Moving to Surrey

[Liesaj]

Our family of 4 (husband, myself, DD - aged 6 and DS aged 8) are moving to the UK in October 2018 from Australia. Husband will be working in Weybridge and I anticipate I'll need to commute to London (but not sure yet). We have no idea about schools, communities etc. From what I have gleaned we'll have trouble getting our kids into schools even if within the catchment area. I would dearly love some insight into areas to live that have lovely community, good homes (we have a budget of around 3,000 pounds per month, parks, shops, ability to commute to London and of course good schools for our kids who will be starting mid term (if we can get them in!) and will need some good pastoral care to help settle them in. Appreciate your advice

Schools in surrey don't have catchment areas I believe, you simply apply. South west london and the bits of surrey next to it have very fluid and mobile populations, so places in schools come up all the time. Most of the schools are also good, committing to a place before you know where you're working though would be a bit of a risk, but if you don't want "English Village" surrey, then I'd look in and around Weybridge and along the river into London.

It will be early in the school year and you may not immediately find a yr2 and yr4 place (if those are the years) in the same school, I'd be surprised if it took long though, also because the mobile population, schools are quite used to new kids arriving.

Are you looking for state schools or independent schools? If your husband will be in Weybridge and you're going to commute, I'd start off looking in Weybridge itself - fairly (to very!) wealthy area but town centre with mixture of chain and independent shops so a good starting point.

When are your children's birthdays as you will be looking for one to go into Year 3 or 4 and the younger one to go into Year 2 or 3 depending when their birthdays fall.

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much for responding- My DD turns 7 in Jan 2019 (so going into year 2 in Oz) and my DS turns 9 in Dec 18) so going into Yr 4 in Oz) I can’t get a sense between private (non state schools) and state schools - what’s the difference in terms of education, extra curricular activities, pastoral care. Also the state schools seem to have intakes at year 3 and are otherwise infant schools - I don’t want my kids to be going to different schools (we have looked around Weybridge). Is it a family friendly area with good community spirit and sports etc on the weekends. Argh so much to decide

You may not have much choice if you are looking for state schools, you will be offered wherever has vacancies in the right age group, possibly not the same school for both or even nearby. Your dc would enter y2 and y4 here, class sizes are restricted to 30 max until y3 so you may find the younger more difficult to place. Private schools are less regulated, tend to have smaller class sizes, do not have to follow National Curriculum and may go up to 13 assuming your chosen secondary has an intake then. Usually there is more timetabled sport and specialist subject teachers from an earlier age (languages, art, music etc). Expect to pay upwards of £4k per child, per term (3 per year) plus extras. ISI reports on private schools , Ofsted on state.

So year 2 and year 4, because our school year is 1 Sept-31 Aug.

In some areas there are primary schools (infants year R-2, juniors 3-6, all in one school) and in others there are separate infants and juniors. Bear in mind if they are separate that many families have children in both - they will often have a linked relationship and thought about the timings of the school day, for example. In an infant/junior area (like me, in a bit of Surrey), it is not a big deal.

If you have a look on the Surrey county council website you will find a list of schools

Pressed too soon!

www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools

Weybridge, like any town, has changed over the years. It's always had an (undeserved ?) snobby reputation. St Georges Hill is a private estate where millionaires and celebrities are rumoured to live.

St Georges College is in Weybridge (it's actually in nearby Addlestone but hey.) It's a private school, it's up to you whether it would meet your childrens needs.

Cobham is a nearby village, which again, is expensive. It's got a large ex-pat American community. Stoke D'Abernon is between Cobham and Leatherhead.

Addlestone,, Weybridge and Cobham have a train station. The trains into London from here are a stopping service i.e. stop at most stations on the way to London Waterloo aka the slow train. Faster train connections to London are from Woking or Guildford. However, driving to either of those places to get the fast train that will travel through your local stations at speed will seem counter productive.

As for community feel/sports. Well, as has been suggested, local authority websites might be a good place to start.

Elmbridge borough council is the local authority for Walton on Thames and Esher. Most other local authorities have the same name.

It's just as well you've got three thousand pounds pcm for accommodation costs. It's going to cost all of that ! Weybridge and the surrounding areas are a real money pit !

Why ? Because it's always been like that.

It would be year 2 for your DD, and year 4 for your DS here too.

Personally I really wouldn't choose weybridge itself, but obviously my biases are probably 20 years old when I lived there, and lived right next to St Georges Hill (An unfriendly gated estate for the super rich, that meant you couldn't even ride/run sensible routes) So maybe that advice isn't sound. I wouldn't as well as it is not a great London commute and you can easily move so your DP has a short cycle or train commute and then make the London commute a lot better, so certainly not until you know where you need to be.

Most English primary schools are not infant/junior, although because you need two places out of year it might be difficult to get them into the same school immediately, although again the wider area is I think one where there's lots of options.

Private will be at least 15,000 UKP a year (for the two), that's a lot of money when you don't know anything about your set up, generally the only difference are the children in the school and a longer school day with the extra-curricular dictated by the school. The wider area has every possible extra-curricular you could imagine being a wealthy area with loads of kids, personally the school doing all the extra-curricular is huge negative even before the cost.

Like a pp I'd start looking in Weybridge itself and also nearby towns and villages with stations - Walton, Cobham, West Byfleet, Woking. I think state school wise you're likely to be allocated a less appealing school as the popular ones are full with waiting lists. There are very good state and primary schools in Surrey though. If you can afford private then I would (I say that with children happily in a state school). If you want a state school then look at the school admissions policy, some church schools require proof of church attendance but otherwise you'll need to live very close to the school itself to get high up on the waiting list.

Good luck!

If you are allocated a separate infant/junior rather than primary, you would apply for the year 3 place mid January and your child would be treated as a sibling in applying for the same school as your dc1. Assuming dc2 was then awarded a place there you would only have 2 terms apart.

I might be inclined to look at Surbiton, plenty of good schools, nice family area and a short train ride to both central London and Weybridge. Just make sure you are within walking distance of Surbiton station.

The main difference with private school is the massive cost! First work out if you can afford the private sector, then get investigating.

School admissions - both sectors -can be a huge issue: for state school you can’t apply until you have a property. And you will then probably be looking at “in year” admissions for state schools. Could be very, very difficult for all DC to be at the same school.

Pyrford might be worth a look..... pretty village with an excellent school, short drive to Weybridge. Surbiton and Berrylands are nice areas with good London commutes and driveable to Weybridge. Also Egham x

We are in Woking. Lovely private schools, state schools are very, very oversubscribed with long waiting lists. I commute into London which is pretty painless (about 25 min, very frequent but busy trains)

After school care in state schools is a problem as well, either very short (until 5 pm which is useless with a London commute) or very oversubscribed so impossible to get in if you are new to the school.
I’m very impressed with our private school, not so much with what I hear from the easier to get in state schools (there are awesome state schools, but getting in is difficult)

Weybridge is commuter country. Round here 6-6.15 pm is common for after school club. The trains though... Worth thinking about whether your husband working in Weybridge will be able to collect regularly (assuming you won't be finishing in time to get home every day, or at least to drop everything to get the children when the trains are delayed) or whether you need to find another childcare option.