Chertsey and surrounding areas

[ddas]

Hi not sure if this is the right section to post this- so please re-directed me is necessary!

We?re planning to move to surrey due to work reasons with a 1 year old ds and another baby on the way in December. Areas we?re looking at have been Weybridge, Walton, shepperton, Chertsey, addlestone etc?

We?ve only just started looking but seems to be that we would get a whole lot more for our money in Chertsey and although some of the areas don?t seem great others seems quite good which to be honest seems to be the case for all the areas there even in the more expensive Walton etc. We?ve seen a house we really like in Chertsey South on little green lane (house a min from meadowcroft infant/primary) but as not been looking long we?re a bit lost whether the area is ok, what schools are like (both state and private) so just wanted a bit of advice re these things from people who already live in the area.

Addlestone hasn't had a decent secondary school (unless Catholic) in many decades so far as I can tell - at least 30 years!!!

State school that is.

My DS is at a superb school in Addlestone. Takes the train there :)

I use to drive to Weybridge to get Waterloo train. Time and money, as Random says, makes it a nightmare. The Chertsey to Weybridge train is painful.
even driving from Chertsey to Addlestone in the mornings is awful.

ClaireBunting, sadly many of us don't have that sort of money!!!!!

That railway crossing is the work of the devil I tell you, the barriers go down when the train leave Weybridge FGS.

Was bliss the other weekend when they shut station road between Tesco and the crossing . Even driving between New Haw and Addlestone is toturous at various times of the day.

I honestly cycle and walk as much as possible as it's so congested

What is painful about the Chertsey-Weybridge train? My DCs have been using it for seven years and I can only think of one time when the train didn't show up. It always comes within 1 minute of its due time.

If you have to change at Weybridge to get into London - in one direction it's okay, in the other it's half an hour wait!!! Dh has experienced on more than one occasion getting the last connecting train, the one to Weybridge has been a few minute late and the connecting one from Weybridge to Addlestone - last one of the night didn't wait

But, random, the trains are so predictable that you know when the barriers will be down. Amazingly, the trains in both directions leave within minutes of each other, twice another.

I live up line next to a ML level crossing and the Addlestone one is bliss in comparison.

Magna Carta in Egham/Staines is on the up..... And Egham does have one lovely Primary school Manorcroft. I agree that the Hythe and Thorpe Lee are not great. Englefield green has St Judes which is Jr and has an excellent reputation.

It depends what you mean by on the up, and how much the school is talking itself up.

I used to be a school governor at one of the primary schools you mentioned, exo. I wonder how you arrived at your point of view,

Barriers are down for 10 minutes at one point and the traffic absolutely gridlocks the entire centre and takes ages to clear. It's not a huge issue for me, I don't travel that way, don't drive unless I have to. Work locally, walk to school etc etc but these add to the reasons why housing is cheap.

Long commute to central London, no decent state secondary school unless you are a practising Catholic, and now a complete lack of junior school places, even get off the M25 if you have to drive up past Victory Park and then along the High street and then Brighton Road through both sets of traffic lights is just hideous.

It doesn't have many redeeming features that I can think of?

I have friends with children at both.(to be fair I think they are put out at not getting into the schools of their choice) One I'm not sure about as I think it seems quite nice and the children seem happy,the other has had some issues with headteachers I think and friends DC are really unhappy. I don't mean to offend. I have no first hand knowlege of Hythe but, we did look aound Thorpe Lee but, they could not meet DD's needs.

Well yes with Magna I too am not sure how much is the school.

It's a pretty bad state of affairs when Magna is oversubscribed with people desperate not to get placed at JIHS.

No offense, exogenous. My eyes were opened when I moved my three girls to an independent school (eldest into year 7 as there was no way she was going to Magna). It was clear that they had missed out on so much. The primary school was completely fixated on SATs that they did little else. My DD1 hit level 5 early in Y5 and did nothing for two years.

Meadowcroft doesn't appear to be popular if this data is anything to go by.

No, it's not - it's usually undersubscribed, but I'd have been happy to send my children there. It's a nice school.

It's undersubcribed because their is an abundance over infant places and is very close to St Pauls and serves only a small local area in walking distance. Hence Surrey's plan to close DD instead they created extra spaces at St. Pauls and havent addressed the lack of Junior spaces.

With a rising birthrate it will full soon enough...

DH walks to Addlestone station and changes at Weybridge for London. It's usually fine going in to work in the morning but as Random says he quite often misses the connection on the way home and has to wait half an hour for the next one. Or he invariably ends up jumping in a cab.

I used to drive to West Byfleet and get the train from there (because of the fast trains coming back from Waterloo enabled me to pick the kids up that little bit earlier). I never had any issues with traffic in the morning (just before 8.00) but it is pricey for train ticket and parking.

My kids are at the catholic school in Addlestone, which we are very happy with, and they will hopefully go on to Salesians. Although I just recently discovered how big it is, 8 classes per year, making one year bigger than DC's entire school!

And also the trains aren't that predictable now with the barriers at Addlestone station. Quite often now they are down for ages because of freight trains passing through.

There is a train that departs at 2 mins past the hour and another at 7 mins past the hour and the barriers remain down for the entire time inbetween. It does create chaos and I don't understand why they do it.

Can you imagine the joy if they let that high speed rail plan thing go ahead

Random knows my situation re school choices. Ds2 is due to start Sept 13. There is an 'unpresidented birth' rate. Many of my friends have not got their 3 year olds into nursery for the 15 hours entitlement. They predict that 80,000 children will be without a school place, next Sept. Bulge classes are being suggested at nearly every school locally.
Just warning you that the school situation may very well be on the decline, generally, locally.

The junior school situation is I think even worse. It was pretty bad this year. :(

Poor OP, I hope this is helpful! (and perhaps goes some way to explaining the house price disparity...)

Oblomov - MY ds2 is due to start school Sept 2013 too. I did get him into Nursery but only because some one tipped me off when he was about 9 months old that the Nursery list was nearly full.

Fortunately for me, although his older brother will be in the Juniors by 2013, entry the two schools are now linked in terms of admissions. I live about 1.5 miles from the school but hope to get DS2 into the infants on the sibling admission criteria. Once he is in the infants then he is 'guaranteed' a place in the juniors. That is if the HT is still talking to me.

Cece, I am similar. I will hopefully get ds2 in, under the sibling, becasue ds1 is still there. And I do not need to worry about juniors, because ours leads through to salesians, so like Rollergirl, hoping that all will still be o.k. there aswell.