The schools around Petts Wood are very good, and it's the primaries that do most of the work. Twelve state primaries serve the area. Nearly every school Ofsted has graded across the borough came out good or better. The only secondary inside the area is an academy on the Orpington side. Most parents end up comparing primaries, because the choice of secondary is already made for them.
The 12 mainstream state primaries around here averaged a scaled score of about 106 in key stage 2 maths. Crofton Infant School and Crofton Junior School split the primary years across two schools, so a child changes sites at seven and changes nothing else. Poverest Primary School is on the St Mary Cray side, and St Paul's Cray Church of England Primary School takes its name, and part of its intake, from the neighbourhood of the same name. A church primary can set its own admissions criteria, so the application form may ask questions a community school would never put to you. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the nearest primary about a nine-minute walk from the average home, which makes the school run here one of the shorter commutes in south-east London.
Harris Academy Orpington is the area's single mainstream state secondary, and its pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score was about 43. With one school in the count, that figure describes Harris and nothing else. The same 2019 modelling puts the nearest secondary about 24 minutes away on foot and 19 by public transport. A family who chose their house for a nine-minute walk to the primary should expect the trip to be longer once their eldest reaches eleven.
Bromley's own Ofsted record backs up the reputation: across the borough, 40 of the 41 settings with a published grade are rated good or outstanding, which is all but one. Fifteen are outstanding, one requires improvement and none are inadequate. A further 48 settings have no published grade yet and appear in neither count. The ratings cover the whole of Bromley, so they show what kind of authority runs the schools here. They can't tell you which school your child will be offered. Places go by the council's published admissions rules, and living a short walk from a well-rated school won't secure a place there by itself. The admissions rules for a specific school are worth reading in full while you are still choosing a house, because distance, siblings and faith criteria are weighted differently from school to school. Parents in Petts Wood who don't get their first-choice primary usually still end up at a good one, and complain about it all the same.
Schools are among the best things about living in Petts Wood. The primaries are close, the borough's inspection record is about as clean as it gets, and the main thing a family has to plan is the longer journey to secondary.