Good state primaries in Guildford or South Bucks - expat moving back to the UK.

[Justchat]

We are due back to the UK form Malaysia in December and I need to get my kids into a good state school (year 3 and 5). We have narrowed down Guildford and South Bucks as possible areas (as my husband will be in central London and we have families in these areas) but I am overwhelmed with the number of primary schools and how to whittle them down. We are going to try and find a house once we've narrowed down the schools. Aaaagh - it's a minefield. Anyone got any good advice?

Many of the primary schools in guildford are excellent : bushy hill, queen Eleanor and holy trinity in particular. Catchment areas are however tight and house prices in the immediate vicinity high.

QE feeds into Guildford County and BH into George Abbot both of which have excellent reputations.

Personally given your DC are year 3&5 I would be looking at which secondary you want to be in then pick your house and primary accordingly.

I would suggest you look at which secondary you want, so in Guildford probably move into George Abbot or County catchment, unless you are Catholic - in which case look at St Peter's.
Are your children fluent in English?
Most schools in Guildford are pretty good, even those not mentioned above. For example I have recent experience of Guildford Grove and am very impressed with it from an insiders point of view.

Thanks - good advice. Kids are both fluent in English. I've emailed the feeder schools into both George Abbott and Guildford County to see if they have spaces. I believe the LEA choses where we go ultimately. Can't do much without an address though - that's the next thing. Once I move, I'm not doing this again!

George abbot and County don't really have feeder schools as such. The main schools which go mainly onto GA and county are: Burpham, Boxgrove, Bushy Hill, St Thomas (Catholic, but you don't have to be to go there), Holy Trinity, Sandfield, Queen Eleanor's and then village schools (eg. Send, Tillingbourne etc.) however some children will come from other schools, and some from private ones too.
No one will be able to tell you anything firmly until you move, as once a place is vacated it has to be filled immediately from the waiting list. This could also mean shuffling of places, as I know of one family who will move their child from one of the mentioned schools to another if a place becomes free.
Once you are living in Guildford you can also appeal for a place, with a reasonable chance at some schools, for instance Holy Trinity officially is full at 90 in a year group, but usually has about 96, so if it has less than 32 in each class you have a good chance to win an appeal.

You can get great information from the LEA in Guildford before you move if you have the address to which you are planning to move.

We live overseas but I needed to return to the UK with my DC for a year in 2010. We have a house in guildford but were not living it, although I wanted to use the address to gain a mid year school place and we planned to move into it before school started. The woman who organises places was really helpful and talked me through the admissions process and I was able to use the address to which we were moving. She chatted to me several times in the phone and dealt with all my queries.

Good luck

Bucks has a grammar school system in secondary, which may affect your choice one way or another.