Hi. Im relocating to Oxford and dont know the area at all. Can anyone advise a good place to live, particularly re state primaries?

[Lindsay2]

We could live anywhere as long as we can commute to Oxford itself.

Budget/preferences?

Happy to give you overwhelming amounts of information about one particular area of Oxford if you PM me. Hmm, can't remember how to do this... will have a look.

Should also have said, church or community school preferred?

Dont mind, but we dont go to Church.

Which side of Oxford do you need to commute to? Even 'city centre' varies...

Its right by the Station.

Do you want to live in Oxford itself or in some of the surrounding villages? How long a commute would you consider acceptable?

Train station that is.

Hi and thanks for the reply. In a ideal world we'd live in a fairly rural village thats less than 40 mins commute. But we are open to suggestions generally.

As a first pass, you might consider looking at Appleton (village on the rail line, outstanding school the last time I looked at an Ofsted report) and North Hinksey (sort of dormitory village but unfortunately has road noise, 20 min slow cycle from the train station.). It does depend on your budget, are you renting or buying?

looking to rent 1st then buy. buget flexble but think 3bed poss
Any facilities in these places like sports clubs? thks

Both look nice from a quick google, particularly Appleton.

Signing out now - late night for me these days!

Thanks for the advice and will check again tomorrow.

Its very confusing trying to decide what to do, thanks for helping!

Lindsay

Kingham is nice (about 35 mins) - train station in village, very good primary school, gym and swimming pool at Kingham Hill School about a mile from the village. Local shop and several good pubs.

Kingham looks nice, thank you.

Work backwards. Choose a good secondary school - St Bartholomew's is head and shoulders above the other comps and is located in Eynsham (very small town outside Oxford). Next look at the feeder primary schools for St Bartholomew's. You can always ring the local the LEA for a list of schools in catchment to your chosen secondary school. Next check all primary school OFSTED's and ask around for parent/student opinions. Narrow the search down and then start visiting the schools.

Woodstock is also a nice tiny town but the secondary school is quite average.

PM me and I will let you know about my little corner of Oxfordshire, we are about 6 miles out of the city but being small village don't want to be too identifyable

Identifiable even arghh

Traffic around Oxford is horrific. If you need to get to the station, work on the premise that you will commute by train and work outwards. There are some lovely villages in each direction: Hanborough (although parking at that station is ghastly), Finstock, Islip, Appleton (headteacher retiring this summer I think), Radley. You could even consider Bicester, as it also has good links to London. Witney has a good bus service to Oxford but commuter traffic is horrible.

Thank you all so much for your advice. Before I posted this question, Witney was the front runner but that's hardly been mentioned.

I feel reassured that we will find somewhere great. We're going to visit Oxford in the next few weeks and will be visiting all the villages you've suggested!

What about Charlbury?

Has a train station in the town, about 20 mins from Oxford city on the train and also has a very good primary school.

Quite pricey though.

Appleton doesn't have a station, but I believe the school is supposed to be good.

Appleford is on the railway line, but has no school,

The Witney-Oxford commute is not pleasant. Every time I accidentally find myself along that route at rush hour, I kick myself for not having planned things better! The people I know who live in Witney like it well enough but not enough to suffer that commute if they had a choice.

And as others have said, getting through traffic within Oxford is a pain, so if your workplace is near the rail station then rail would be the ideal way to commute.

How about Abingdon? Only 5miles from the centre, buses every 5 mins to Oxford railway station. Also 1 mile to radley station if you need the train. Excellent primary schools. Commute 100x better than Witney - friends say this can take over an hour!

What about Wallingford? It is lovely and I think the house prices are a bit more reasonable than Oxford.

However, I'd love to live right in Oxford again. We lived in St Clements and I loved the area. (However, this was as undergraduates so I have no idea what the schools are like as I never paid any attention to that.)

From St Clements it's a short drive either to the gym at St Edward's school or the one out on the ringroad. I could be wrong but I think members of the public can join the university gym which you could walk to from that area.

It is also ok to walk or cycle to the Station or use the buses that are allowed to go through town.