Help choosing village in/near New Forest

[Mummyzzz]

We are hoping to move to the New Forest area to be closer to family. Looking for an attractive village, with excellent state primary and in catchment for grammar (salisbury or bournemouth) or good, but not too expensive private day school for secondary! Does anyone know what Landford/Redlynch are like? Any other ideas welcome. Dd starts primary school Sept 2014, so feeling under pressure to make a decision! Thanks everyone.

Why a grammar?
The Hampshire Comps get the same results with their kids for a lot less stress ....
Ringwood School www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=116496
is just one of them ....

Good point, thank-you, I didn't realise Hampshire had such good comps! Which other comps have a good reputation? Do you have any family friendly village recommendations?

Bransgore has a very good village school.

Mummyzzz
Both the Romsey ones, NOT the waterside ones, Hounsdown is coming back up, Priestlands in Lymington is good on paper, I do not know it though.
Basically this is an area that is known for good state schools so even the very rich tend to save on the fees !
The oddity is that our schools tend not to have 6th form - but the 6th form colleges are really good (Brock, PSC, BP etc)
And on the other hand kids do get the train or bus up to the grammar in Salisbury and the private schools are kept on their toes by the comps.

My friend lives in Downton and loves it - pretty place, and her DCs all went to the local primary and then to Girls or boys grammars in Salisbury and are doing well.

Is the tannery still going in Downton? I only ask because the smell used to be really overpowering - bleurghhhh

If your DD is not yet at primary school then she may not pass the 11+. Bournemouth grammars have no catchment area. If you achieve the required score on the exam you're in. Ringwood comp does have a very good reputation and does have a 6th form. I'm not sure if that's as good as the main school. The A level results didn't seem as good as the GCSE results when DD looked at it. DD goes to one of the colleges mentioned by talkinpeace and it is very good.
Can't help with where to live except to suggest short term renting before buying if you can so that you can have a really good look around.

Downton is pretty but beware the river! We looked at a couple of houses there and discovered you could not get household insurance because of flood risk. Higher up houses would be all right though! I wasn't loving the primary school... can't remember why now - it was ten years ago.

Redlynch looks a bit... nothingy .

I would choose Lymington, but if you want a pretty village, how about Martin or Breamore? Breamore has a mega-dinky primary school.

Thanks so much for all your advice. Does anyone have opinions on Woodgreen and Fordingbridge as villages to move to with a young family?

Fordingbridge is lovely - just not too near the river ....
Woodgreen a bit sleepy, ditto Breamore and Martin
Bramshaw is quite lively (judging by my friends FB photos!!!)

Not too worried by size, but a shop would be nice! A safe, pretty, friendly village with a few other young families (I know its a popular place to retire to...). In catchment for excellent schools. Am I too picky?!

I live in Nomansland which shares a school split across two sites with Landford. I grew up in Landford, living there for 20 or so years.
Landford and Nomansland both have plenty of young families and I wouldn't say it's somewhere people come to retire, most of the elderly people that live here I've known all my life. Landford has a shop, post office and a pub. Nomansland has a pub and a lovely french restaurant plus a great, trustworthy garage/workshop. You are pretty much in the middle of Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton so it's great for shopping, plus London from Salisbury on the train is about 1hr 15mins.
Our school has been graded outstanding by Ofsted and it's really lovely, it is split into two sites KS1 on one and KS2 on the other, I thought this would be a nightmare to begin with but it's actually turned out fine and it works well for age appropriate equipment etc. The school has just started an after school club too.
There are loads of opportunities locally for kids, Rainbows, Brownies & Guides are thriving and there are groups in both villages. Horse riding as we're on the forest, local weekend football etc etc.
Secondary schools you have the excellent grammars and then the choice of Romsey or Downton which are both doing really well, to the extent that some kids who pass their 11+ are still attending them.
Any questions do ask!

Thanks for all the helpful advice. From Landford/north New Forest would it be the Salisbury grammars that you would be looking at? Is it true that even bright kids struggle to get in from comps? Would Bournemouth grammars be an option from there (I get the feeling they are less competitive?)? We are 7-8yrs off secondary school, so difficult to know what the comps will be like by then and would be nice to have the option of grammars (or private day school if we have to!). Would the Ringwood/Fordingbridge area would give more options for secondary, avoiding the Salisbury grammar push...

Lots of private schools around.
Check towns on the HCC catchment finder ....
localviewmaps.hants.gov.uk/LocalViewmaps/Sites/schoolcatchments/
AND
HCC information on its schools is unusually complete