The schools are one of Sidcup's real strengths. More than eight in ten graded schools across the borough are good or outstanding. Only one is inadequate. The local primaries are within walking distance of most homes. Getting the school you want still depends on the admissions rules, though, and buying the house is only the first step.
Ofsted has given a published grade to 36 schools across the London Borough of Bexley, and 30 of them are rated good or outstanding, comfortably more than eight in ten. Five are outstanding and 25 good, against five that require improvement and one rated inadequate. Another 39 settings in the borough have no published grade yet, either because they are new or because they haven't been inspected under the current framework. They are left out of the count. A borough this size has room for a dud or two, but the ratio here is good enough that most parents are choosing between decent options.
Places are allocated under the London Borough of Bexley's published admissions rules, so a house round the corner from a school you like gives you no claim on a place there. That deserves a check against the council's most recent allocation round before you put money on a street. The parents who learn the rules early have quieter springs than those who learn them on offer day.
On the primary side, Birkbeck Primary School, Orchard Primary School, Royal Park Primary Academy and St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School give Sidcup a spread of options within reach of most homes. The Department for Transport's 2019 model put the nearest primary about nine minutes' walk from the average Sidcup home. For secondary, Cleeve Park School and Kemnal Technology College are the local names, and the same model estimated the walk to a secondary at about 20 minutes, or around 17 by public transport. Cleeve Park School and Cleeve Meadow School are two different schools, and the difference matters on an application form. Hope Community School is also on the local list. Hope is a lovely name for a school and a poor admissions strategy for parents.
Sidcup's schools are a genuine reason to move here, and the borough's grades back that up. For most families the question is which good school they get, and the admissions rules decide that.