Lee's schools are one of the safest parts of the deal. Almost every graded school in the borough is good or better. Four are outstanding. None is inadequate. What takes the effort is getting a place.
Ofsted has graded 35 schools across the London Borough of Lewisham, which covers Lee, and 34 of them are rated good or outstanding, all but one. Four hold an outstanding grade, 30 are good, one requires improvement and none is inadequate. Another 41 settings in the borough have no published overall grade yet, either because they are new or because their grade has not been published, and they are left out of the count. Parents comparing grades here are mostly choosing between good and good.
When the grades are that close together, demand decides more than quality does. Lewisham Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so buying a house near a named school does not secure a place there. Church schools set their own oversubscription criteria, which can weigh things a house purchase cannot buy. Check the council's allocation figures for the past few years for any school you are counting on, because the distance that got children in last year moves with the size of each year's intake. The parents who check this in the autumn are the ones who are not surprised when the offers come out.
Brindishe Lee School is the one carrying the area's name. Horn Park Primary School serves the estate side of the area towards Eltham, and St Winifred's RC Primary School is one of the faith options among the primaries. Trinity Church of England School, Lewisham, appears on both the primary and the secondary lists, which matters to families who would like to avoid a second admissions round at eleven. Baring Primary School, Cooper's Lane Primary School and Marvels Lane Primary School fill out the primary picture towards Grove Park and Chinbrook, and Colfe's School and Riverston School are also nearby.
Schools are one of Lee's real strengths. Parents here put their effort into the application, because the grades already did most of the choosing.