Wokingham vs Earley vs other Reading suburbs

[goldenyearsmum]

Hi fellow mums ,
We are looking to move to Reading suburbs area with our 5 year old (currently in year 1) by mid 2022.
What is a good area to buy a house ?
Our priority list is as follows-

1. Excellent primary & secondary schools
2. Safe locality, great neighbourhood & community
3. New home> fairly new home> previously owned but recently built nice home
4. Connectivity to central London by train etc

Areas we have considered exploring-

1. Wokingham
2. Earley
3. Shinfield
4. Green park

How are these areas overall.. and which one would be better?
Please suggest some other good areas to explore

@Ariela - the Twyford house you linked to is a friend’s childhood home!

OP, if you look at Earley, as others have said, Old Earley is much nicer than Lower Earley.

Wherever you choose, make time for a visit to https://nirvanaspa.co.uk to reward your efforts.

Hi
I'm planning to move to Wokingham. Could anyone please suggest some good areas to buy within wokingham? What are some good infant schools and primary schools to choose from?

@rn71

Hi I'm planning to move to Wokingham. Could anyone please suggest some good areas to buy within wokingham? What are some good infant schools and primary schools to choose from?

When you say Wokingham, do you mean Wokingham Borough or Wokingham Town?

As a general rule all the schools are good, usually above the national average. It may depend whether you want or don't want an academy school, local authority maintained school, faith school.

In terms of Wokingham Borough, areas include Woodley, Winnersh, twyford, Earley, Wargrave, Shinfield, Arborfield, Finchampstead, then Wokingham Town.

Hi @INeedtobealone, Thanks for your reply. I'm preferably looking around Wokingham town within 3-5 miles. Would you suggest any area? I'm open to local authority maintained school and independent school for my son for Year 3. I've heard Holme Grange is good. Any opinion on that? Not sure how good academically the school is

@rn71 3-5 miles from Wokingham town centre will still be most of the Borough. It might on depend on what you want in terms of amenities and also budget. Wokingham Town is nice, shops, cafés and restaurants. Other nice areas are Finchampstead, but not as much in way of amenities. Twyford is lovely, nice village centre but getting pricey due to Crossrail. Woodley has nice areas and plenty of schools, large shopping precinct. Lower Earley, there isn't much there other than houses and an ASDA. Old Earley is mostly residential too but much closer to Reading town centre. There's also areas like Charvil, Wargrave, Barkham, Winnersh/Sindlesham, Aborfield, Shinfield.

Holme Grange is private, I don't know anything about it. If you do want private there are other schools such as Waverley, I know someone whose daughter goes there. Eagle House is in Sandhurst which is not far. Then there's also Ludgrove and Luckley House in Wokingham. Crosfields in Shinfield too.

In terms of state schools near Wokingham town centre, I know a lot of people with children at Evendons and they seem happy. Emmbrook is close, has an infant and junior school. In Woosehill, The Hawthorns school is quite popular. I know a number of people happy with schools in Finchampstead, including Nine Mile Ride.

There's a lot of primary schools so it might be best to narrow down area first.

Thanks @INeedtobealone. That was very helpful to narrow down. Looking at the options you've provided I'll prefer living near to town centre. I'll have a look at Woosehill and EmmBrook. Any other good areas to consider near within 2-3 miles of town centre?

Hi golden years mums have u finalised any area, I’m in a similar situation with 4 year old boy and looking for a house with good schools and amenities area

Is anyone of aware of any good new builds within couple of miles of Wokingham town centre?