Looking for area with good secondary schools with easy commute to London city

[Bshweta]

Hi,
My family has recently moved to England and we are looking at prospective places to live in. Our main criteria is good state secondary schools, max 1 hour door to door commute to the city, open spaces. We have shifted from the US and have no prior experience of living in the UK.
We were looking at Surrey as we liked the place but looks like the rents are quite high here. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks

Highams Park! Your budget will get you a decent house in catchment area for the secondary school which is rated good. There's a direct line to Liverpool Street and Epping Forest is right on your doorstep.

Oh and Leigh on sea is nice but actually tiny part that is nice, it basically merges into Southend on Sea. And it's pricey because of that. Not sure about the schools there.

I second Upminster. Some very good schools, very quick and easy to get to the City, and lots of open spaces.

Watch out for the dreaded grammar systems.

State schools in some areas still have grammar schools. To get in you child must score highly in the 11 plus test, sat in Year 6 (10 -11). The highest scores get grammar school places, all else go to the other state schools. Little chance of your kids getting into grammar schools.

Kent, Medway, London boroughs Sutton and Bexley are all grammar. There are others.

Surrey is the comprehensive system. East Surrey has decent trains to London Bridge and Victoria, and is cheaper than further West, which tends to go up to Waterloo. You can walk over London Bridge and be in the City in 5 mins, it's a nice walk.

Look at Whyteleafe/Warlingham/Sanderstead, it's Zone 6 (so still London for train ticket purposes). Warlingham School and nearby Riddlesdown are excellent schools. De Stafford in Caterham is smaller and less good, but OK.

Further out, Merstham has stupendous links to London Bridge (but some quite hairy bits) and is outside the Oyster zone for trains, so a pricier commute. St Bedes is a great school (ecumenical RC and C of E).

Agree with others that, assuming you are looking for a place in Year 7 now, you are going to need to contact the local authority where you think you might want to live to find out which schools have a place.

I live in Hertfordshire with an hour door to door commute to central London, and near excellent state secondaries, the best of which will not have a space in Y7 or even Y8 and Y9 because they are massively over subscribed and people tend to keep the place they’ve got. (Husband teaches at one of the best in the county and he says there are very few new joiners in the first few year groups). And if someone else moves into the area at the same time as you, the tie break as to who moves up the waiting list is likely to be who lives closest to the school.

I’d identify a couple of likely areas to live with good schools, then get on the phone to the relevant local authority to ask which schools have places. It might well be the under performing schools, and you might well have to wait for a place in a good school to become available.

Surrey to Waterloo then walk or tube to the city of London look at surbiotn esher Guildford train line

Used to be a website that you put your preferred station into and max commute time so say you worked at Bank and it would take 20 mins from Waterloo then you could see places that you'd be 30 mins on a train with 10 mins between home and station giving you the hour. Must still be around or one similar.

Thank you everyone ,I truly appreciate the time taken to help out. We are yet to close in on a location so all ideas are welcome.

Does anyone have any views on Raynes Park?

Not really, in that Raynes Park is a bit ‘meh’. I guess you’re close to Wimbledon and the green spaces, and it’s on the direct line into Waterloo (you then get the drain aka Waterloo/City line direct to Bank for work). I think if you’re looking at that area, then I’d also consider Kingston to be near the river, Hampton Court, Bushy Park etc.

I know the Raynes Park/ Kingston area very well. Rental will be tight within the budget but there are a lot of secondary schools in that patch, some better than others. It’s a nice area, some of it very nice. Sorry not much help but certainly worth considering. New Malden has plenty of trains running through and sits between the two areas. Coombe Girls is well regarded.

Raynes park has no character. I'd chose Kingston (Tiffin Boys and Girls- Grammar Schools so selective), Ham (Grey court is an outstanding state secondary) or Richmond (although your budget probably won't be enough for Richmond). It's so pretty around all three of those areas as you have the river going through and Richmond park for greenery. It's beautiful!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117403667#/?channel=RES_LET
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120819005#/?channel=RES_LET

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121678124#/?channel=RES_LET

Wherever you chose to live you should speak to the Local Authority Admissions team of that area to determine if there are spaces in her year. Many schools are oversubscribed so she might not immediately get a place at the school you want, she may have to go on the waiting list.

