Demand for secondary school places in Lewisham has "flattened"

This comes as plans for the expansion of Addey and Stanhope School were quashed, due to a reduction in demand.

“On national offer day a total of 2,368 offers were made, leaving 324 spare places available, some of which will be used for late and in-year applicants, but the surplus places are potentially over six times higher than previously forecast,” a council report explained.

“Original forecasting predicted that Lewisham would require 2,641 places for 2017/18, leaving a surplus of just 51.”

Lower pupil demand was attributed to families leaving London after the Brexit vote, and negative perceptions of the borough’s secondary schools, according to the report.

This was in spite of Lewisham’s high number of primary pupils moving to secondary schools.

“This uncertainty exists across London and not just in Lewisham,” the report continued.

“It is believed that some of this unpredictability can be attributed to the impact of the Brexit vote which has caused an outflow of families from London (certainly registered births are not transitioning into reception applications) and also the impact of one of our Secondary schools being subject to an academy order (the results of which are out of our control) as this has had an adverse impact on the public perception of Lewisham secondary schools leading to an even greater ‘net-export’ rate for year 7 places.”

The future demand for secondary school places was uncertain, with suggestions of further stagnation.

“The revised forecasting data continues to suggest a lower than expected

requirement for Secondary places over the coming 5 year period,” the report explained.

“This is borne out by the Autumn Census data which showed 2,282 pupils in Year 7 within our Secondary schools, a further 86 places fewer than were offered on National Offer Day. In addition, preliminary analysis of 2018 Secondary applications suggests that there will be further stagnation in secondary pupil numbers for next year.”