Surbiton / Long Ditton vs Teddington / Strawberry Hill

[OliveTree90]

Hello, looking for some advice :) Considering whether to buy a family home in Surbiton / Long Ditton area vs Teddington / Strawberry Hill. Primary options would be Collis / Sacred Heart / St Andrews etc potentially in Teddington with Grey Court / Kingston Academy maybe / Richard Reynolds etc for secondary depending on where exactly we end up. Surbiton would be Long DItton Infants and Junior / St Pauls / Hinchley Wood Primary based on the areas we are looking at. The worry is the secondary school options in Surbiton as we were hoping to move abroad perhaps for a few years perhaps but seems that with the feeder system, even if we were in catchment for some secondaries, we would lose feeder school status if we move abroad. I'm confused about whether there are good options in the area for secondary that do not rely on feeder school status? Catholic schools are an option. Surbiton commute much better of course and we can afford a bigger place. Also concerned about flight noise in Teddington. Any thoughts from parents from a secondary / primary school perspetive from either area? General area advice in terms of Teddington vs Surbiton? Thank you! :)

Presumably a sizeable budget?

I know Sacred Heart in Teddington very well and I'm happy to talk details by DM, if that would be helpful. We've been in Strawberry Hill for 15 years, and Teddington for a few years before that - it's a glorious place to live with kids.

@Rogerthat14 yes, fairly decent, enough for a family home in both - obviously would be smaller in Teddington

On the plane noise - we're between SH house and Teddington High Street and I'd say I notice plane noise once a day - normally 8.30-9ish at night, and when I check FlightRadar it's often a plane going to Singapore or KL. I don't know enough about planes and flights to know why those are noisier - bigger / lower / different speed / different route? But it's not intrusive - if you look at Flight Radar you'll see that Chiswick/Kew have noise exposure near-constantly, but SH and Teddington aren't so bad.

The Surbiton schools (Hollyfield, Southborough, Tolworth) do not have feeder schools but over the county border, the Elmbridge ones do as well as fixed priority catchment areas. Sounds like you are targeting Hinchley Wood, in which case you should aim to live in the Dittons or Hinchley Wood itself. At the moment, not all children in feeder schools living in catchment get in every year so going to St Paul's will put you out of scope. (But a lot of St Paul's pupils go to Salesian.)

@WrongDitton Thank you, yes St Pauls is not a feeder to Hinchley Wood but listed it as it's undersubscribed and therefore we are likely to get into if we come back from abroad at some point and come back to the UK pre-secondary. Do you know anything about the school? Problem is, this then feeds into Esher High which we would be out of catchment of... etc. Quite complicated! Do you know anything about the reputation of Hollyfield / Southborough?

@WrongDitton Also, we would expect to get into Long Ditton Infant and Junior, assuming we stay in the country. Do you have any feedback on these schools?

My kids went to Collis and Teddington school. Ive lived in Teddington for 16 years and never had a problem with flight noise - its not like Kew.

Esher High has removed its priority catchment area for 2026 and relying on feeder schools and distance. If you were moving into the local area and attending a feeder school then might be ok.

I know both schools very well and would recommend them to anyone looking in the area! They are federated and share a headteacher, deputy and SENCO. Obviously Long Ditton St Mary's is the only Outstanding feeder for HWS at the moment, and the infant school got 3/5 Outstanding grades at its inspection this year. Both have a small school feel because of the split sites and staff know all the children.

@WrongDitton Thanks for pointing that out, however at closer look seems that their last distance offered is too short anyway to reach parts of Surbiton we are looking at. If anyone else comes on who could shed a bit more light on the various Surbiton school options / vibe of the schools, that would be helpful.

@Ketzele Thanks for posting - if you have any insights on either schools that would be much appreciated!

There is plane noise in Teddington but not as bad as say Whitton, I wouldn't factor that in.

The Kingston schools you mentioned are fab, Hollyfield's reputation has improved a lot.

I think Kingston Academy catchment is very small (?)

I know both areas and the schools. As a rule of thumb the borough of Richmond schools are well regarded. The Elmbridge schools have a slightly different catchment, Surrey has the highest proportions of dc in private schools in England (20%) and the abundance of prep & private secondary schools around Esher and Surbiton is an indication of this.
Hinchley wood is a good school and you need to follow the admissions criteria to get a place.
Re Catholic schools, St Paul’s isn’t full because there are not enough dc to fill the local primary schools, in England school funding is based on the number of pupils, a school that is not full is not fully funded.

Richard Reynolds and Salesian are excellent options, read the admissions policies carefully. Around Esher dc travel miles for schools, out to Guildford, into London, down to leatherhead etc so take all the Catholic options into account.

I think Kingston Academy catchment is very small (?)

it is

in England school funding is based on the number of pupils, a school that is not full is not fully funded.

yep, you want a full school

Around Esher dc travel miles for schools, out to Guildford, into London, down to leatherhead etc so take all the Catholic options into account.

You are unlikely to get into the Catholic school in Leatherhead unless you are in a feeder.

Do you have boys or girls? Would the Catholic Surbiton schools be an option as these are excellent?

Kingston Academy catchment is small but Kingston (currently) does straight line distance so if you live on one of the river roads in Teddington or Hampton Wick you would likely be closer than people in central Kingston. Richmond borough schools are distance on public footpath, so again if you are the river side of Teddington you are likely to get into Grey Court as you can cross Teddington footbridge.
Strawberry Hill may not be in catchment for Collis. You want to be within a kilometer really to be fairly certain.
There is also St Mary & St Peter's primary in the north side of Teddington.

There's also Waldegrave girls if you are in Strawberry Hill or that side of Teddington (and have girls).

@OliveTree90 plane noise isn't a big issue - they're taking off, not landing, so it's not constant. As a pp said, the big long haul flights can be noticeable in the late evening as they don't gain height so quickly, especially in certain weather conditions, but there aren't many of them.

Surbiton is by far the best commute of the areas you mention. At primary level St Andrew’s and St Marks is great and at secondary Hollyfield is an excellent school. Many of my friends DC went there and did extremely well. Hinchley Wood used to be considered a better school than Hollyfield but I wouldn’t say that’s true now. There’s also Tiffin if yours are very academic. Esher College is an option for sixth form as they widened their catchment in recent years.

Hello thank you for your responses everyone. Really appreciate you taking the time to respond. At the moment boy only. @MaudlinGazebo Yes Catholic is an option, which do you mean by Catholic schools? If we stay where we are, we would be in the parish of St Pauls which I understand feeds into Selestian which is very far away. If anyone knows of other Catholic options / routes in Surbiton that would be helpful.

What I am a bit confused by is that there does not seem to be a Catholic secondary school option in Surbiton which is purely distance based - they all seem to be feeder schools from Catholic schools. So for example, if you went to Long Ditton Primary, you would no longer have Catholic secondary school options even if Catholic... or at least it seems that way? Whereas for example, Richard Reynolds only seems to have one primary feeder school so assume most students come from other primaries (Catholic and non-Catholic) purely based on catchment at time of application (assuming practicing Catholic)

@OliveTree90 to be frank, you should be grateful to have any state-funded Catholic options at all. As you also have the luxury of being able to choose between multiple desirable locations and therefore multiple desirable non-faith schools you are in a much more privileged position than most families.