Hi there, we're half-way through buying a house in Kent, very much having thought along the lines that we wanted to move there for the schools. However, having moved back into our SE London house temporarily while the sale/purchase goes through (having lived abroad for past 2 yrs) I am having massive and very sudden doubts.
I was feeling pretty confident about what lay ahead in Kent - local Montessori nursery till age 5, then probably off to Dulwich Prep or one of the other local prep/pre-preps. In my sudden panic, I've been looking at what our options were to be if we stayed put here in SE15. From what I can make out, if we chose to go private (this would be less of a stress if we stayed as our outgoings would be less each month and we'd definitely be less exposed financially) the only decent local options seem to be JAGS or Alleyns. Looking at their websites both state entry is highly competitive - I think Alleyns states something like 180 applications for 18 places in reception!! What do the remaining 162 applicants do?! On the one hand I'm not sure I want to jump onto that particular hamster wheel, getting all stressed and competitive and putting them through 'interviews' at age 4. We have twins (age 2) so the odds of both getting into one of those schools is low (although obviously they're highly gifted 
). When I asked around at the various schools in Kent it seemed to be mostly a case of 'first come first served' but I can't find any decent-sounding non-selective preps in the area... or am I overlooking something? Surely there must be hundreds of children each year whose parents want them to get into these schools - where do they all end up??!