A highly suitable destination school for every child
By the age of seven, a child’s personality, strengths and needs have transpired 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.
2026 Year 2 graduates
Although the 7+ landscape in the locale has evolved somewhat in recent years, our 44 Year 2 pupils who graduated in July 2026 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 2027.
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 2026, our graduates moved on to 16 different schools, coincidentally exactly the same number of schools as for our 43 July 2025 graduates.
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.
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 majority of children receive several offers (on average 1.9 in 2026) enabling their family to choose one that is particularly well suited for them.
Year 2 graduates’ destinations (2022-26)
Please see below the destination statistics for boys and girls over the past five years.
Over the past two years, there has been a noticeable trend of a rising proportion of children moving on to local state schools: 23% in 2026 and 28% in 2025, whereas the average over the two previous years 2024 and 2023 hovered around 7%.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that this increased popularity of the maintained sector from Year 3 is probably due to parents increasingly recognising that the Early Childhood Education period does lay the foundations for all future learning, confidence and achievement, thereby offering the greatest return on investment of any schooling phase (see Mrs Telford’s article on the subject).
As a consequence, especially when combined with the introduction of VAT on independent school fees since January 2025, it appears that some parents who are unable or unwilling to afford an independent education for the duration of their child’s schooling are keen to give them an ECE head start. Some seem to be doing so with the idea of potentially dipping back into the independent sector again later, often with a scholarship or bursary.
Total (2022-26)
The following table shows the destinations of all of our graduating pupils at the end of each of the past five school years.
| 2022-26 | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |
| Sydenham & Dulwich Girls | 37 (16.2%) | 3 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| Rosemead Preparatory School | 31 (13.6%) | 5 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 2 |
| Dulwich Prep & Senior | 24 (10.5%) | 11 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Dulwich College | 24 (10.5%) | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
| Alleyn’s Junior School | 15 (6.6%) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Streatham & Clapham High School | 15 (6.6%) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| St Dunstan’s College | 10 (4.4%) | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1 |
| James Allen’s Girls’ School | 9 (3.9%) | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Alleyn’s Oakfield | 4 (1.8%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Various other independent schools | 14 (6.1%) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Local state schools* | 34 (14.9%) | 10 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Out of area/ Alternative education | 13 (5.7%) | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 228 (100%) | 44 | 43 | 47 | 49 | 45 |
* 2026 State school destinations (10): 7 Dulwich Hamlet Junior School, 2 Bessemer Grange Primary School & 1 Downsview Primary School
