Location Guildford High School

[Omai]

Hello All, We are planning to move from Dubai to Guildford and really need some advice. We would like to send DD (currently 5 years old) to Guildford High and DS (4yrs old) to RGS. Considering the entry into RGS starts at 11+ are there any excellent state schools in or around the area ?
Secondly, what areas would you recommend to buy a house based on the following criteria:

1. school to be within a maximum of 20 mins walk or perhaps a 5-10 minute drive
2. commute to London within 1 hour
3. Family friendly, multicultural area with nice parks etc
4. Budget 500-700k (lower the better)
5. 3-4 bed semi or detached house with a decent sized garden

Thank you all for your advice.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

You can compare state schools on the website above. Your daughter will be considered an ‘in-year admission’ and you would have just missed application deadlines for your son too. You might want to speak to Admissions about late applications.
The way that in-year applications are handled, you will express your preferences for schools but you might be offered a different school if there aren’t places available. If you don’t like the school you’ve been offered, you can remain on waiting lists for other schools.

Do you mean you want to be within a 5-10 minute drive of Guildford high/RGS? Of of the state primary?

Budget could be an issue to live so close to the centre. Lanesborough is the prep for RGS but there are other independent preps.

Sunshine- preferably 5-10 minutes of both GHS/RGS and state primary.

This is so weird - I went to GHS and now live in Dubai :-D

My understanding is that Lanesborough is the unofficial feeder school for RGS?

I think you’ll be lucky to find a house for that budget that’s a close walk/drive to the school. When I was at GHS (admittedly in the senior school) a huge percentage of us (and our RGS peers) took the train from the London Road station just opposite.

In terms of areas, putting aside your desire to live within walking distance, I would be looking at places like Godalming, Haslemere and Woking which are all well located for a commute into London.

Primera - Thanks for the advice! How did you find GHS? We might consider stretching our budget to 800k to live close to schools.

OP, have you looked at the map? Guildford High is just over a mile from Guildford Station and RGS sort of in between. If you buy in the town centre, you’ll be within walking distance of all 3 with some luck.

A state primary you can’t plan for as you don’t know where the vacancies will be.

It might also be a little premature to base your location on schools that are very selective and your children are years away from even sitting the exam.

You are unlikely to get much choice of state primary, especially if looking for 2 places year 2 or below. When was your ds 4? Have you contacted Surrey LA yet, to identify schools with current vacancies.

We are planning a move two years from now so hopefully DD would join GHS at 7+ and If we are not able to get a place for DS at our preferred school then we could send him fo Lanesborough (although this could stretch us a fair bit financially) hence we were keen to find an alternative.

I was going to say that the good state primaries might be your issue. I'd find out where there are spaces first and work from there. You might also want to consider North Hampshire and so check Hampshire availability too.

You won't know which state school has a space until you are ready to move and possibly not even until you have a confirmed local address. You may need to register both dc now (and pay a fee) for GHS/L to ensure they are assessed at the appropriate time for 7+ entry and year 2(?) in two years' time. Tormead might be an alternative to GHS.

I loved GHS! I have such fond memories of my time there! Although admittedly this was nearly 15 years ago I also wanted my children to go there but I’ve ended up with 2 boys

I agree. I would look for primaries first and base your location around them. Many (perhaps most) GHS girls at the senior school travel to school by train, and they come from a wide geographical area. The same is true of RGS.

As a general rule, the further away from London you are, the cheaper property will be. If you want a commute to London of no more than an hour, Haslemere or Liphook are about as far south as you'll want to be.

The most ethnically diverse area is probably Woking but that's closer to London and property is more expensive.

Thank you for your valuable advice everyone! We really appreciate it. Hopefully we would be able to plan things well.

Appreciate this thread has not been posted on for 4 weeks now.

But, £700k does not go very far in Guildford town centre. It certainly isn't going to buy a decent size 3/4 bed house with a good garden, within walking distance of schools and station.

This is a lovely house, walking distance of GHS and RGS as well as station:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88693052.html

Also, the 1hr commute to London - do you mean 1hr front door to desk, or 1hr on the train? We live in central Guildford, walk to station and my wife's office is by Bank, her journey is about 1hr20m - 1hr25m each way.