where to move in Beckenham, orpington, bromley..

[sue2lee]

hi

Im looking to move to bromley borough, and visited bekenham, bromley, orpinton

I have dd of 2 year old. I want a good primary school for him, and hopefully he will get a place in st olaves. That is why i want to move to one of these areas.

I liked beckenham a lot.0 Any disadvantages of this area that I don't know of?

I found orpington a bit dreary. But south orpington seems good.
As south orpington has many good primary schools, and St Olaves is just few mins distnace. i will be happy to move to the area.
But my dh didnt like orpington after seeing the high street.
Anyone who knows about south orpington?

or other areas within bomley borough?

Thanks.

You do know that St Olave's is a selective school and very very hard to get into, it's not determined by where you live....

Have to admire your forward planning though!

West Wickham? There is a good selection of primaries and Park Langley and Hayes are good secondary ones.

My DD goes to Hawes Down Infant school and Pickhurst Infant is also close by and very good. the Juniors are just next doors and normally the children move straight through, the application is often just paperwork.

St Olave is difficult to get in but you never know how thinks are in 10 years. I would concentrate on primary first.

2 years ago we moved from Bromley North and found also that West Wickham gives you more house for your money than Beckenham.

What about bexley village?
Grammars in Bexley too!! Much nicer than orpington

If you're wanting grammar schools they are throughout kent, some of the travel times to central London aren't too different to orpington, and a fair selection of alternative secondaries too. Try tonbridge. But sometimes even passing 11+ isn't enough, 3 boys grammars near us, depending on mark will influence which one he can go to. Too much to get caught up in when he is 2.

Sundridge Park? Scotts Park and Parish are good schools and its easy to walk into Bromley or commute to London.

St.Olaves is very competitive to get into. It is not a large school and catchment is not limited to Bromley borough, Harriet Harman sent her son there from Herne Hill! You need to think what your back up plan would be.

I've lived in Beckenham and now we live in Bromley.

Catchment areas for primary can be small, as the best schools seem to have lots of siblings attending too.

Beckenham is really nice - we were very happy there. Lots of parks (croydon road rec, kelsey park, cator park), high street with a mix of chains and independents (great toy shop too) and cafes, good schools. But the and has a tiny ctachment area, but I have heard good reports about other schools too eg Marian Vine.

Loads of good schools in Bromley itself - faith and non faith schools.

I woudl start with whatever transport links you need to get into work eg which London stations, and then look at how you would get to those stations, and then look at house prices and then look at schools.

IME there are lots of really decent primaries. I know nothing about secondaries though, beyond the grammars.