The schools are the best thing about Deptford, and it isn't close. Nearly every graded school in the borough is good or better. The primaries do well on the maths tests, and most children are a short walk from one. The catch is that there's no secondary school in Deptford itself. Year 7 means a trip out of the neighbourhood, though not a long one.
Around Deptford, eight state primaries average a Key Stage 2 maths score of about 105. Deptford Park Primary School carries the neighbourhood's name. Grinling Gibbons Primary School, Tidemill Academy and Twin Oaks Primary School are also nearby, and there are church options as well. A place known for a lively high street and the odd pickpocket turns out to be very dependable on long division.
Lewisham has 35 schools with a published Ofsted grade, and 34 of them are good or better. That's almost all of them. Four are outstanding, one requires improvement and none is inadequate. Another 41 settings in the borough have not yet been graded and are counted separately, so they say nothing either way. Those figures cover the whole of Lewisham, so a strong borough record doesn't tell you how any one Deptford school is doing.
Admissions follow Lewisham Council's published rules, so living close to a school you like doesn't guarantee a place there. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling put the nearest primary about six minutes' walk from the average home here, and the nearest secondary about 13. Having a school that close is helpful, but the council's criteria still decide where your child goes. St Stephen's CofE Primary School and St Joseph's Catholic Primary School may also weigh church attendance, so read each school's own criteria as well as the council's.
Secondary is where planning matters. Deptford has no secondary school of its own, so older children cross into New Cross or further. Check the council's offer data for the last few years to see which secondaries actually admitted children from your street. A thirteen-minute walk on the model can work out quite differently once allocations are made. Trinity Laban, the dance and music conservatoire, is in Deptford too, though few parents are thinking about it at the Year 6 stage.
If schools are the main reason to choose Deptford, they hold up. Primary schooling here is strong enough to make up for a good deal elsewhere in the neighbourhood.