Where should we move to in London for the best quality of life/schools?

[jesska]

Dh and I are living abroad and returning to the UK in a year and a half, when ds1 will be 3.5yo. We've decided not to try to squish back into our old house in Bethnal green, but rather to buy somewhere else with better schools/green space etc but also close enough to the city for dh's commute. Dh thinks Dulwich or East Dulwich are best, because he is familiar with the area. His view is that this would mean private schooling the kids most likely, because even if we bought a house next door to the village state school (which we could, in theory, afford to) this would not get us in since we are not religious and it's all a lottery anyway. We're okay going private but we would be equally happy to send the kids to a good primary if we could buy ourselves into the catchment area iykwim. (And frankly some of the schools in Dulwich strike me as too hothouse..i just want the kids to be happy, especially at primary school).

Can anyone give me a bit of advice about a move to Dulwich or East Dulwich or, alternatively, tell me where else I should look? Main things I want are a park nearby and good schools, within a reasonable commute to the square mile for dh. (But we're not overly keen on west central london). tia!

East Dulwich has some good primary schools, with a mixed intake. Dulwich Village Infants intake is very similar to that of a pre-prep. The Hamlet (juniors) is only slightly less so, but is alledgedly now filling up with kids whose parents can't afford the prep schools now.

Secondary-wise, Charter seems to be top choice for ex-Hamlet kids who are not going private. But you have to live on the doorstep to get in.

But if you are rich, you can pay anyway!

North london, zone 3 on Northern Line is the place to go. fab for families, good for schools and has good transport links unlike Sarf London, assuming you/your DH will be working in Central London or the City.

Areas I've experienced and liked: Hampstead and Highgate in N London, Wandsworth/Earlsfield in SW London, and Richmond &Twickenham that bit further out. Barnes and Putney very nice too, but I have no idea about the schools in these areas, sorry.

I am going to post before reading what others have said because I don't want it to colour my opinion! Firstly I should state that I am a south of the river girl. Always have been and always will be but for best schools and what nots, I think you are better off being in NW or West. Ealing and that kind of area or Golders Green and surrounding.

Good schools, in fact great schools but maybe more expensive to buy in that SE/SW

Putney and Wimbledon area is not bad if you are looking at SW. Apart from Dulwich in SE, I would think you would have to go deep into it, like Bromley to find good schools.

Sunshinecity, do you really consider Northern line good transport? It is one of the reasons we moved out of North London, dh's journey on a good day was 45mins but often was 1hr 30 or more do to problems.

We lived 'between the Commons' a few years ago, and I think it's still very des. Res.
Honeywell school in particular was the place to be, and you have access to Clapham Junction and the Northern Line tube.

Thanks for the input..actually dh refuses to live anywhere where his only transport option is the Northern Line (and I have to agree with him, having lived in Islington a while back). We're still looking at Dulwich, mainly because at least dh knows the area and we can more easily figure out housing and schools just using online maps/estate agents.

Would it be worth just going to our old house in BG for a year and looking around when we are there? Ds will be 3.5 when we get there, so I assume he would only be nursery age and not reception year age, correct? We could just put him into a nursery for one year and see where we get? Or is that leaving things too late?

You have to apply for your Primary School place quite early (not sure if it is the Jan before the Sep/Jan they start school, or before that), so if you want to try for a state school place, you need an address in the right catchment byt then. Obviously this is not such a problem if you are going private.

Also most state primaries offer at least pt places to the children at least the year before they start, but again you would need to be living in the area.

I meant nurseries within or attached to state primaries!

Jesska. I have lived in East Dulwich for 12 years. The area is awash with good primaries, but not so good secondaries. As you know, there are loads of private options, although JAGS, Alleyns and Dulwich College are all super-elite private schools, iyswim, very expensive, very competitive, not my cup of tea at all, but possibly exactly what you and DH are looking for?

Even if I had a considerable hike in income I would stay in East Dulwich rather than the Village itself - you just get so much more house for your money and I like the people better and it feels more like London than some weird country village plonked down in the middle of Brixton, Peckham and Camberwell.

4 trains an hour from East Dulwich station to London Bridge. Journey time 11 minutes. I imagine the journeys are similar from North Dulwich and West Dulwich stations. I also have plenty of friends and acquaintances who cycle in to the city quite easily.

Jesska, have you thought about going further east on the central line? South Woodford, Buckhurst Hill or Loughton springs to mind.

You'll be just fine at primary level in E Dulwich or its environs. I will let you know about the state secondaries in a couple of years.[helpful]

Agree with pimmpom but not loughton or buckhurst hill,
make sure you would be in a redbridge school catchment area (primary and secondary, has two grammars but remainder still good) any of the woodfords, and still eligible for a particular loughton school if you are religious.

on central line, near forest and M11 and easy access to olympics when the time comes

Jesska - I live in Dulwich Village and (probably) in the catchment for the village school, although not religious (will be able to let you know soonish when the places are announced). My DS is at nursery at one of the private pre-preps - feel free to CAT me (through the contact a mumsnetter thingie) or post an an email, and I can give you a run down on my experience. I am very anti-hot house and FWIW have been happy with what I've seen of DS's nursery so far - I think parental attitudes are more of a problem in some cases.

PS re train, mintty's right re the journey time being only a minute or so longer to North Dulwich. The West Dulwich train goes into Victoria I think (not London Bridge, anyway), which is less convenient.

Message withdrawn

hi all - so sorry I left this post for dead! Thanks for all the info, this is really helpful. Mintyy, if you don't mind saying, what are your options in E.Dulwich if you don't really fancy the JAPS, Alleyns, etc schools. I think I have read too many articles about people not getting into good state schools to think that would be possible (unless we bought a house across from the school gate). Because obviously there are good schools around there (Goodrich, Heber...all massively oversubscribed).

I've also figured out that we can't register DS1 for state nursery (attached to a primary) until we have actually bought a house and can prove residency, so I guess we just have to take our chances when that happens.

ps - legalalien, I have CAT-ed you by the way; hope you get the message!

Jesska, agree that northern line used to be BLARDY awful, but been seriously improved in last year or so (IME, before I get shot down!).

borough of Barnet is great for primary schools (we are in Finchley, with two Ofsted-rated "very good" primary schools within 10 mins walking and two more within 20 mins), and was in top 10% of GCSE results in the country last year. Finchley has lots of green space, good shops - mix of local high street shops, with big Brent Cross shopping nearby. close to M1, M25, A1 and North Circular if you are driving out of London, and it has a safe, family oriented feel.

I love it (in case you can't tell! )