Hi, we are looking to move to the south following the birth of DS but a bit struggling with finding the right place. Basically, we are looking for a town having really good prep schools and ideally a lively and busy-ish town centre but still within commutable distance from London.
The main reason for relocating is to give DS (4mo) a best possible start in life. So having access to really good prep schools and a good range of activities for kids is most important for us.
We are currently living in a small village outside Edinburgh. I have to say I'm not quite enjoying it. Going anywhere (e.g. favourite coffee shop, a decent hairdresser, gym) requires a minimun 20 mins drive to start with which is a bit of a pain. So we are not looking at small villages this time.
Both of us will likely go to employers' London offices so need to commute to the City but not on a daily basis (once or twice a week i expect). I'd say 1hr or slightly longer if train less busy is good enough for us.
We have looked at Guildford but the prep schools are a bit limited. We liked Lanesborough initially but then realised its site a bit cramped and worried it could not offer a wide enough range of activities fo DS. Also it's selective. We are not sure if DS could get into it. There doesn't seem to have many good options to fall back to.
Also looked at Sevenoaks in Kent. Both DH and I quite like the Sevenoaks School as it offers IB (potential for overseas uni) and the facilities look fab. The Sevenoaks Prep is one of the feeding prep which is non-selective and seems quite nurturing from past parents' comments. There are some other good preps too. But my only problem with it is the town centre looks a bit too quiet / lack of good shops & restuarants for my like. I'm also worried if we want to take DS out on weekends we'd end up going to London as Sevenoaks doesn't seem to offer a wide enough variety.
We are not looking at London as we don't want to downsize too much. And I've heard schools in London are usually very competitive even at early years which is not something we want DS to go through when he's so young.
It'd be helpful if we could travel to the towns and get a bit feel of living there ourselves. But with a 4mo and covid it's not possible at the moment.
Are there any other place we should look at? Or does such a place even exist? I feel like we are heading to a deadend and need a fresheye to give some advice. Any comments would be really appreciated!
TIA.