Best area to live for a growing family?

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Hello everyone,
I just moved to London a month ago and my husband and I are actively looking for a property to buy in north/north west/west London. My husband will be working in central London so we need to be somewhere easy commute.
We don’t have any kids yet but we are hoping to live somewhere that has enough of choices for both state and private schools. Also close to parks etc suitable for a growing family.
We saw some new builds in Totteridge, however, I noticed there are not many outstanding state schools and private schools.
We have been recommended to look at Muswell Hill, East Finchley, Highgate, Hampstead and Ealing Broadway. Is there any other areas that you recommend for good school choices?
Also are there any moms here have kids study in private school and the school is far from home?
Do you drive them to the school everyday? Or how do kids get to the school?
One last question...is there anything I need to prepare ahead or notice if we’d like to apply for famous private schools such as Westminster or Highgate School?

Thank you very much for your help. I’m just recently start looking into schools. Appreciate for everyone’s help.

would you consider letchworth garden city? it has primary and secondary schools (and more in stevenage which is only a 10 minute drive away), a station (so easy access to central london) and lots of green spaces. It also has a nice town center. all the best x

Wow, you are planning ahead!

How well off are you? Unless you are very well off, it may be that Hampstead and Highgate are a bit infeasible.

Re applying to schools like Westminster/ Highgate, it’s worth being aware of registration deadlines - these will all differ between the different private schools. Westminster starts at 7 at the earliest (boys only) while Highgate starts at 3 (but has different entry points).

This May be useful.

As Crucru says, it depends entirely on your budget! If it’s at the lower end (in a relative sense!!!) then I personally would look at East Finchley from your list. Upper end I’d go for Hampstead/Highgate. Muswell Hill is lovely but no tube. I’d also look at Highbury.

To be honest, if you are already (even pre kids!!) starting to think about specific school names then I think it sounds like you’d benefit from the services of a relocation consultant. Some private schools require registration at birth so you need to be quite ahead of the game for that - I imagine a consultant could tell you which ones and where they are.

There will also be nurseries / preschools that prepare children for the assessments for certain schools. You may need to also apply for those relatively early (depending on where you end up living).

Have you considered St Albans?

If your husband can bare the commute and look further out... my husband commutes daily from Banbury into central London... it's 56 min on train.
You get a lot more bang for your buck, excellent schools both state and private.
It's hard for him but we have a beautiful home with a big garden fir kids to play in.
Village is wonderful with safe park and kids do what they did in my day and knock on doors to see whose free to play.
Have a look at the chiltern line... it's excellent
Good luck!