Advice on Horsham schools / Horsham in general please!!

[Confusedmartie999]

Hi,
We are thinking on leaving Kingston in the next few months to make the move to Horsham.
Our families are from Kingston / Surbiton however we are paying £1000 for a 2 bed flat in rent and could get a 2 bed house for the same.
We have 2 children, a 3 year old son and a daughter of 5 months so the schools need to be good for both boys and girls.
I hear st Wilfred's in Crawley is the best secondary but there are also single sexed schools in Horsham that are meant to be good, Millais and forest?
Or tandbridge house?
What is the area like in general?
Estate agents no hope, in fact 2 have been downright racist informing us to just steer clear of Crawley as it's Sutton immigration central on a bigger scale. So won't be asking them for any further advice.
Thanks for any heads ups :-)

Yes as feel unreasonable leaving surrey when everyone thinks it's the best place ever!

Of course OP did. It's the place to go for traffic.

Horsham is lovely, very family friendly, good train links and lots to do in the local area. Forest and Milais are great schools, but are secondary. Heron Way is a really good primary school, it was always very difficult to get into before they expanded, not sure about now. If you don't want to live in the town itself there are lots of pretty villages nearby.

West Sussex is much nicer than Surrey

I worked in Horsham for a number of years - I can see exactly why it is attractive to families - good schools, lovely town centre, safe area, good swimming pool, pretty parks, a theatre/cinema, lots of restaurants, and a nice range of shops, easy access to London on the train/M23/M25/Gatwick. Crawley just up the road for larger facilities (eg shopping centre, leisure centre etc) close to South Downs etc. House prices are not low, but are not as high as say, Reigate or Dorking. Please just ignore all the crap about the local Council/new development etc.

Primary we will be close to arunside and at John's ( husband is catholic so children baptised )
What are they like?
Would like to be in the town itself as husband will need the train every day for work :-)

Hadn't heard about a new development! Is it council places and that's causing worry to some people?

Pa ignore the estate agents. There's nothing wrong with Crawley. Not sure about primaries.

No, just the area is full of NIMBYs!

No more nimby's than anywhere else imo.

If husband is going to travel by train to work why stay in the SE? Where I live in Staffordshire the inf/jun/ sec schools are all Outstanding, £1000 per month will buy you a mansion and you can be in the City in just over an hour.

Train costs will obviously go up the further we are from Central London.
We don't drive so needs to be local ish to family
What's a nimby??

Not In MY BackYard. Someone who dislikes change that will affect their lifestyle negatively.
Horsham is lovely, I do supply in a number of their primaries and I've never been in an unpleasant one. Lovely town, good access to country, city and seaside.
With Crawley, the west is much less wealthy than the east side, and they had very few primaries out of many that have been rated good by the new OFSTED criteria last year. I supply there as well.
Good place to visit for shopping and theatre/film, but personally I would live elsewhere. Depends what you want.

I think Horsham will suit us better as not as big a town.
Is there a difference in the north Horsham area?
Are the houses a little cheaper just because they're not as close to town? Thanks!

Horsham is lovely - and MUCH cheaper than Kingston and surrounding area! I've lived near both and I completely understand that you'll get so much more for your money that way.
Have you looked at Redhill, Oxted, Horley - all have good train links? Not sure about schools though.

The best thing to do is go and have a look at houses in the different areas in Horsham, I've found the areas have a different feel to each other.

Horsham is lovely.
Good schools and a wonderful place to live. We've been here 17 years.

The north side is a bit more cost effective as there are quite a few new builds. There are a few roads in the Oakhill and Roffey areas I'd stay away from, but apart from that, it'll probably depend on which school you wanted to be near. The catchment areas for the primaries are quite small.

YABU.

Ed - why?
We have seen a house off of North Heath lane up for rent, £950 for a 2 bed house with a garden and parking.
Downside is 2 miles from the town so a long walk in as we don't drive but there is a bus that goes there.
What secondaries do children get into fr North Horsham?!
As from what I understand Millais, forest boys and tandbridge house are all over a mile and a half from there so out of catchment.

Not sure about Tandbridge, but Forest and Milais have large catchment areas - I know kids from outside Horsham that go to both schools. You can check on their websites. It's the primary schools that have small catchments. It's worth visiting some of the primary schools near where you are looking, though any applications for school places go through West Sussex County Council.

Thankyou!
Do you know anything about St. John's or arunside?

As you're out that way . Stay away from Billngshurst Primary.

I don't, sorry.