Buying in Knebworth, Old Town Stevenage or Letchworth. Which state schools?

[Wheretobuy]

We are priced out of Hitchin etc but have to stay in the local area. DCs are of primary age so need to think of secondary schools now.
Does anyone know of John Henry Newman or Thomas Allayne? Also, which state schools are better in Letchworth or knebworth? Our budget is 350k and we are looking for a 2-3 bed house.
We are planning to put our children on the grammar school/scholarship for good independents route and this won’t be our forever home. Both DC are bright so we wish to give them this chance. But equally don’t want to be in an area with not-so-good secondaries if we miss grammar admission.

I need to commute into London KingsCross preferably.

Help me find a suitable area Mumsnet!

If you do Letchworth then Highfield isn't a terrible option, and you stand an outside chance of getting your kids into Hitchin girls or boys which are both outstanding (about 20 kids from letchworth get into each school a year.

If schools are really important to you then could you stretch your budget a bit? For around 400 you could get a 2/3 bed Victorian terrace in Hitchin (as long as it's not in the centre of town) and be pretty much guaranteed to get the kids into the secondaries there.

@leggingsandwellies

If you do Letchworth then Highfield isn't a terrible option, and you stand an outside chance of getting your kids into Hitchin girls or boys which are both outstanding (about 20 kids from letchworth get into each school a year.

If schools are really important to you then could you stretch your budget a bit? For around 400 you could get a 2/3 bed Victorian terrace in Hitchin (as long as it's not in the centre of town) and be pretty much guaranteed to get the kids into the secondaries there.

Thank you for the detail! Stretching the budget is not an option unfortunately. I like that you say Highfield is not terrible. Do you have any info on John Henry Catholic?

I'm from that area and went to Hitchin Girls School, but heard good things about John Henry Newman - a few of my friends from primary school went there. They did used to be quite strict about admissions (as in would really only accept Catholic families, although they were supposed to be open to everyone) but this was nearly 20 years ago so has probably changed.

Highfield is also a great school, definitely recommended.

Also I hear Fernhill has improved massively in the last few years, so that's another option in Letchworth itself.

You won't get into Henry Newman, there is too much competition from the growing Catholic community.

@Quailfortune

You won't get into Henry Newman, there is too much competition from the growing Catholic community.

This sounds difficult. We are considering Baldock as that is on the same train line.

Knights Templar is supposed to be very good if you're considering baldock!

Knight's template is good. Baldock trains are much less frequent and slower than Stevenage, but if that's a compromise you're really with, Baldock is lovely.

The Stevenage old town schools are a mixed bag in terms of intake - Stevenage is a varied town. Alleynes isn't bad but hasn't got the extremely high reputation it had years ago. Barclay is improving but from a pretty poor standard a few years ago. John Henry Newman is a Catholic school, so non-Catholic intake is tiny. Church attendance is expected in the years before transfer.

From Knebworth, some go to Stevenage and others to Welwyn schools. I'm not sure about these so much. There used to be school buses in both directions but I don't know any school-aged children in Knebworth these days.

I lived in knebworth (now moved to Stevenage) and went to Dame Alice Owen's in Potters Bar. It's a lovely school that gets excellent results and the commute is very doable - a big mob of kids would be on the train so was easy to make friends. Would highly recommend

@leggingsandwellies

Knights Templar is supposed to be very good if you're considering baldock!

This is great to hear. Is Knights Templar academic? I have read the Ofsted report of Highfield and it appears encouraging.

@iabvvu

I lived in knebworth (now moved to Stevenage) and went to Dame Alice Owen's in Potters Bar. It's a lovely school that gets excellent results and the commute is very doable - a big mob of kids would be on the train so was easy to make friends. Would highly recommend

Dame Alice Owen sounds like a great option too. This is the kind of info I am looking for.

You would be hard pushed to find a 2-3 bed in knebworth for your budget I'm afraid

Hiya, I can’t help you but I’m in the same boat and just wanted to say I feel your pain. I have been looking for an 3-4 bed house in hitchin for about a year now. The market is just so crazy and a lot of the properties we liked went for well over asking price. One house in particular went for 45k over asking! It’s just so crazy and we can’t compete with that. We have decided to go into rental in WGC or Stevenage old town and wait till stamp duty holiday ends and hope the craziness will slow down.

Are you also priced out of villages around hitchin like codicote as my partners cousins both lived codicote and both got in to hitchin girls and boys