Leigh-on-Sea is really part of Southend. It has four selective grammar schools, with good reputations Southend has two separate train lines. One goes into Liverpool St, and the other into Fenchurch St. You could probably walk on to most City jobs saving you the cost of the tube element of a season ticket. Coming from the east, either line would also be useful for jobs in the docklands area. On either line the journey is about an hour.

I wouldn't recommend Leigh on Sea or Southend as your first experience in the UK to be honest, or Highams Park. I'd look at Hertfordshire, Richmond area including Ham, Kingston, Twickenham, St Margarets etc, and then Tunbridge Wells. Budget will probably be your compromise.

@Hollyontherampage Thanks,ive heard good things about those other places you mentioned. just curious though why would Leigh on sea not be a good choice

@Bshweta others may disagree and I'll probably get called a snob, but aside from a few very nice roads in Leigh on Sea it's a bit run down in my opinion. Also, depending on your politics, most of that area of Essex voted to Leave the EU, so it wouldn't be my choice yp raise my children there, but of course you may be a Republican and be happy with that for all I know! Personal choice.

I think the thing to note about the Richmond area is that you will get quite a lot of aircraft noise as it’s on the flight path to Heathrow.

Do you have girls or boys? One child, more?

I think your budget would be ok in Epsom. Something like this is very close to Rosebery, an excellent all girls state school:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121676267#/?channel=RES_LET

Or this would most likely work for Blenheim (mixed) or Glyn (boys) - obviously if they have spaces, depending on waiting list etc.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121872677#/schools?channel=RES_LET

Trains to Waterloo or London Bridge in 35-45 mins.

@DoThePropeller

Do you have girls or boys? One child, more?

I think your budget would be ok in Epsom. Something like this is very close to Rosebery, an excellent all girls state school:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121676267#/?channel=RES_LET

Or this would most likely work for Blenheim (mixed) or Glyn (boys) - obviously if they have spaces, depending on waiting list etc.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121872677#/schools?channel=RES_LET

Trains to Waterloo or London Bridge in 35-45 mins.

Thanks so much. We will look at Epsom too.

I have 1 of each, girl is 11 and boy is 6

Are you Catholic or anything? If your children are baptised catholics that will nudge you up the waiting list on faith schools. Waiting lists are in order of over subscription criteria, rather than when you joined the list, so the closer you live, the better if not applying for a faith school. Can you homeschool while you wait for a place to come up? That would also give you the luxury of waiting for a place at a school you like. Most of the good and outstanding schools are over subscribed and have waiting lists in pretty much every town, so finding out what their order of priority is will help you get in.

leigh on sea is in catchment for 4 grammar schools. However I dont think the state schools are too great other than those if you dont get into grammar which of course us selective. A good option would be Rayleigh or Eastwood good primaries particularly Rayleigh and good state senior schools but its Ss6 postcode so still in catchment for grammars in Southend State comps can recommend the Eastwood school and Sweyne Park best primary in Rayleigh is probably Grove Wood but they are all qood

Leigh-on-Sea!

Leigh is a wonderful place to live, moved here in 2017 and haven’t looked back. It very much isn’t run down not sure what previous poster considers run down but it’s a beautiful town and has been up and coming for years / has pretty much ‘up and come’. It’s great for family’s and yes although much of Southend is a ‘vote leave’ place, leigh on sea itself actually isn’t.

@PacificState

Just be aware OP that very good state secondaries are often really over-subscribed, especially near london. It may not be easy to pick up a place in the middle of year 7 - you might have to join a waiting list. Other posters will have more experience but certainly around here (Surrey) you can wait until Year 8 or even Year 9 before a spare place comes up in a really good state school.

This is very true. We're in Sanderstead and my youngest has been waiting for over a year for a space at our local (excellent) primary. We have sibling priority but no one leaves!