Moving to Surrey help

[user1495498653]

Hi, need lots of advice & help please! We are moving back to the UK after being away for 10 years. We've decided on Surrey but don't know much about it as we've never lived there. We're looking at Tormead School and Cranmore Prep for our kids. I'd like to live on the West Side of Guildford though as need an easy drive to Fleet. Is it silly to look at living West side if schools on on the East? Is the traffic awful? Where would be some pretty places to live on the West side of Guildford? What's the drive like to Fleet? Thank you so much!!

What about West Clandon? Really close to the A3 for Fleet and half way between the two schools?

Thank you! What is West Clandon like?! How long to Fleet do you estimate? Thanks!

If you want to commute to Fleet, don't live in West Clandon - wrong side of Guildford! Fleet is quite a drive - are you going to have to do school pick-ups at all as the Guildford traffic is hideous at times!

True - the traffic on the A3 past Guildford is really bad. But if the boy is going to Cranmore then you need to be that side for drop off and pick up and West Clandon is at least right by the A3.

OP it might be worth investigating where the Cranmore and Tormead buses go to. Tormead will probably have one going to and from Godalming which would be better for your work commute, but I'm not sure that Cranmore would. If you are not fixed on schools, you could look at somewhere like Aldro.

I'd definitely live nearer to Fleet and on a bus route for the schools. We live near Woking and the Tormead buses go from there. Cranmore used to have minibus pick-ups - I used to see one drive down our road to pick up a couple of boys.

I have two girls in the senior school at Tormead. Many girls come into Guildford from Farnham on the coach. A few girls also come in from the Camberley and Farnborough areas. There is no direct train service from Farnham to Guildford.

See www.tormeadschool.org.uk/school-coach-service/. The coach service only works if your daughter is not really involved in after-school activities. If she is, you will still have to retrieve her from school post matches/ practices/ rehearsals, etc. A friend of mine is involved in a lift share after hockey practices/ matches involving up to 5 Farnham girls, I think. Whilst this usually saves the parental trek to school 4 weeks in 5, your daughter can still take a while to get dropped home - especially if she is the 5th of the 5 girls in the car.

The appeal of West Clandon is that it is on the London train line allowing girls to return home post activities without parents having to pick up. (I am reliably informed that there's also a thriving social life revolving around commuting by train with RGS and GHS pupils also travelling.) The same is probably true of the Woking line although I have no experience of this.

Tormead girls come from a range of areas but I would say that increasing numbers seem to be coming from nearer London (and a very few from within London) making use of both the coach and train services. There's also a significant number of girls based in Guildford itself. You may want to bear this in mind when considering lift shares/ the centre of gravity for your daughter's social life.

Girls at Tormead do have brothers at Cranmore and drop off at and pick up from both is doable but not ideal. My friend is frequently harassed juggling competing pick up and drop off times (but all 4 of her children are very sporty!) Cranmore minibus details are here - good luck! www.cranmoreprep.co.uk/Transport

BTW we binned Aldro as an option for my son as we couldn't see how his pick up would work with the girls' competing after-school activities at Tormead. Aldro is a very nice school though - I hear great things from friends and the headmaster was impressive.