Best state secondary schools in Hampshire and can we afford to live in catchment?

quartz - you have a friend in Palmerston Way? I would love to live in that road. I could play crazy golf every day!

Sorry, there are a number of posters who have it right - I was just annoyed by some people spouting crap and suggesting awful places to live or ones where you wouldn’t get a manhole for £700k...

It’s funny, whenever you know about something, what you read is preposterously wrong. Miljea posts correctly and so did one lady upthread. Many of the other observations are ridiculous!

OP, you won’t get a nice house in Winchester for your budget. Nor in New Forest/Lymington Way, nor Petersfield. People can find in-budget houses on Rightmove for you, but, believe me, if a 4/5 bed house is £700k then it will be a cramped effort on a main road or housing estate with no garden. Or in the “wrong” catchment. Plus most of Hampshire is not anywhere near the sea.

Lol at Thornden being a den of drugs. And people pulling their kids out? Piffle! It’s true that some people will swear blind that it’s a dreadful place... and then reveal that they live, ahem, “the other side of the tracks” and their kids go to another local establishment (or that they are shelling out unnecessary megabucks to go private).

Anyway, OP, I think the place for you is Alverstoke. It’s a doable commute three times a fortnight. Bay House School is good and I believe still has a sixth form. There is a dinky village and lots of nice, big mature houses. The prices are much more reasonable than in the real commuter towns or villages. Gosport is crap but you can 100% avoid ever going there. You can get the ferry to nice restaurants/shops at Gunwharf in Portsmouth and nice small shops in Southsea. I would live there if the dcs were not at school where I currently am!

@NellyJames it is the same for me - I hadnt realised just how much (I visit Stubbington 4-5 times a year and go on sea holidays) until lockdown and I missed 2 planned trips.

Ref the east side of the New Forest towards Fawley, I think the refinery is being made into a huge development and the old trainline being opened.
Fawley train line will never happen - it runs right through the refinery

I have my doubts about that whole development too
look at Bargate and East Street in Southampton to see how the wind is blowing

Nelly
Have a look at the houses I linked right at the start of the thread

@NellyJames the railway line between Portsmouth and Southampton means you are never far from a city!

@Miljea and @Murmurur

Sea has an incredible effect on my mental health - it makes me feel calmer and grounded. I try not to go more than 2-3 months without seeing it and that does it for me.

Lockdown was the longest I have ever been without seeing the sea and it was tough by the end. When we did manage to go I felt instantly calm and at peace and much better.

If I suffered a mini breakdown part of making me feel better would involve moving back to the sea

You're braver than me. But I thought the same.

Is 'the sea' really going to overcome your DH's MH issues?

What if it doesn't? What if it makes you resentful having uprooted the family, everything you, and they - know, for what might amount to a bit of desolate grey water lapping in and out?

I'm sorry to sound harsh, but I struggle see any scenario where the presence of 'the sea' will warrant such upheaval.

@Bassettgirl where are you from originally?

Its odd because we moved to Surrey/London suburbs but Stubbington is definitely still my home and I dream of moving back. I still have friends there and visit a lot

DD got the local grammar though so no moving for us.

@Murmurur Your post is interesting. I really love Hampshire but it isn't where I am from and I spend a reasonable amount of time on rightmove dreaming of moving back. Also have felt similarly about my house I was also ambivalent about Winchester when I lived there although it is "lovely".

See, I am a bit concerned that you are building a dream rather than the reality of being here. I love it where we live but I think it might be more similar to where you currently live than you'd think. We do have woods on the doorstep, which is great, but it is very middle class suburbia. Moving halfway across the country to Petersfield could get you a similar vibe to your current town, with a lake. When people say a town is "lovely", bluntly there is an element that it means the town centre has some pretty buildings, there are lots of coffee shops and a Waitrose. A beach would be a lovely bonus but if you could put a beach into your current town would it really solve everything? To such an extent that it is worth moving away from your friends, your husband's friends, your children's friends?

I hope I'm wrong, and I hope you appreciate that I'm saying this kindly as a devil's advocate, and not to run you down. It's a nice place to live but where you currently live also sounds nice. (Also I have swung dramatically from hating our house and being desperate to move, to being very happy here. The difference wasn't that I moved. It was that I started taking antidepressants.)

I think the Fareham area is probably the closest to what you want for your budget. Chandlers Ford is anyway ridiculously expensive (because of Thorden). If you are happy with a less brilliant school there are plenty. I chose a house in the Mountbatten catchment over Thorden. Having said that, everyone I know who lives in CF loves it and says it's a lovely community.

I have never heard that about St Anne's and pregnancy. It apparently has a brilliant mix of music, arts and science. Not sure about sport or where they play (city school).

Ref the east side of the New Forest towards Fawley, I think the refinery is being made into a huge development and the old trainline being opened.

Would you consider 6th Form Colleges - somewhere like Stubbington/Lee on Solent gives you good schools and seafront and then train from Fareham gives you Barton Peveril and Peter Symonds (and also has a college itself).

It is certainly commutable to Blackfriars on the basis you want as I did it for a bit to Aldgate East

@Numbersarefun - me too and parents still there.

I found the NE bit of Portmouth really stultifyingly suburban though and couldn't wait to get out. Problem with Portsmouth is that the state schools aren't great until 6th form college. If you could afford private then the Grammar School in Portsmouth is great and the High School is still good although not what it was since the Grammar went co-ed (back in the day it was the top school in the country the first year league tables were published).

Having said that OP if you can afford private then I'd be looking at Southsea near the boating lake or Old Portsmouth rather than Cosham/Drayton/Farlington which are really dull suburbansville...

Please note, the houses on Brassey Rd, Winchester are very sweet but the rooms tend to be tiny.

It's a road that many moved out from when expecting their second.

I know that from personal experience.

Ach, everyone knows Thornden is a hot bed of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and everyone knows at least 20 pupils who have been 'withdrawn' from there .

Must be why people scramble to get into catchment...

There's a lot of jealousy, and yes, snobbery about Thornden. It is very MC. But it takes academic pupils, and sends them on their way with a slew of A*s to PS, thence RG uni, if that's what you want.

It perhaps doesn't tolerate poor behaviour thus might not be welcoming of such pupils, hence maybe DC are advised to leave? I don't know, because both my DS's Y7 class photo and Y11 class photo deviated by one pupil apiece. Both additions to their classes!

See, where I grew up, Hounsdown had an appalling reputation!

You need to visit the schools and maybe ask about specific ones on here from parents whose kids are actually there or have left recently.

Yes, Ch Fd isn't 'by the sea', but you'd struggle to find a) an under £700,000 5 bedroom house that is b) in the catchment of an excellent school, and c) actually close to the seaside, not warehouses and docks.