Hi everyone,
I haven’t posted on here for years, when someone’s advice on baby sleep literally changed my life!
We are lucky enough to own a 4 bed house in Herne Hill, on the Lough Jct side. We have two kids, DD in year 2 and DS in reception.
Whilst I know secondary catchments are liable to change by 2028 (and likely to grow given demographic decline, esp in London) we are not in catchment for Charter North. But might get it on the waiting list.
DD seems pretty academic so far and is very bright but we won’t be able to afford indys for both kids and DH is pretty anti, although he and I both went to excellent independent regional schools and then both to Cambridge.
Final piece of context: we are currently living abroad and will return for DD to begin secondary in Sep 2028. Herne Hill place rented out.
Given all this, I’m wondering if we sell up in Herne Hill whilst overseas to buy somewhere like Kingston or Sutton with excellent selective state schools. I’m also out of the loop on Charter North’s reputation as we’re overseas. But I prefer the idea of single sex for DD, I think. Obviously Tiffin Girls is superselective but it looks as though there are lots of other good local options if DD didn’t get in.
We are lucky to have time and space to think about it- we could put our house on the market say in 2025/26, then take our time to be chain-free buyers and wait for something “right” to come up without being under the usual house buying pressure. Then also have the correct address for a school application without a mad rush. Budget of £1.5m max.
However, if we don’t move and do manage to get the kids into Charter North then our mortgage would be much more manageable and we’d have more money for music lessons/saving for University etc. We would end up with a similar property to the one we’re in at the moment for £1.5m but with a much larger mortgage (and £100k+ of stamp duty etc). Probably get something nicer than we have if we went for Sutton, but the access to Richmond Park from Kingston sounds right up DH’s street and the area sounds lovely for families.
I will need to commute to Waterloo-ish and that’s unlikely to change. Hence another part of the Kingston appeal. Although from where we are now in London I can do it on an ebike in 30 mins which is pretty dreamy. Might mean I could be around more for the kids in the evenings if we don’t move.
Would welcome views on what you would do! Or other areas to look at. Feel like we are lucky to have options but don’t want to wake up in 2028 without a place at Charter and kick myself for not getting sorted. I did think about this when we moved to the house but DH persuaded me that secondary was a lifetime away 😂
Having lived in London for 15 years I have literally never been to Kingston! But will be back in the summer and mulling a visit.
Thanks in advance!