Relocation advice- London or surrounding counties

[MAsMum]

My husband works near Liverpool street and we are hoping to relocate from up North to a family friendly location that is easily commutable.(1hr ish)
We have a son who will be 4 in January and ideally would like to move to an area with good schools( RC, state or private). Any suggestions or pointers of general areas would be greatly received?

I live in Honor Oak Park in SE London and we have two good RC primaries, William of York and Francesca Cabrini. There is a direct train on the Overground from Forest Hill or Honor Oak Park to Shoreditch High Street which takes about 20-25 mins, and SHS is then a 5-10 min walk to Liverpool St.

We really like living round here and it is great for young families and very popular with them.

Cambridge; direct train to Liverpool Street is just over an hour, and there's a very good RC primary school St Alban's. There is an ecumenical RC/CofE secondary school St Bede's.

I lived just outside Newbury in Donnington Village and Inkpen. 45 min commute and lovely coutryside to enjoy with good schools. Loved it :)

Budget? Size/type of house?

You'll need to be in by christmas to apply for state primary by the way.

I wish you luck.
We (me and DD) moved back to England from Belgium in order for her to go to a feeder RC primary then RC secondary. We bought a house and everything.
Sadly, DH has been unable to find a job here so we are all moving to London in August.
I am currently trying to find her a place at school for September. Ours is a different situation. I need secondary school. It was hard enough finding a house, let alone a decent school with spaces. One has 400+ on the waiting list.

We live in Bromley, direct train link to Cannon Street. Still a bit of a walk towards Liverpool Street though (15-20 min).

In general we have good primary schools but the last two years totally oversubscribed. 9 schools have bulge classes this year :-(
Downside: houses near the stations and near good schools go for a premium.