Where would you move outside London? £1.2m budget + excellent schools

[ponds12]

We’re considering moving out of London and would love recommendations. We have three children aged 6, 4 and 1 and a £1.2m budget for a family home.
Our priorities are:

• Excellent state schools our children currently attend an outstanding primary, so education is our biggest priority.
• A family-friendly community with lots of young families.
• Safe, peaceful and good access to green space.
• A 5-bedroom house with a decent garden, ideally significantly more for our money than we currently have in London.
• Commute to London within an hour.

We’ve looked at St Albans and Harpenden, and are also considering Welwyn Garden City, Chorleywood, Chalfont St Giles and Great Missenden.

Where would you recommend? Particularly interested in places where £1.2m buys a lovely family home, the schools are excellent and there’s a strong family community.
Would also love to hear from anyone who has made the move out of London — do you love it?

South Oxfordshire

Ok, you don’t like it, but it’s a gorgeous village with great amenities and a good high school, Colchester’s grammar schools are superb and there’s a wide choice of good private schools in the area.

I’d say St Albans and Harpenden, but £1.2 million may buy you a 3 or 4 bedroom detached house; but not a mansion! However, the schools are good. DGC go to a “good” primary in St Albans, with a diverse intake; and live in the catchment area for Sandringham, rated outstanding afaik. There’s also STAGs for girls nearby.

Those that have suggested Thames Valley (or to be honest, even Chalfont St Giles / Great Missenden / Chorleywood as per OP’s post) - I’m pretty skeptical that £1.2m would get you a 5 bed house with a decent garden…

ETA: ok, perhaps I’m being pessimistic:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/172750313

Kent. TW, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Bearsted and surrounding areas. Just be aware of the 11plus.

Look at Ampthill in Beds. Lovely town, great schools and you can get a really good house for that budget.

@ponds12 this gorgeous one just came up on my feed. Short walking distance to a branch line station, or a very short bike ride / car journey to a station on a main line into Marylebone - 40 mins.
Lots of good state primaries. Oodles of green space.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89985393

Horsell, a fantastic village that is walking distance to Woking station. Community feel, local shops and lovely pubs. Countryside walks on your doorstep and good infant, junior and secondary school in the village which adds even more to the feeling of community as so many of the children attend these schools. Woking train service is fast and very regular.

I think it depends where in London you need to commute to. Makes a difference whether you're work is in the city, Westminster, the centre or the north. Ideally you want to come in to whichever part is closest to work.

Places on Thameslink tend to be good.

So what if the user had help from an AI tool to draft the message. How does that make it 'goady' or supposedly 'not real'? Just because you don't have the same budget, there's no need to make up a negative narrative designed to make yourself feel better.

blah blah