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Perrymount / Kilmorie Schools
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justathought


Posts: 5
Joined: Apr 2011
Post: #1
28-04-2011 12:40 PM

Hello! I am sure there is discussion on here somewhere about these schools, but we are moving to the SE23 area. We want to live in the catchment area of the school we would like our three year old to go to. However, we also see that prices around schools like Stillness are relatively high. Has anybody got any feedback on Perrymount and/or Kilmorie School? Do your kids go to either and are you/they happy? Apologies if this has been covered already in great detail, I did a search but couldn't find anything much. Thanks in advance.

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Elizabeth25


Posts: 212
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #2
28-04-2011 12:47 PM

Perrymont is perfectly fine. (although they are building a new reception class right now, so it is a bit of a building site.) My 6 year old goes there. The parents group has a bit of a fund raising rivalry going on with Kilmorie.

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justathought


Posts: 5
Joined: Apr 2011
Post: #3
28-04-2011 07:10 PM

Hi there, thanks a lot for answering. When you say perfectly fine ... does that mean adequate. But not great? I have no problem with adequate, I'm just trying to get a feel. People talk about Stillness and Fairlawn as excellent, but Stillness at least gets the same Ofsted mark. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for in a primary, other than that the kids are happy, are reasonably well educated, and that they have friends.

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Elizabeth25


Posts: 212
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #4
29-04-2011 07:20 AM

"...other than that the kids are happy, are reasonably well educated, and that they have friends."

Yep, that what I mean by fine. Don't put too much stock in Ofsted ranks. I like Perrymont because it is small - all the staff know all the students by name, they take an interest in them. It's a nice neighborhood school.

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hellohello


Posts: 42
Joined: Sep 2010
Post: #5
29-04-2011 01:27 PM

We are in the catchment for Kilmorie and even though the OFSTED isn't so great (which I have to admit was a concern to us) everyone I know who has children there loves it and a few of our neighbours have children there and they are great and seem really happy.

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meduza


Posts: 55
Joined: Jul 2010
Post: #6
01-05-2011 10:48 AM

My son has attended Kilmorie since nursery, he is now year 6. He has done really well despite the ofsted reoprts. The school does have its faults but they have a very pro-active pta that are working hard to put things right. My son has always loved going to school and has made really nice friends.

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chantelle


Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 2011
Post: #7
03-05-2011 08:38 AM

I'm sure current parents' advice is worth more than test scores, but you might want to be aware that both schools scored well below the national average and Lewisham average in their latest key stage 2 results. (ca. 60% vs. 73%/75%)

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Prampusher


Posts: 34
Joined: May 2010
Post: #8
06-05-2011 08:41 PM

we have a four year old due to start school in Sept / Jan. We really like Dalmain but have missed out - we live just too far away. So now the options are Kilmorie (where we have a place) or Perrymount.

We have been round both schools, and to my mind there are pros and cons to each:

- Kilmore is expanding to three form entry (ie. 90 children per year), which makes it a very large school, on a par with Stillness. The current head is on sick leave with stress, and may or may not be coming back. The Exec head of Fairlawn has taken over and is trying to improve the school by identified sub-standard teaching and rectifying this. The school is quite liberal in its philosophy, the kids call the teachers by their first names, and there is no school uniform. Despite the poor Ofsted and dire KS2 results, we know lots of people whose children go there and are perfectly happy.

- Perrymount is a much smaller school with a high number of ethnic minority children (which I mention as a fact rather than a criticism). The KS2 results at level 4 are excellent (ie. the level children are expected to attain) but for level 5 they are not so good. Generally Perrymount gets a better Ofsted and gets better results, but it is a small school and if your child doesnt like some of the other children in the class, there are fewer options to get away from them. Also I have heard that there are fewer after-school activities at Perrymount than Kilmorie but I dont know whether this is true.

From what I hear, both schools are ok. They are certainly not bad schools. I would be interested to hear of others who have failed to get into Dalmain and then opted for Perrymount / Kilmorie. How did it work out for you?

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Jane2


Posts: 221
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #9
07-05-2011 08:59 AM

Hi

My daughter is at Kilmorie and very happy. It was my first choice anyway. I am very pleased with her progress on reading and writing. I can't comment on the results for older children as she is not yet at the stage for taking KS2.

Yes the school is expanding to become 3 form entry due to the extreme shortage of school places in the borough. Whilst this is of concern because it makes the school large, there are other very successful schools in the borough of this size (eg Stillness) so I am trying to see this as an opportunity rather than a threat. Also, the aim of a school is to serve its local community of families and I think many of us feel we would rather the school expanded to enable families to go to their local school rather than being forced to drive miles away due to lack of school places. At least Kilmorie has the space for proper classrooms rather than having to resort to portacabins in the playground as many other schools are doing. It is just a fact of the rising birth rate in this borough and ALL schools will be asked to take the maximum number of pupils they can.

The parent involvement at Kilmorie is extremely high both through the Friends and the Parent Council.

Robin Bosher the head of Fairlawn who has been brought it to improve the results has a very good track record of raising standards and so I think we will soon see some positive changes at the school.

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justathought


Posts: 5
Joined: Apr 2011
Post: #10
08-05-2011 08:54 AM

Hi everybody. THanks so much for the responses, seems like there's more on here about Kilmorie than Perrymount. The house we are buying is much closer to Perrymount. Does anyone know whether that would automatically mean that we are allocated that school, even if we put Kimorie as our first choice (the difference is 0.1m to Perrymoutn and 0.3 to Kilmorie)? Thanks very much!

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Satchers


Posts: 262
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #11
08-05-2011 02:55 PM

You will get your highest prefeRence school that has space for you. So if you put Kilmorie first it would have to fill up with other children that live nearer to the school than you for you not to get a place. Which sounds pretty unlikely, particularly if it is expanding?

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pebble


Posts: 47
Joined: May 2011
Post: #12
08-05-2011 07:28 PM

How do you know that the Fairlawn Head is taking over Kilmorie as Exec Head?

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justathought


Posts: 5
Joined: Apr 2011
Post: #13
08-05-2011 07:31 PM

Does anybody know where to find information on the actual catchment area of the intake from previous years - ie the furthest road that accepted a child at say Kilmorie? Thanks!

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Jane2


Posts: 221
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #14
08-05-2011 07:43 PM

There's a booklet which has all the details 'starting school in Lewisham 2011-12' which anyone who had to apply for a place to start in September would have received. It lists all the schools with 'distance of last child offered in metres'. It's produced by Lewisham Council Admissions Team. Maybe someone who had to apply this January will have have the latest copy. (My copy will be a bit out of date now.)

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Satchers


Posts: 262
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #15
08-05-2011 08:18 PM

There's a kink to it on a number of other school related threads, together with last years distances. Lewisham admissions team will be able to tell you this years as I the document with them in won't be out till the autumn.

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Satchers


Posts: 262
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #16
08-05-2011 09:14 PM

Information for 2010/11 admissions and a link to the most recent booklet is here:

http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php...1#pid34151

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chantelle


Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 2011
Post: #17
09-05-2011 07:18 AM

i emailed lewisham school admissions about some other catchments and they were really helpful, so I'm sure they can help. The email address is on the schools admissions page.

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