacher who taught her son was really excellent. Earlier this year, I also spoke to a teacher who works in Brockley and she had very positive things to say about the Early Years programme at Kelvin Grove.

[sydderslass]

Hi there, check out schoolsfinder (google it) and enter your postcode - it will tell you the schools in order of distance and my advice would be to start from there. KG has taken a bulge class in the last two reception intakes and is currently in consultation to take over the Adult Institute next door, which will allow it to become 3-form entry, effectively taking on 90 children per year group. this obviously widens its catchment area, at a point when Lewishams schools generally are oversubscribed. Don't listen to old stuff about KG - its a good school. Good luck - the schools thing is daunting, we've just been through it and survived! ps. just ring KG about having a look around - think they do Thursday mornings x

[SydenhamHillAndy]

Hi there- we're on crescent wood road- welcome to the neighbourhood. My kids are at eliot bank, but youngest only got in on sibling rule - neighbours with younger chldren are going to eliot bank and very happy with it. As previous poster said, schools change, but sadly so-called 'reputations' take a bit longer. I've gone to toddler grops there and found the staff very friendly, and think the school has a lovely 'feel'. Best thing is to ignore the conflicting advice you'll get and go and have a look round yourself.

While many of teens in the neighbourhood appear to go to dulwich college and the like, must be some more newbies like us who cannot afford private school and lurk locally ;o). We loved the horniman, but were too far away even a few years ago. We just scraped into eliot bank- your estate agent is behind the times, Kelvin grove would be closest lewisham school now, as i said. But we are southwark residents on this road (just!)- poorly served by southwark primaries in this corner. The closest is Langbourne i think - one in the estate behind sydenham hill station, near kingsdale secondary. The second closest is dulwich hamlet <hollow laughter at thout of getting in thhere from our postcode!>

It's a lovely road to live on- great with woods, wells park and horniman museum and triangle so close. Let me know if you move here.

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[swetysteve]

Hi

My daughter has just started at Kelvin Grove in september. This year they took in 90 and sounds like they will again next year. We are really pleased with the school. Everyone is very friendly and efficient.
We looked at all the local schools in the area and both my husband and i got a good homely feel about KG. The kids all seemed happy and polite. My daughter loves it, doesnt want to come home at the end of the day.
I work pretty much full time so she goes to the breakfast club and after school club which is open to all reception children. They have clubs in the mornings (streetdance, sports) from 8-9am which she enjoys. The afterschool is great (finishes at 6pm).
In my opinion if you have a child that will be an achiever they will achieve and i think Kelvin Grove provides all the facilities and teaching for a child to do well.
I strongly recommend you look round all the schools. We were very keen on EB because of its Ofsted report but didnt like it as much as KG when we went round.
Hope this helps
Good luck

[aidy_b]

Have to agree with everything said by swetysteve above.
My son started at Kelvin Grove in September and we couldn't be happier. We went to all the local primary schools and felt that Kelvin Grove had the best "feel" to it.
The reception classes have a lovely atmosphere and all the kids seem really happy. Every night he is full of what they did at school and who his new friends are. It's incredible to see the increase in his confidence in less than half a term.
I have nothing but positive things to say about the school.

[micawber]

Hi,

Thanks all. It is really good and reassuring to hear back from parents who are sending hteir kids to the school now. I really do appreciate it. And Andy, I may well be in touch soon, although so far we have had some horrendous experiences with houses falling through so nothing is definite until we exchange.

Thanks again all.