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

I would also recommend Bromley/Chislehurst/petts wood/Orpington if you are aiming for the city. There are two lines into London from the first and last . One to London Bridge, Cannon Street (for the City) and Charing Cross (for Leicester Square,Covent Garden etc) which Chislehurst and Petts Wood also serve, and the other to Victoria for Buckingham Palace etc. The primary schools are excellent and good comprehensive secondaries too, single sex and mixed. I don’t know about mid year admissions but I am sure they are easy or difficult as anywhere else round London.

Sorry, just realised you are looking for secondaries only. I would recommend Bullers Wood Girls School in Bromley/Chislehurst or Langley Park Girls in West Wickham, or Darrick Wood (mixed) in Orpington if you head this way.

St Albans - AL1 specifically to be close to the station. Can get into St Pancras in under 20 minutes
Amazing schools and perfect for family life.
Your budget will get you a lovely family home in a great location.

Guildford in Surrey might be perfect for you. Some of the best state schools in the country, 30 mins to Waterloo and surrounded by an AONB, great for bringing up an active family and living an outdoorsy life, and the surrounding villages are chocolate box gorgeous. Good luck!

Raynes Park as others have said is perhaps not the most immediately appealing place and there are far nicer places to live in that south west London area, such as Kingston, Surbiton, Hampton, Teddington, Richmond, Ham, but it does have some advantages as it is close to Wimbledon and its facilities but cheaper; and you can connect to the tube network at Wimbledon, for a useful alternative to mainline trains. It is also closer to London and in travel Zone 4, compared with Surbiton and Kingston in Zone 6 so it's cheaper for travel, as well as those few miles closer.

Surbiton is well connected and better for fast trains into Waterloo than Kingston - or New Malden which someone mentioned - and it is good for late night trains, taxis at the station, buses, even bikes, whereas I would not want to hang around New Malden station, or Hampton Court, Esher and other quieter ones on the slow train lines. It is also well placed for Heathrow by cab, taxi, express bus or driving but without the aircraft noise you get in Richmond, and it's not bad for Gatwick either. Nearest tube connection is Wimbledon, 7 mins non-stop on the fast train. Or Richmond by road.

If you want to go well out beyond Greater London, Guildford, the Surrey county town, could be a good choice, offering other opportunities and amenities in the countryside as well as good town facilities, shopping etc. Then again, the train journey is a bit longer but tolerable if you get the fast non-stop to Waterloo which could be close enough to 30 minutes. Plenty of people do that and work in the City. The slow stopping train is to be avoided, at least by me. I don't know about you...you may not mind it. And will you be commuting five days a week or just a couple? That could affect your decision too.

If you want to be within very easy reach of fenchurch st then Upminster is your best bet. Schools good and plenty of nice houses.

[quote Bshweta]@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[/quote]
I lived and worked in south end near Leigh on sea for years. Awful place for the most part. Run down. Deprived. A tiny bit of Leigh is ok but drive anywhere within 10 mins and you are in a not nice area. Wouldn’t bring up kids in Southend if you paid me. The train runs straight into fenchurch st but if you want my advise stay well well away from any part of south Essex.

Look on the Ofsted.gov.uk website and navigate to the latest results in all the boroughs. Schools here have weird status' such as academised and private and so forth, some statuses are working better than others it's complex. You should get a feel for it and then compare housing and commuting costs.
You also need to decide what your ideal house and lifestyle would be in addition to schools. Good luck

I would try as Epsom or Ewell, as someone else has suggested. I would try to be in the catchment for Rosebery. This would give you access to good primary schools for your younger child.

I would also look at your definition of a good school. Good for one student might not be good for another. Check out the ethos of the school by reading the headteacher’s bit on the website. Look at how big schools manage the pastoral side of thing. If there are any problems you would want to know how the school would resolve them.
It’s a bit tricky and I would always say that kids settle in really quickly even with a min year entry.
Looks at the facilities in the school that are important for you.
Good luck

I think you would be best advised to use a school placement/advice agency as the UK system is very complex, especially with DC of different ages and genders (lots of secondaries = high schools) are single sex here and if you're looking at in year admissions, doubly so. As you can see from this thread, there are religious schools (in the state sector too), academically selective schools, and lots are not only full but could be filled many times over.

Thank you everyone for your inputs thus far.

We realised that good homes in Kingston upon Thames are also going above our budget of 2500 pm. Now looking at Sutton. Does any one have recommendations on Sutton.

This entire process has been very stressful for us as we are new here and don't really have a good idea of the places around.I am very grateful to this group for providing us information and helping out.

Wimbledon/Raynes Park would be a good option for you.

Might be worth you starting a new thread with 'Sutton' in the title, or asking Mumsnet HQ to edit your thread title to include Sutton. For what it's worth I've got friends with school-age children in Carshalton and it's very nice around there, although I think as everywhere some of the secondaries are great and some... not so great.

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate all the feedback.

For anyone wondering what we finally opted for....

We finally increased our rental budget a bit and opted for Kingston. We absolutely love it here and there are fantastic schooling options.

Thankfully now, both the children have got in lovely schools. The primary admission for my son happened almost immediately. We had to stay on the secondary school waitlist for about a month for my daughter but eventually got a place in an outstanding school nearby under the Fair access program as we were an in year admission .

I remember your thread, was wondering where you would end up. Good to hear you've settled in, Kingston is lovely.

Depending on how academic your kids are Kent (so Tonbridge, Tonbridge wells, dartford, Maidstone) still has traditional grammar schools. They are state schools, but the child has to pass an entrance exam to get in- they are a little controversial to some, but because children are surrounded by other academically strong kids the overall standard is higher.

All true, but the chances of getting a mid year place at one of Guildford’s heavily oversubscribed outstanding secondaries are slim to none.

NC'd for this just in case. I'd avoid Hitchin Boys' since the new head took over. He's somewhat of a Covid-denying whacko who doesn't seem to understand that schools aren't budgeted like Goldman Sachs. There's been quite a few staff leaving and a fair few on the way out. If they aren't leaving of their own accord (as many are) or falling into line with the new general then they're being pushed.

Hampshire has good state schools and is cheaper than Surrey. If you go for the north, eg Fleet/Odiham/Hook sort of area, you have decent links into London (though not as good as they were pre-covid, sadly).

Not a grammar school area, so "just" need to find a house near a good school.

Guildford is really nice, but has house prices to match. It also scored highly in a Mumsnet poll about who had the most up themselves inhabitants. And I think the state schools are actually better in my part of Hampshire because people don't get siphoned off to the private schools as much.

I should have read the whole thread as I see you ended up in Kingston. Oh well you are not that far from Guildford if you want to visit it :)

Just discovered that Guildford is the county town of Surrey. It make sense that it should be, but I thought it was Kingston!

It was Kingston (Surrey County Hall was in Kingston until a couple of years ago).

But Surrey County Council moved to the old Cannon HQ in Reigate at long last, Kingston having become a London Borough yonks ago.

Great news @Bshweta ! We are planning a move also in Teddington. May I ask how did you activate the Fair Access program? The Teddington school doesn’t have places. And it would be the closest one. We would also need an in year transfer in year 8th. Thank you!