Primary Schools in the New Forest

[londonkids]

We are thinking of moving from London to the New Forest, possibly the Brockenhurst area, but we are open to other areas and do not need to commute to London. The most important thing will be for us to be in the catchment of a good primary school and if possible secondary school. We are practicing Catholics, but are open to our children attending non faith or C of E or Catholic schools. When we have been to the area I noticed that many of the schools seemed to be C of E - is this the case? I'm hoping some other mums can give me some info on what areas are good and which schools are the good ones.

I think most are C of E. Lymington Infant and Junior schools were great for my kids. I believe Sway is good too. As for secondary schools, Highcliffe is big on discipline and science and goes up to A levels. Arnewood in New Milton is the only other local public secondary school and is known for Languages. I don't know much else about them. Priestlands in Lymington gets lots of funding and awards and is really good for teaching about self-worth and community - they have a mentoring scheme between older and younger students and keep pigs and a vegetable garden. They have good facilities too. They are known for the Arts. I have nothing but praise for Priestlands for getting my youngest to work at school! Hope that helps.

Thank you very much, we like lymington a lot, my DH thought it might be a tiny bit too far away for us as he does have to commute but not to London. I'll look into Sway schools too. Is Priestlands a primary school? From your email I'm working out that there are only 2 secondary state schools in the New Forest and only Highcliffe goes to A level - is that right - or is that just in Lymington? I did once speak to someone who would only send their children private and complained there weren't any decent private or secondary schools in the New Forest so you had to send your children to boarding school - I knew the person was being over the top, but if there aren't that many state secondary schools are a number of people sending private for secondary in the area? Thank you.

Do you know anyone who has sent their children to the Lymington Montessori School? Also do the state schools have small catchment areas? Could I live in Sway and send my children to either the Brockenhurst school or the schools in Lymington or do I need to live very close to the schools. Looked them up and the schools in Lymington look fantastic but we'd be more looking to live in Sway or Brockenhurst. Thank you.