Whitstable/herne bay/Canterbury or sturry? help plz

[angel82fairy]

Hello everyone, this is my first ever post so thank you for reading in advance, any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Im married, 31 yrs old with a daughter who is 5 yrs old and we currently live in Caterham Surrey. myself and my husband are shift workers and rely alot on my inlaws for childcare. They live in westgate on sea and are finding the weekly traveling up and down for childcare tough going. As a result we have made the descision to move! We dont fancy westgate as its too far as we still have to drive and do the commute for work to london daily. So we are thinking Canterbury, but finding properties with parking for 2 cars a nightmare, whitstable, herne bay or sturry. The reason we are including sturry is because my daughter has been accepted to sturry church of england school but we dont mind a little drive everyday to take her to school. Our main priority is being close to abit of life eg, restaurants, nice pubs, shops, things for children to do etc, not rough in terms of gangs of youths up to no good and accessible for the motorway to london with a journey no more then 1hr 15min preferably, hence these areas being are shortlisted ones. We wont know anybody so looking for a community with people around our age to maybe make new friends or at least feel we are not just amongst retirees.
any advice would be great, the best/worst areas etc
thanks so much x

If your child has got a place at the school why not start looking at Sturry first? Or would you consider other schools? The likelihood is that all her friends from School will live close to you and the parents are most likely to become your friends (it can be difficult to meet people so I think school gates are your best bet). I'm not too sure what sturry is like as an area and where the good/bad bits are but being so close to Canterbury I think it would fulfil your requirements.

thank you Emma1098 for your reply. we have looked at sturry as an area to live in and so far the properties do not appeal. Also seems to be alot of council estates around and not much going on, however we are still considering it and looking around as it is close to canterbury where all the action is and our daughter has been accepted at the school there. We are willing to consider other schools and she is on the waiting list for a few, sturry is the only school that accepted her straight away. We dont know alot about the schools other then what we have read on ofstead, results etc. Hence why i need the advice of locals on here to find out if they were my age, in my position what would be the preferable area, best schools etc they maybe able to tell me things about each area that are pros and cons that we know nothing about. Its a big move and we want to get it right for both our daughters sake and ours. :-)

Hello angel82fairy. This is my first post too! We have just moved to Canterbury from south east London (5 weeks ago!). We are in south Canterbury and so far so good... It's difficult to comment on where you could live in the area without knowing your budget or requirements but where we are is away from the crowds, in a nice 3-bed with good garden and room for two cars on the drive but only a 25 minute walk (with kids, less without) into town, so that's great. It's peaceful here and so far I have only encountered older people in my road, but that's not to say the younger families aren't here! My two boys are at Pilgrims' Way which although hasn't currently got a good Ofsted, is improving all the time. It was almost the only school with places in the area so we didn't have much choice. Both boys are happy at their new school which is the main thing. You should definitely visit the schools before making your decision - I looked at one with a much better Ofsted and places, but knew it wasn't for us at all as soon as I got there. We can get to the A2 quite quickly from here, but depending on the time of day you'll be travelling and to where, in London, obviously timings are difficult to judge. From here to the edge of south east London, in the car in normal traffic, about an hour... Hope this helps with your decision...

Hi angel82fairy

If you don't like the feel of Sturry to live in, you could consider the west side of Canterbury (St. Stephens area) as you can get to Sturry quite easily from there by driving down Broad Oak Road. The traffic can be bad on the A28 towards Sturry - although not when you'd be doing school drop offs.

The station at Canterbury West can get you to St Pancras in 45 minutes. When I've driven to Lewisham from Canterbury is normally takes me about 1:10.

Canterbury is a lovely city to live in - there is so much going on for families and more in the pipeline. One of the main children's parks - Toddler's Cove is getting a revamp at the moment!

I don't know much about the schools as my little one hasn't started yet but I definitely echo Choppsy123's suggestion of going to look round. The schools should welcome you for a visit and I've found from the schools I have looked round that you get a feel quickly as to whether the school is right for you.

Good luck with all your decisions!

Getting off topic a bit, but VerityLocalEdKent - are you from the Lewisham area?

Nope...but I have family there so do the journey about once a month .

I live on the outskirts of Canterbury but lived within the city centre for 13 years. I would suggest looking at some of the smaller villages around Canterbury and Sturry. There is a lot going on locally for families and children but I personally would not be too keen living in Sturry itself although there are good public transport links to town and around. Have a look at Littlebourne, Preston and areas around there to see what you think.