Where to move to in the Home Counties (I know, I know...)

[sniffydog]

Hello Mumsnetters,
We're in London with 3 kids (7, 5 & 2) and are desperate to relocate to the home counties but we need some local advice on options! I know this is a common question which 2 years of researching still hasn't given us a satisfying answer to.

The wish list:

• Good primaries (that we have a hope of getting eldest 2 into in-year)
• Good secondaries - state, mixed, non-selective, not church.
• max 40 mins commute into Kings Cross, Euston, Liverpool St, maybe Paddington or Marylebone at a stretch. Or inner areas like Kentish Town, Camden or Highbury & Islington.
• erm...'nice' a bit countrysideish but things to do nearby (activities for kids, pubs, restaurants etc for us)

We've been through the usual suspects and still haven't found the one. Or at least they all require a compromise...
St Albans: ticks all the boxes but quite big, expensive and just not 'doing it' for DW
Harpenden: nice but crazy expensive (£1m for a bungalow!) and a bit "dull" for DW
Berkhampstead: great but limited secondary options.
Hitchin, WGC: meh (sorry)
Bishops Stortford: very nice but secondaries are all church, selective or single sex
Hertford: nice but lots of stuff about very oversubscribed primaries and secondaries

If there's anyone I haven't managed to offend who has some suggestions for other options, we'd love to hear them.

Nusa - they're doing a lot better than they used to. The top schools are pretty reasonable and have Outstanding ratings from ofsted - and from what people I know have said about them, they seem to have a lot of 'value added' stuff that they do well and the kids enjoy. I think one of them - Denbigh - is one of the few in the country that has been selected as a maths hub and others have similar schemes.

Plus there's the option of trying out for the grammar schools in Buckingham and Aylesbury which have great results. Not quite so ideal as bit more of a commute to school but plenty do it and it means that you get the choice of selective grammar or decent comprehensive. (whereas I think that if you were to live in Aylesbury or Buckingham and didn't get into a grammar school the other schools are significantly worse than the best comprehensives in MK so you get some decent options). Agree that there are some bad secondary schools though - although I suspect that most places will have some of those!

Agreed re bad schools and good schools everywhere! It was only hearsay from somebody I know who lives down that way.

MumTryingHerBest - I believe the proposed school at the bottom of Baldwins Lane is indeed to cater for West Watford and some sections of Croxley--certainly not Radlett. There are plans for a new school in Radlett, I think.

I have nothing to add about the merits of life in Bedfordshire vs London but it's worth bearing in mind that Central Beds still has an exclusively three-tier school system so if you're looking in that area you would be looking at in-year admissions to a lower school for your two oldest now, with a view to which middle school for your 7 year old in a year's time.

Harlington Upper School is very good though fyi. I will consider it for DS when he reaches that age.

Bedford itself has extremely good independent schools. State education in the Borough has been through a shake-up in recent years as it switched from three to two-tier, with middle schools closing and lower and upper schools taking on the extra children.

In Herts, Hitchin only has one mixed secondary school, which is good and a few good primaries which can get oversubscribed.

Many people I know in Letchworth and Stevenage prefer to send their children to the boys' and girls' secondary schools in Hitchin or Baldock, and Letchworth also has separate infant and junior schools.

How would Waterloo as main station? If ok could look at Hampshire - Basingstoke only 45 mins from Waterloo but secondary schools are a bit so-so unless you're Catholic. However Hook has good schools and is on same rail line, or look at surrounding villages etc.

Thame?
45 min from Haddenham to Marylebone, everyone seems to like it. Good comp (or so they say, no personal experience) - and primaries.

MK sounds promising too, and so affordable compared to everywhere else!

Thank you all for the fantastic replies. We've got some more driving around to do!

MK sounds ponderous. The town itself isn't great but what are the nicer villages on the outskirts?

Quenelle - DW went to Harlington Upper! Although - cough - more than 20 years ago. She says it was great but just has a weird notgoingbacktochildhood thing going on with it and all of Beds it seems. But you certainly get a lot more house for your money in Leighton Buzzard than St Albans.

Thame, Tring, Saffron Waldon etc all sound good but I really, really want to be somewhere that I can walk or cycle easily to the station. Once I'm driving to another town, parking etc I'm easily adding 30+ mins of missing kids time on to my day.

We're going to have another look at Hertford, St A and Harpenden. Plus try Royston, Leighton Buzzard (maybe), maybe look at Rickmansworth again...anywhere else?

Would you consider Waterloo and thus north Hampshire?
Hart district always comes out high on the 'desirable' indices and it is fully Comp

Have you looked at Wixams near Bedford? It is a new development and is like a self-contained village.

Why can't you cycle to the station in Tring? Granted it's not in the centre of town but, if you live on the right side of town, you could walk it. We live in one of the "Tring villages" and my hubby cycles to the station and is at his desk in the City in just over an hour. Tring is a lovely friendly market town, with some great schools and lovely pubs and restaurants. On the edge of the Chilterns so great for outdoorsy stuff. Oh, and all of the terribly snooty and incredibly rude loadsamoney people go and live in Berkhamsted so, happily, we don't have to suffer them in Tring. You couldn't pay me to live there!

On looking at my office situation (I work for myself so can move it where I need) we might look into Waterloo or Victoria as an option. That opens up lots of Hampshire, Surrey etc. But where do we start with that?

catty: Maybe I've been a little hard on Tring. We've been through once and though it was nice. Just didn't like the thought of getting to the station somehow in winter. We've also read lots of threads with not much nice to say about the secondary school.

sniffy
Hampshire :
Farnborough College for 6th form,
work back ... Wavell / Bohunt / any of them really for secondary
work back : primary where do you fancy

Apparently MK has a cycle track network separate from the roads, not sure if everywhere but sounds impressive.

Harpenden is fantastic for families. Great schools, great transport, and real community feel. What's your budget?
The £1m for a bungalow will be in the very posh part of town. People will pay that just to knock it down and build a new house. There are much better deals to be had.

And look at Wheathampstead

Anglo-European school is good in Bishop's Stortford, and that's not selective, single sex or church.

If you can stretch it to 50 something minutes you can do oxford. By the time you have got to the station from a village and/ or been on unreliable trains that run late, theres not much in it. high performing comprehensives (Cherwell and Cheney) and good primary feeders. Everyone in oxford is an atheist whatever the school says about being c of e.

Agree that it's important to think about the whole commute, door to door. Commuting time is frustrating, it's almost impossible to work, internet connection can be poor so can't do home admin or grocery shopping or whatever, it eats up a lot of time.

We tried hard to find somewhere within walking distance of a station, but not sure this was the right decision. The walk to/from the station here is grim in the winter, and dull all year round!

I do, however, like living fairly near several stations on different lines, useful when one isn't working for some reason, eg London bridge is bad right now and will be for some time because of major works.

Oh, and we ended up driving for childcare anyway!

Just seen this thread and wanted to point out that the biggest secondary school in Bishop's Stortford is Birchwood, a mixed comprehensive. As for someone saying the Anglo-European is not selective, they try every trick in the book to keep out the oiks

Kings Langley or Abbots Langley. Easy access into London via Kings Langley or Watford Stations. Brilliant road links, great primary schools and Kings Langley school is excellent.

Surrey or Hampshire.

Epsom. Good train links into Waterloo or Victoria and planned to be on the new cross rail.

Upminster, Essex. East end of the district line and also fast C2C train into Fenchurch Street that takes 20 mins. Good schools, especially Coopers Company & Coburn and Hall Mead. Nice town with park, shops, coffee bars, restaurants etc. Might be worth a look for you.