Moving - Surrey

[Sonyads40]

We are thinking of moving out of Putney to Surrey. For more space and a less congested neighbourhood. Looking for somewhere with good state primary schools and a decent high street. A nice friendly family orientated area. Any recommendations? Open to any area really as won’t need a daily commute into London. We going to look at a property in Woking? Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated?

Do you want state secondaries?

Are you Catholic?

Horsell is great, infant and junior schools great and the v good Woking high is close by. Horsell high street is really nice. Woking itself is not a great high street, shopping centre with closed units etc, but it remains v practical and useful, if not ideal for Xmas present browsing. Leisure centre has a great park and is still working fine despite the outrageous debts from local council. Lots of scouts and guides groups, kids activities around etc. It’s packed full of families mixed between SW London exiles, overseas expats of all sorts working centrally or at McLaren etc, and families who’ve always lived in the area. Relatively culturally diverse for Surrey too.

And for nice pretty shopping, I go to Guildford or somewhere else.

There are other nice areas around that aren’t so handy for Woking station so probably a bit cheaper, but we needed it for the commute and it’s been brilliant for that. Personally I think Horsell high street, little as it is, is nicer than Chobham, knaphill or St John’s, but that may be just my preference!

yes, some excellent Catholic options

Weybridge has a good high street and good state schools. Not as big and diverse as Woking, and no department stores, but it has a Pret, SpaceNK and Italian deli, so it always seems pretty fancy to me! Cobham is a nice (on the cutesy side) high street and is near some lovely countryside, but I don’t know anything about the primary schools.

Epsom and Ewell?

The high street isn't great but it's easy to get to Kingston. Lots of the state schools are outstanding.

Thanks everyone. We are catholic and will go private probably for secondary school. We actually did view a property in Horsell and did like the area. This next property is in Woking but close to west byfleet?

Don't rule out catholic secondaries as St Andrews is 1 of the best state schools in the country & there is another one that is very good. You would need to be in a feeder though.

West byfleet has a massive Waitrose and is close to Wisley. There are lovely roads and less lovely ones, but also a great place to be. No idea about schools in that area, other than I have heard bishop David brown high school isn’t great, but I may be unfairly maligning it on old reputation, as it’s quite a few years since we had to investigate high school choices.

St John the Baptist is the really good catholic secondary, v v well regarded (ignored by atheist us though!). No idea about primary school catholic options.

The Catholic primary in West Byfleet is the Marist, closer to Woking it's St Dunstans and there's one more in St John's/Knaphill called St Hughs. All strict about living in the parish and attendance for school entry with register signing at mass from the age of 3. They are all feeders for SJB which is near Woking Park and gets results that are amazing and better than a lot of private secondaries - of which there are many locally and a lot have bus routes that go to Woking station too.

I have a real soft spot for Woking and surrounding villages so I would definitely look there. I think it's good value for money too, even in the more expensive villages like Horsell.

Epsom and Ewell are fine but the actual high street isn't great. Epsom is fine for day to day chores and getting stuff done. Living in Epsom also means careful choosing - it's one of those towns where go two blocks and it feels a bit scary then two more blocks and it's lovely again.

Ewell doesn't really have a real high street and I think the shops there survive because of locals and the three schools that are basically ON the high street (Glyn, Ewell Castle and EwelL Grove). What Epsom does have is access to St Andrews which is an excellent Catholic state school and the schools are all pretty good, even the ones that are not considered as good.

Ashtead could be an option - the high street is quite small but handy, and it's still close to Epsom for bigger shopping and fairly convenient still for Kingston/Dorking. it's a nice area, lots of green areas etc.

If you are planning high school privately anyway and don't have commuting issues, look at Banstead. The high street is genuinely great. Public transport is a disaster (the train station isn't anywhere NEAR the high street) and I don't think they are well served by state secondaries. But there are plenty of private secondaries around and it's a lovely village.

Esher is also nice but very expensive. I'm not sure about schools but I think primaries are good.

look at Banstead. The high street is genuinely great. Public transport is a disaster (the train

I like Banstead but why on earth is the station so far away from everything? 😆

It's like a toss up - banstead feels safe, High street is fab, all warm fuzzy friendly community vibe... but the transport is a mess. Maybe thats why? Harder to get to and from so more focused community and need for good shops?! 😂😂😂

Reigate is ‘nice’.

Farnham is nice and slower train into London so a bit cheaper than other parts of Surrey.

Not so dar to drive to Sutton though?