WHERE TO LIVE NEAR HAVANT HAMSPHIRE

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Hi. I?m a mother of two (one and three year old) and my husband and I are considering of moving in Hampshire. We currently live in Greece so is a big move for us and we need all the help we can get. For the time being I have a job offer from a company in Havant. My first question is which areas in Havant or nearby are nice and quiet for us to move. We are looking for family areas, to be safe as possible and if possible with good schools. Also we have no idea about the cost of living.
How much does a family of four needs per month to have a descent life?
Finally I would be grateful if you could explain me what is the deal with preschools.
My both children are very young so if my husband finds a job we?ll need a place for our children. What are the options for a one and a three year old child?
What is the difference between preschools and nursery school? Do I need to pay fees for these types of schools? Also if any mum has experience with nannies (cost and how to find a good one)? Please if anyone can offer any help we would be really grateful!!!!

lots of questions!

preschool is generally for children who are about to start school (so aged 3 and 4) while nurseries take children from birth to 5.

Havant is a great area to bring kids up. We lived in Denvilles - easy walk into the town.

There are good state schools in the town itself: Fairfield (age 5-7) and Bosmere (8-11) and St Albans (church school, age 5-11).

All your other questions are just too big for me to answer - hope you get the info you need soon.

Do some research and visit. Some parts of Havant are incredibly rough. My friend worked in a school where they had regular fire alarms as pupils kept setting fire to the building! Some parts, where other friends have lived are lovely, on the edge of Havant I think. Emsworth is nice although more expensive I think. Chichester is nice. Sorry I can't be more help but just make sure you visit before you commit to anything as in general Havant doesn't have a good reputation.

MIL and FIL are selling their house in Fareham (because they are retiring to the seaside!). They have brought up their 5 kids in their house in Fareham and say it is a great family area. Their house is on a little estate that is all culdesacs and slow traffic. It does look ideal for small children.

The kids went to state schools in the area. DH got a full scholarship to Winchester (very selective) his brother went to Cambridge and his sister has a PhD so the schools must be ok!!

St Christopher's Avenue, Fareham if you want to googlemap it.

Oops, St Christopher's Ave doesn't come up. It's the Wickham Road area.

Thank you all very much for your replies and valuable information. I have also heard that Waterlooville is a good area for a family to live. Does anyone have more info about the place?

Both are very mixed towns (I grew up in a village in between them), some nice parts, some distinctly not so nice parts to both of them. I can't say much about schools as I moved away long before we had children, however you can live in a nice part but be in the catchment area for schools in the not so nice parts quite easily, so take care. Bedhampton/Drayton/Farlington/Cosham run in a line between Havant and Portsmouth and are all reasonable areas, Fareham is nice, Purbrook and Denmead are also ok heading back up towards Waterlooville. If you are prepared to go a bit further, Emsworth is very nice, Rowlands Castle is nice (v. near Havant), both are more separate than the other areas I have mentioned. Horndean is ok too.

Havant and Waterlooville are both medium sized towns but they aren't particularly special town centres (not bad, but nothing special). The area is quite built up, all the towns and villages sort of run into one another so the town centres suffer a bit through competition with each other and nearby Portsmouth.

One big difference is that Havant has a mainline train station with trains to London, Portsmouth, Chichester, presumably Southampton too, whereas Waterlooville/Purbrook/Denmead/Horndean are not on the railway.

As for pre-schools, there are few state funded ones here, but all children receive some funding (15 hours I think) from age 3. Some pre-schools take from age 2 but you pay the full fee. For under 1s or full day childcare you would need a nursery instead (3 year would still get funding for that). Some nursery/pre-schools are attached to infants schools, most are not.

Actually, I do know a bit about secondary schools in the area, Springfield in Drayton has a good reputation but is very popular, also there is a Catholic school in Waterlooville which has always had a good reputation. You would need to verify all this though as I am possibly not up to date.

PM me if you have any more specific questions.

Oh, you might find the local newspaper helpful

News if you click on its News button there is a section for each local area including H/W.

Waterlooville and Havant are very similar IMO? Both are oldish towns which have massive post war developments. Havant has Leigh PArk which is the biggest council estate in the country - it used to be pretty rough but think it is a bit better these days?

Havant has the advantage of being on the fast train line to Portsmouth/London - Waterlooville is not on a train line at all.

The Catholic school in Waterlooville (Oaklands) is for secondary though? OP's kids are pre-school.