A highly suitable destination school for every child
By the age of seven, a child’s personality, strengths and needs have developed sufficiently to enable us to advise parents on suitable future settings for their child. Many good options are available, including state schools as well as independent single sex schools which many parents are happy to consider from 7+, with their child having benefited from a co-educational environment in their most formative years.
2025 Year 2 graduates
Although the 7+ landscape in the locale has evolved somewhat in recent years, our 43 Year 2 pupils who graduated in July 2025 have once again achieved extremely well.
After their Year 2 tenure as the oldest children at Herne Hill School, it was evident to all that, having honed their leadership skills and social responsibilities to such a high level, they were fully ready to move on to their next schools.
Many congratulations to them all for having become such fine young people! We are immensely proud of them and look forward to welcoming them back for their Year 3 alumni party in spring 2026.
Many good options are available
We are fortunate to be located in an area with a wide range of exceptional Year 3 destinations for our graduating Year 2 pupils in both, the independent and state sector. In 2025, our graduates moved on to 16 different schools.
By 7+, they are fully prepared and ready to move on to the next stage of their education. Indeed, Year 3 is a natural point in the English education system for them to transition to a bigger school suited to their unique abilities, which by the age of seven are largely established.
Having seen their child flourish at Herne Hill School, some parents naturally find the prospect of changing to another school somewhat stressful. Yet we know that by moving on at 7+ at the natural end of the Early Childhood Education period, and having been prepared so well academically and emotionally, the change is occurring at the right time and is actually beneficial for them. Challenge is an inevitable feature of life, so acquiring the skills required to deal with entering a new environment in a scaffolded way is of enormous merit to children in the long term.
Peace of mind for the future
Our Headteacher Mrs Telford and the Year 2 teachers work closely with every family, supporting and advising on the options and application strategies most suited to their child’s situation. We benefit from strong relationships we have forged with each destination school. These links, coupled with our excellent knowledge of our children as individuals, ensure that all of them secure places at schools that are appropriate for them.
At many schools we achieve a high offer to application ratio, reaching 100% in some cases, giving parents peace-of-mind that there will always be at least one good option for their child. The vast majority of children receive several offers (on average about two in 2025), enabling their family to choose one that is particularly well suited for them.
Year 2 graduates’ destinations (2021-25)
Please see below the destination statistics for boys and girls over the past five years.
In 2025, an unprecedented 28% of our 43 graduates (7 boys and 5 girls) moved on to local state schools – by far the single greatest destination. With the average over the previous five years having hovered around 7%, this represents a potentially major shift towards the state sector upon graduation from Herne Hill School.
Although one year’s data is, of course, not very representative, this could nevertheless mark the beginning of a new trend. Indeed, the increased popularity of state schooling from Year 3 could be related to the introduction of VAT on independent school fees since January 2025, combined with parents increasingly appreciating that Early Childhood Education is the schooling period offering the greatest return on investment (see Mrs Telford’s article on the subject).
In addition, there was also a small increase in 2025 of children moving out of the area – 12% (or 5 pupils) vs. 5% in the previous five years. With 40% of children moving on to local state schools or out of the area, this means that ‘only’ 60% were looking for a local independent school – a noticeably smaller proportion than in the past.
Total
The following table shows the destinations of all of our graduating pupils at the end of each of the past five school years.
| 2021-25 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| Sydenham High GDST | 46 (20%) | 8 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 12 |
| Rosemead Preparatory School | 32 (14%) | 3 | 8 | 13 | 2 | 6 |
| Dulwich College Junior School | 24 (11%) | 3 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| Dulwich Prep & Senior | 18 (8%) | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Alleyn’s Junior School | 16 (7%) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| Streatham & Clapham GDST | 15 (7%) | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| St. Dunstan’s College | 12 (5%) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| JAGS Junior School | 10 (4%) | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Various other independent schools | 8 (4%) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Oakfield Preparatory School | 4 (2%) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Local state schools | 26 (12%) | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Out of area | 15 (7%) | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| TOTAL | 226 (100%) | 43 | 47 | 49 | 45 | 42 |