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Secondary education

Secondary schools in Surrey

3 replies

Harri23 · 02/10/2018 12:10

Hi. My family are moving to Surrey with our Year 9 son from abroad. We are Brits but I don't know Surrey at all but we'll be close to family there. He's lived abroad all his life and is a little bit green. Hubby wants less than an hour commute to London so taking everything into consideration I'm looking at Guildford, Weybridge, Walton, Cobham areas. My son is quite bright but not massively clever. He's sporty especially football and a grade 7 drummer and loves music. He's a gentle, kind lad and not tough so won't cope well if I get this wrong. PLEASE can you suggest some schools? I'm having no luck finding him a place. State or independent. But not boarding. And we can't afford anything really expensive. Budget max maybe £20,000 (gulp). Thanks in advance!

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VanCleefArpels · 02/10/2018 13:35

You won't get independent day school for your budget if you take into account extras eg music lessons, trips, uniform. We paid £8k per term day fees for one of the co-ed senior schools in the area you mention.

The Howard of Effingham School is an excellent state senior school, as is George Abbott, St Peters or County school in Guildford. All likely to be oversubscribed as no doubt you have found and rely on very tight catchment areas which has a knock on effect on property prices.

This might help
www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/real-school-guide-2018-surrey-14905617

Otherwise you might be better off looking in Kent or Herts parts of which will have similar commute times but may be more economical to live

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cookiesaurus · 02/10/2018 17:38

I don't know the whole of Surrey, but I agree, I think it's a struggle to get Day fees for less than 5K per term plus additional costs.

Are you Catholic? If so, the Catholic schools definitely seem to outperform most of the other non-faith state schools in the area.

Alternatively, there's the grammar schools in Kingston and NE Surrey or Kent but I'm not sure whether they accept students in year 9 or not.

Good luck 👍

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pringles999 · 02/10/2018 18:14

Agree if you are including extras in the £20k than you may want to concentrate on state with places, as fees only increase...

However there is quite a difference in fees between some Surrey Indies and some would be within your budget certainly.

I think the bigger issue is that most indies have a second intake at year 9 so are likely to be full but it wouldn't hurt to contact just in case.

How about Cobham Free School? They have a music specialism and because it's a new school more likely to have places - I know parents there who are happy. Small classes and year groups but no exam performance history if you can live with that... I think the other free school in Woking Hoe Valley also recently got an o/s grading. Free schools are exactly that - no fees, maintained financially by state, but not in local authority control.

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