Greenhithe's schools are good, and the primaries are the reason. Two state primaries serve the area. Their average maths results come in above the expected standard. Nine in ten of the county's graded schools are good or better. The only real fight is over admissions.
Around here there are two mainstream state primaries, Knockhall Primary School and Stone St Mary's CofE Primary School, and between them their average Key Stage 2 maths score is about 104 at the end of primary school, a little above the level the Department for Education expects of an eleven-year-old. Two schools is a small sample, so one good or bad year group can move that average, but nothing in it points to trouble. The village once trained future officers of the Royal and Merchant Navies on a warship moored off the shore, and the current arrangement, with classrooms on dry land, has the advantage of not needing a salvage pump.
Ofsted has graded 245 schools across Kent and rated 221 of them good or outstanding, roughly nine in every ten. That includes 38 outstanding schools, 21 that require improvement and three rated inadequate. A further 255 settings in the county have no published grade yet, which tells you nothing either way about them. The county figure is a reasonable guide to the secondary options, since Greenhithe families will be choosing from across Kent and not from a single local school.
Places are given out by Kent County Council's published admissions rules, so buying a house within sight of Knockhall or Stone St Mary's does not, on its own, put a child in either. The church school has its own faith criteria on top of the usual distance rules, and the council's admissions team will tell you how far the last child admitted lived in recent years. Ask for that figure for both primaries before you settle on a street, because the new estates by the river add children to the area faster than the schools add classrooms. Parents who assume the nearest school is the one their child will get are making the same mistake every September, and a few of them find out at the same time.
Schools are one of Greenhithe's real strengths. The primaries do their job, the county around them is mostly well run, and the hard part for parents is the admissions form.