For visiting the school we were told that it is not possible but they will have a ‘induction evening’ in June -not an official tour but still a better then nothing.

Wow only 10 out of 29! Sounds like a vibrant international community.
But that's a very good point you are making Working mum that could explain a lot about private secondary transfers. Is Hwell less international than Belleville? (I do think continental Europeans would value less things like better sports facilities at a private secondary (which is one of the big differences with state secondary as per fionag's very good ppst)).
Also Hwell sends as many kids to Bolingbroke as Bville does so the difference is really about where the other pupils go to.
Anyway, all in it sounds like an amazing school!

Its worth nothing that the school is considered so good at Maths and English they are a national teaching centre for other teachers within the state system who go there from all over the country to study. I'm a Year 1 parent and have been nothing but extremely impressed so far.

Leavers results don't take into account those children who move to private school before age 11 (I heard a number do leaving smaller class sizes at the top of BV).

10 British families I should say. :-D

Another thing to point out is that, families at Belleville are very international - lots of Europeans including French, German and Italians who are not used to pay school fees in their country. Most of those European parents I spoke to are quite happy to send their children to Bolingbroke as a first choice.
In fact, in our son's class, there are only around 10 English families out of 29!

Thanks a lot! Well let's look at numbers for 2014, belleville is 4 at Dulwich,0 at alleyns and 0 at JAGS. honeyell is 14 at alleyns, 4 at jags and 4 at Dulwich. Big differences, if anything the numbers were larger at Belleville before, when the ks2 level was not as good. Meanwhile graveney's numbers are actually larger at Bville than Hwell. It just looks like Bville parents are not interested by private secondaries (and maybe they are right!). I am not saying private is better than state or vice versa, just bizarre numbers when classes are now made of almost 100pct "pushy middle class parents" (i mean it in a good way :) ). I guess there isn't really an answer there, it is an amazing school but for private secondary you need to tutor. Sorry for the typos, commuting.

I heard if you want to send your children to a private secondary school, it is all down to the parents - finding tutors etc. Honeywell and Belleville are state schools and both schools don't help with 11+ at all.
From my experience at Belleville, families (who would have sent their children to a private school) move out of London when their kids are 9-11 years old thinking about grammar schools or other good schools outside of London... so the classes in year 5 or 6 are smaller, I heard. Maybe that could be one of the reasons?
Checking at leavers' destination in 2013 and 2014, the results aren't that bad though... pupils get accepted at Alleyn's (3 in 2013), Dulwich college (3 in 2014), Emanuel (5 in 2013), Whitgift (5 in 2013) and other selective grammar schools like Tiffin or Sutton.

Good! I was surprised no Belleville parent had replied before. I am not (yet) one myself.
There are fewer siblings this year (council website), and another thread was saying that a lot of applicants had been rejected for temporary renting as the council got tougher this year (but no idea if it is true).
As for longer term trends, many people believe wandsworth council's 800m siblings rule applies to Belleville (or they think it will at some point which I think will happen), so not moving away leaving fewer available homes for new families. Definitely know people doing this. Also means that people may be less tempted to move right next to the school for their first child if they cannot afford to stay long enough for the siblings. Also when I visited the school the parents told me a lot of families are now staying put rather than leaving for the country/other london areas, because of Bolingbroke academy. Bolingbroke academy works by distance within each feeder school intake and this will start to matter at some point so safer to stay around northcote. All of this points to local demographics transforming, with older children and less turnaround of homes so bigger catchements (at the end of the day, even this year's catchment is still very small for a school with such a large intake). Still big change year on year whereas honeywell's did not budge (and same trends should be applying) so guess there is some local demographic volatility at play too.
I don't think it says much about the school anyway as all the people i know who want to go private and have a private place still apply and will put belleville as first choice.
Finally school results are actually miles better now than when ofsted was around (look at the ks2 all-in score), as the cohort of kids who got in after the school became outstanding reach y5/6.
Still, keen to hear from Belleville parents! Weird that ofsted have not done a full report since 2007. Guess they have bigger fish to fry than an outstanding school with improving results.
One question i had actually is if we did decide to go for a private secondary. I can see that half the kids at honeywell go private (with stellar results) when very very few do at Belleville. Why the difference since the level and demographics should now be the same in the upper years? Does honeywell help you for private secondary transfer when Belleville does not? Would be nice to keep the option and hear of people's experience. Thank you all and great thread!

