St Albans - a nice place to live?

[roseylea]

Yippeeeeee we are moving house!

I'm v. excited (some may say obsessed - i.e. my dh) and starting to look at areas to move to, all in Herts or Bucks as that's where our familes are.

So does anyone know much about St Albans? We are looking to stay wherever we move to for the whole of our dcs' schooling so we are looking for primaries and secondaries. We are CofE christians and I would particularly like the dcs to go to church schools if poss - I had a look at the Townsend school website and really liked the look of its ethos. We haven't got a huge budget for the area (£250K) but there are houses on rightmove that fit into that price range (not many, admittedly).

So does anyone live in St Albans and vouch for it (or not?) What I'd really love is to give someone the names of streets with houses in our budget and for someone to tell me if they're reasonably nice areas or not. We don't live that far away so I'm planning on doing a drive around. We are also looking at other areas like Tring, Chesham, Berko, villages in between those places, Hemel (possibly but not convinced), and Rickmansworth (we used to live near there so still got friends and know the area).

TIA!

Hi, I've just been reading through this thread and haven't heard much about around the St Michaels area. We have an offer in on a house in the village and I thought the schools were meant to be very good there, can anyone confirm this, or am I looking in the wrong place? Many thanks.

Hi Roseylea - we went through all this prior to moving to St Albans in May last year. I think I visited about 7 or 8 primary schools in total .. my decision was quite a difficult in that DD has special needs .. having said that because she was Yr 4 at the time .. there were spaces available in schools she wouldn't have been able to get into at reception age. Have you looked on the Jersey Farm estate which is a fairly new development on the north side of town .. catchment for Sandringham I would think. I would be happy to give you more details on the schools I saw if you are interested and I have also done the secondaries too (and I liked Townsend a lot too).

Hi Roseylea - we went through all this prior to moving to St Albans in May last year. I think I visited about 7 or 8 primary schools in total .. my decision was quite a difficult in that DD has special needs .. having said that because she was Yr 4 at the time .. there were spaces available in schools she wouldn't have been able to get into at reception age. Have you looked on the Jersey Farm estate which is a fairly new development on the north side of town .. catchment for Sandringham I would think. I would be happy to give you more details on the schools I saw if you are interested and I have also done the secondaries too (and I liked Townsend a lot too).

sandyw ,St Michaels is lovely and walking distance to the main shops, plus the Abbey CofE school is supposed to be very good too. You definitely haven't made a mistake!

thanks GreatGooglyMoogly, I was begining to really worry that we've done the wrong thing, it certainly looks beautiful round there.

Hello there, was just wondering if anyone is familiar with the Chiswell Green area? we're going to be moving there from London shortly. I'm particularly interested to know what Marlborough school is like as it's the closest Secondary and the ofsted report is 6 years old!!! Dn't know anyone in RL who goes there. thanks.xx

Hi I live in chiswell Green and its a nice little village to live in. I don't have kids of secondary school age but i have heard that Marlborough school has got better in the last few years and is no a really good school. A few of my friends went there a few years back now and they have never complained about it.

You can always go and look around the school but Townsend isn't too far and that is also a good school

I was really impressed with Marlborough when I went to their open evening .. I have a friend with 2 children there and they're quite satisfied. With Townsend you have to bear in mind that it is a C of E school and its entry criteria are a bit different to the other schools.

Never heard anyone being snobby about Southdown. Very popular now as houses are a bit cheaper there.

Thanks lovelymoo and fushcia, this is going to sound mad but my ds1 isn't even in infant school yet!! but the move from London and all our friends seems so massive to us that i just want to look at every aspect. thanks so much for your advice.x

How old is your little ones my DC's are 3 and 17mths. The eldest is due to start nursery at the local school in september and the youngest at the preschool next door in sept/jan. I can help you out with anymore questions

Hi Lovelymoo, snap!! my kids are 3 and 14 months. where in chiswell green are you?

Not far from the three hammers pub. My eldest DD will be going to killigrew in Sept hopefully- we find out next month.

Hi lovelymoo. Our new house is on laburnam grove so not far from you?although we've only looked around the area once so i'm going purely from memory! Yes, i'm unsure what to do about nusery. Is there one attached to killigrew itself or do you go to the nursery/pre school at the methodist church? sorry, so many questions, bet you wished you'd never replied!!

Hi Billiejo

There is a nursery attached to killigrew school and there is a preschool at the church just by killigrew which they can go to from 2 1/2 until school age they run morn and afternoon sessions.
My eldest is there at the mo and loves it both are in easy walking distance from you.

I walk past your road on the way in the morns and know a few mums that have kids at the preschool and killigrew that live down your road.

Glad i help you

thanks lovelymoo, it's good to have a bit of insider info before moving to a new place....i'm quite nervous about the leap from london tbh. hopefully i may bump into you at the pre-school or nursery

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