Advice on areas to live near Godalming

[mumsdword]

Hi all,
We're planning to move to the Godalming area next year and are looking for any advice on where to live. The move is primarily because my twin boys have ASD/ADHD and need specialist secondary education. We are looking at St Dominics and Unsted Park School. We also need to find a High School for my DD who is 11. I like the look of Broadwater School due to its size. We currently live on the IOW and don't want her to go to a huge High School. I know that's a lot of info but it's going to be really tricky organising this move as we have zero local knowledge and are very time poor due to my DH living in London during the week. Thanks in advance.

Hi! We've just moved to Farncombe, just over the road from Broadwater Park :) loving it so far, nice and quiet.

You probably have a bigger budget than us but we chose Farncombe over Godalming as the newer houses (70s-ish?) meant more space and storage for our money. All we could afford in Godalming were two-up-two-down cottages that had downstairs loos tacked on, bathroom shoehorned in, no storage etc (but lots of character).

If I had pots of money I'd love to live in Compton.

Afraid I don't know many of the other surrounding areas yet.

DH works in London and it's only like 40 mins into Waterloo, he then gets the tube to Shoreditch. So maybe your DH wouldn't have to stay there in the week? He pretty much always gets a seat in the morning.

Thanks for the reply, I very much doubt we will be able to afford to live in Godalming. I don't want my boys to have a lengthy school run so I'm hoping to find something within around 3 miles.

Yes my DH will be home every night, which will be brilliant. I've been a single mum during the week for over a year now and it can feel lonely especially during the holidays.

Godalming and Farncombe are lovely places to live. All areas of Farncombe would be walking distance to Broadwater school. Milford is also worth a look - Rodborough School is Witley is deemed a good school locally.
Good luck with your search x

Thank you :) We're off to view Unsted Park School next month, so will try and have a nose around if we get time.

As pp said, Rodborough is generally considered a good secondary school for the Godalming area, it's south of the town so villages such as Milford and Whitley are within catchment as well as Godalming town itself.
Good luck with your hunt!

Stumbled across this thread as planning ( i think!) to buy a house in Farncombe. We live in London at the mo and have two girls ( 5 and 7) and were originally hoping to buy in Godalming but that house fell through. We need to move this summer to start a new school in Sep. Farncombe appeals as house is much nearer to station and DH needs to commute to London every day. We are obviously getting more for our money too. This house was in the catchment for Rodborough and Broadwater up until 2016...which we thought was good as kept our options open. This year, it was not in catchment for Rodborough and slightly worried as Broadwater results dont look great. But walking to local school and being in a smaller school is appealing. Website also obviously makes the school seem nurturing. Mumsdword did you move to the area in the end?! Anyone else got any recent experience of Broadwater? Thanks all.

Hi, no direct experience of Broadwater, but have friends whose children went there and who did well and had a good experience. Also have lived in Farncombe, and it is great for those commuting to London as you are close to the train station, and house prices are cheaper than Godalming. I'm surprised that it was in the catchment for Rodborough, I live in a village closer than Farncombe, and we have been waiting list/borderline for Rodborough for many years.

Should just add that I went to Rodborough myself many years ago, when I lived in Busbridge, Godalming, and was borderline even then..

Quite a few of the current year 7s in Rodborough come from Busbridge, but check the pan out - it's extremely tight. Woolmer hill is a nice small school in Haslemere and is never up to pan. All schools locally are good.

Thanks all. Evalina, if you are on the waiting list for Rodborough, which school are your children at currently? So it seems the catchment for Rodborough is getting smaller all the time? According to Rightmove, the house was inside the admission area for 2015....but maybe that was based on some anomaly if a child further out got a place from the waiting list. Admissions did say that some children may get in who live further away if they got in from the waiting list. Milford/Witley doesnt work for us in terms of not being walking distance to station and also like the thought of being walking distance to Godalming/local shops/cafes. I think we will have to go for it and see what happens in a few years time. So hard trying to get everything right in one fell swoop....especially when we don`t know the area that well yet.

My youngest isn't old enough for Rodborough yet, but village children usually get in on the waiting list or go to either Woolmer Hill in Haslemere, Broadwater or County in Guildford..