[quote="Spannar"]We also have an offer for Belleville for entry this year but have never visited the school as we were away for last Novembers open days. Can you let me know if you have any luck getting to visit the school? I have tried several times and have been told they don't show potential parents around between open days. I have emailed again since we received our offer but so far no response. It is really hard to make a decision/comparison about a school if you can't get through the front door! Thank you.[/quote]

Im not sure why you got that response - I have checked with Belleville and they are happy to show parents round the school in this sort of situation. If you call tomorrow (may be not first thing) & ask to speak to the head's PA Mrs Turnbull, she should be able to advise on a suitable date.

Very happy that my daughters were lucky enough to get in. It's a state school so the class sizes are bigger than private schools of course. But there's more to education than just that.

My daughter is at Belleville - it is a brilliant school with very good staff and standards.
Look at the Good school Guide review - it is really good and give you a different point of view than Ofstead.

Also, plenty of after school clubs are available - so there are many options if you want your child to learn new skills.

We also have an offer for Belleville for entry this year but have never visited the school as we were away for last Novembers open days. Can you let me know if you have any luck getting to visit the school? I have tried several times and have been told they don't show potential parents around between open days. I have emailed again since we received our offer but so far no response. It is really hard to make a decision/comparison about a school if you can't get through the front door! Thank you.

My oldest child started at Belleville when it was Good not outstanding and we remember the day, the Outstanding Ofsted was announced - all the children & some of us parents received gold pins from some very happy teachers, who were so proud to have all that they had achieved to have the school recognised by Ofsted.
I have one child left at Belleville now & in my opinion the school today is much better than it was in 2007. I believe Belleville would receive an Outstanding if Ofsted walked through the door tomorrow.
Although there has been no Ofsted inspection there is still data available to the public to support my opinion eg Dfe Performance Tables of all Wandsworth Schools 2014
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/download/pdf/212_ks2.pdf
The table is not the easiest to read but if you look for the figures of children who achieve level 5+ in all of the KS2 SATS subjects at Belleville it is 44% of 81 children. From a quick skim read the only others to get over 40% in that column are smaller church schools with the exception of Honeywell 47% & Brandlehow 48% . Obviously that figure is a measure of attainment and to see how good the school is you also need to look at the progress children make, but as a blunt rule of thumb, most parents would/should be pleased with their child leaving primary with a level 5 or more.

The size of the catchment area should be seen as a measure of demand rather than simply how good the school is. This can be dependent on number of siblings & admission rules (ie the council has clamped down on renters this year) Also to put it in context in 2012 it was 589 metres, so it could just be last year was a bubble -remember there are 120 places available & people are staying put as older siblings go on to Bolingbroke.

Whether you should accept the Belleville place or go for a Private school is a matter of personal choice though & depends on what outcome you are hoping to achieve at the end of primary school. Around 50% of children leaving Belleville go to the Bolingbroke Academy. I'm not sure of the exact figure for private schools but it is between 10-20% each year. Belleville will prepare the Year 6 children for the Wandsworth test and the KS2 SATS but not specifically for the entrance exams for these schools, that would be up to you as a parent.

Now that my two older children are at a State secondary school we have also decided that they do not have access to as much competitive sport as we would like and know from friends is on offer at private schools (eg Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings). Belleville does offer a lot of sport & some competitive at a very high level (eg cricket & gymnastics) but swimming for example, children go once a week for 2 terms in Year 4 & so all 3 of our children have had swimming lessons outside of school.

So when you are thinking of outcomes you also need to think about what extras you want your child to have & do you want it all to be taken care of by school (sometimes with a fee attached) or are you happy to source things like sport or music lessons externally.

Good luck with your choice, you will find Belleville parents a welcoming lot, if you do decide to take up the place. Equally I'm sure someone else will be incredibly grateful for the place if you turn it down in favour of an independent school.

Honestly you will never regret your choice. The staff is brilliant, the head master has lots of great and innovative ideas to go one step further and the PTA is very dedicated and motivated. You will also meet lots of lovely parents like us:)