Crawley Schools and Less Crime areas

[Aimankay]

Hi everyone, my husband has been offered a job in Crawley industrial estate and we have started to look at schools and areas to possibly move temporarily and then possibly buy a house. I understand that Pound Hill, Maidenbower are better areas of Crawley. From reading some of the old posts I understand that Horsham is nice and I am also looking at areas of Burgess Hill, Hayward Heath in South and Reigate in North of Gatwick. Our primary concern is getting a good school for our 8 years old. I believe these places should be 30-40 minutes drive from husband work. We like a lively town but at the same time wouldn't want to hear motorway traffic at night time nor any crime prone areas if you know what I mean. Any suggestions for areas with facilities and good schools within 10 miles radius will help us a lot.

Thanks in advance.

[superking]

We are in East Grinstead. Fifteen minutes from Crawley. Nice town with good schools and no motorway noise!

[LIZS]

You may struggle to get a school place in Reigate. Horley might be worth looking at as there are 3/4 good primaries there and a plentiful supply of new build and traditional housing. There is a free school just south of Gatwick on the industrial estate, not sure what age it starts from. You could also look towards East Grinstead (Copthorne, Crawley Down, Felbridge) although you tend to get greater aircraft noise to East/West.

[badgerhead]

I live in Horsham and a lot of people commute to Crawley/Gatwick from the town. It is a lovely town to bring families up in with good schools across the town. There is a lot of new building going on plus a good amount of established housing. Some of the schools are difficult to get into as a transfer as they are oversubscribed but as your son is 8 that could mean it is easier, it really depends on availability in the school and their individual waiting lists.
Looking forward to secondary schools in Horsham there are two for boys; The Forest School, which is single sex & whose catchment is the east & north of the town and Tanbridge School, which is co-ed & whose catchment is West & south of the town. So if you decide to move to Horsham consider which sort of secondary school is likely to suit your son & then look in the appropriate catchment area as it isn't often you get an offer if you live out of catchment, especially with Tanbridge as it is a very popular school and it's catchment area is the one with the most of the new building going on, e.g. In Broadbridge Heath & Southwater villages.

[GingerDoesntHelp]

Don't move to Crawley! I grew up there - it's awful. Horsham or East Grinstead or Haywards Heath are much nicer. Haywards Heath good because of the fast train line to London and Brighton.

[Aimankay]

I have an 8 years old daughter. Which schools seems to be better in Horsham areas. I have looked into Grenstead and I wanted to avoid the flight path and not sure if it will be problematic over there so Horsham, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill seems to be the front runners. Any good and bad point of these areas?

[LIZS]

Some areas around Horsham are under the flight path and bear in mind if Gatwick is chosen to expand it could affect the wider area. IMHO HH is nicer than BH, although not been through in a while.

[Aimankay]

Which schools in Horsham and HH are better primary schools with better reputation.