Where are the good school towns in England ?

[HKmums]

Hi, everyone. I'm relocating to England from Hong Kong in 2020 as my DH's company will give him a new role in the UK. He will be working from home so we don't need to live in London or major cities. We don't need city life but still don't want to be too far away from one. My DDs will be in reception and year 5 respectively. We are looking for a safe area with good state schools and friendly / educated neighbours. Can anyone give me some advice as to where to live ?

Cambridge fits your description.

Will he need to travel to an office or clients at all? (I am guessing do if they are relocating him).

Stratford upon Avon
Thame

Cheshire

Durham (city)

North Tyneside has one of the most highly regarded, and highest achieving, state school systems in England. It also follows a 3 tier system which is pretty unique to the area and offers a child centred approach. Check out schools, for example, such as Marine Park or Rockcliffe First School, Valley Gardens Middle School and Whitley Bay High School. Whitley, particularly, is a national leader in education. The area is fairly middle class and safe, the beaches are wonderful, and villages such as Tynemouth or Whitley Bay town are frequently voted as great areas to live. Property prices will be excellent in comparison to southern England too. You are also in driving distance to Newcastle, Sunderland and the beautiful county of Northumberland.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

That's where you can compare areas (searching by local authority of parliamentary constituency if you're checking out a smaller area).

You'll find that all the best LAs are basically boroughs of London or Trafford (Manchester area).

If you're looking after a small town specifically, you'll just need to find one with a specific top primary that happens to have spaces in the year groups you need + a house in the catchment of the right secondary school. If the right primary doesn't have spaces, your children will be offered places in another school (which can be good or awful). So that's a bit of a risk if you want to live in a small town and there won't be many schools to choose from.

One thing to consider is that some areas have grammar schools. They are academically selective schools and the exams happen at the start of Year 6. They can be fab for clever kids. The downside is that some of the areas with grammar schools can have very poor non-selective schools.

In case you do want to consider London, I'd recommend my area - the borough of Sutton. It's No1 in England for GCSE attainment. There are 5 selective grammar schools and nine non-selective secondaries but only one of them is bad (temporarily). The attainment in primaries is in the top 5 in England -many great schools so you should be able to get good spaces easily. The area itself was a town + villages that because part of Greater London in the 60's. It's the safest borough in London and full of professional families. There are lots of green spaces and loads to do for children. The countryside is on the doorstep, central London 30 mins on the train and the coast 1h by car. It's also very affordable for London.

Cambridge for a city.

Bishop's Stortford (Herts) for a town. No bad primaries there, and some truly excellent state secondaries (but do your research if you have views on single sex education).

Also Hitchin in Hertfordshire, and I'd look at West Herts if budget permits, places like Tring and Berkamsted.

Winchester?

Dorset

Thank you all for the information. I'm considering Bishop's Stortford. I have no idea on the cost of living there. Can anyone give me a rough idea on how much is the monthly expenditure of a typical 4 person family ( 3 years and 8 years old children ) EXCEPT housing ( as I can find the info from rightmove )? I probably need to drive to and from Harlow everyday as I maybe able to get a job there. What is the fuel cost ?

Harrogate - Close to Leeds for city life, but there is plenty going on in the town.
Fabulous state schools at primary and secondary. Not a grammar school area.

Winchester, Alresford or Alton.