Primary schools in East Sussex

[Opc0904]

Thinking of moving from London to East Sussex (Brighton, Lewes area) in the next year with my two year old - any advice on nice areas to live with young children, and any school recommendations? Many thanks...

You're spoilt for choice when it comes to good primary schools in Brighton. (Stanford Infants, Downs, Bltachington Mills, Middle Street and many more).

Just a thought in case you have nothing else planned ..... Tomorrow is the annual Childrens Parade through the streets of Brighton which is great. There will be floats and the kids will all parade around in fancy dress with different themes for each school. It marks the start of the festival.

I made the move from London to Brighton 4.5 years ago and it could well be the best thing I ever did.

ooh, spidermama, we are coming down to Brighton to househunt tomorrow -where does the parade go and what time is it?

(sorry for the highjack Ocp0904 - good luck in your move, we are having a nightmare finding a house to buy).

\link{http://www.brightonfestival.org/index.asp?id=2019\Here it is} Pollyanna. The parade snakes through the streets ending up in the Pavillion Gardens. It's a lovely spectacle. You'll probably hear it if you're in town and you can just nip along to watch them go by. The often have salsa bands and drumming too.

I hope you enjoy it if you go. Happy house hunting.

Oh no! I've just noticed it's next weekend not this. Sorry.

thanks Spidermama - I'll probably be down next weekend too!

OPC - I live in Lewes and we are spoilt for choice for good primaries. The advantage is that you can choose any of them, though distance from the school is still one of the deciding factors if the school is oversubscribed. The disadvantage is that property prices are high, especially in the centre of town.If you want to CAT me I can give you the lowdown on the different schools - we are delighted with the one my son attends - but don't want to get too specific on here as I often post about educational things!!

I'm in Lewes too and I agree the schools are excellent (we moved from Brighton to Lewes for secondary schooling), but where you live will affect the amount of choice you have. I spent 12 years in Brighton and there are lots of excellent primary schools but secondary is a problem - I think you have a few years to worry about that though!

We moved to seaford in January, it seems to have an abundance of primary schools.

Love living here.

Live on Shoreham Beach (6 miles west of Brighton). The First School has just been approved to go up to a full primary and got an excellent in last ofsted report. It is a lovely school and Shoreham (particularly the Beach) is a great community. Loads of stuff for kids, great little festival on the green in june, fabulous free bonfire night that all of Brighton seems to come to. My ds is only 1 but know lots of people whose kids go there. Unfortunately secondary school is not so great.

Thanks to everyone for the messages - i'm new to Mumsnet and have just got more info in a couple of days than I have in weeks trawling the internet! It's been really helpful - sphil I will definitely CAT you once I've worked out how - thanks also to Spidermama for the info about the Brighton festival and to pollyanna with house-hunting, any more tips greatly appreciated (we'll be house-hunting next spring hopefully so won't be in competition - good luck with it all!).

We live in Hove, but a popular place for families is the Preston Park area in Brighton. The state schools are good around there, but the house prices have been inflated to reflect this. The area also has train links to London, so that makes it all the pricier. My son went to the Montessori on Stanford Avenue, which is great.

Lewes is very family friendly, according to friends and colleagues who live there. The Wallands school is meant to be good, up at the Nevill.

We live in the Hangleton area of Hove, which is very 'suburby' for Brighton. You get a lot more house for your money and a good size lawn, but the schools are the best up here. My oldest now goes to a private school in the area, St Christophers, which is excellent.

Good luck with the move, ginny

opc, we live in Falmer, which is between lewes and Brighton. The kids go to school in Kingston, a lovely village school. There are also lots of great schools in lewes. Lewes is a much nicer place to bring up the kids IMO. I know quite a few people who have moved out of Brighton to Lewes.