Thinking of moving to tunbridge wells

[harrynfred]

we are thinking of uprooting from our nw London home to tunbridge wells in the next year - I have 2 boys - 5 and 3. I have a friend who lives in st johns area and who has 2 boys also, but they are older. Would love some advise on primary schools and pre-schools.

In case of oversubscription, are there any 'affordable' prep schools/ independent primaries? My eldest currently attends a no frills mixed independent primary which we like very much and is less expensive than many other London independents!

To be honest, all of the 'good' primaries in TW are oversubscribed. The Mead is the fallback for those 'having' to go private as I believe it's the 'cheapest' in TW. Rose Hill is also very good, but I understand is full until 2014 or something. Holmewood House is almost £16k a year so not sure where that sits on your 'affordable' register - they do scholarship exams in March every year for Yr3 entry. Beechwood is the Catholic indie and of course there are loads of preps further afield around here......

Preschools are also fairly full I think - I got my eldest two in fairly easily into one, but for DS2 we were told to apply for all of the sessions we wanted for the year this summer, due to them being massively oversubscribed.

It is a great place to be, and very family friendly - but that's 'cos there are millions of us who have all 'moved out of London'

Thanks so much. I thought Rose hill looked lovely. I guess I'll be looking at 2013 or 2014 school years for both, so I'll enquire and see how I go. Would massively prefer state, but a fallback would be good. It's early days and I'm still having reservations (entirely selfish ones) about moving but gut tells me it's the right thing to do for the long term. Eeeek! X

We've never regretted it if that helps at all!! And if you've got children, it's such a family friendly face, you're bound to meet people very quickly.

If you want St John's you need to be very near the school - catchment this year was under a third of mile!

agreed maddot, we are 0.38 miles from st johns and didnt get dd in for 2010 entry - sounds like 2011 was just as bad. You can look up the catchment areas using the councils applying for primary schools booklet on their website. Some are very small

Hi HarrynFred,

Wanted to say hi as we are also thinking of moving, from East London to Twells, and have 1 DS 2.5 yrs and new baby on the way next year (march). Feel like you that "gut feel" says need to move out of London but it does feel rather daunting to uproot from everyone we know to somewhere we wont know anyone! Not to mention "making the move out" gulp!
Reading Mumsnet though it seems like there are a few people doing the same thing which is encouraging!

Cheers,

Sally