Moving from London to Kent looking for advice on Primary Schools stuck choosing CofE

[HolidayMom40]

Hi everyone,

I'm recently coming out of a divorce and have decided to make a life change in the form of relocating from where I have lived for 9 years in Ruislip, Hillingdon to Kent. Kent is beautiful, driving down on the M25 to the A20 makes me feel like I am coming home!

I'm really happy about making this move as both myself and my son (7 years old) deserve to afford ourselves a better quality of life.

At the moment he attends a a CofE school in Ruislip. They are very attentive to the children, good Christian values, homework grid is set out in achievable merits, lots of parent activities and involvement throughout the year - Race Nights - allowing parents to come and read with the class etc. The year groups have names, boys wear shirts and ties and if you forget a day to mark your kid down for school lunch, they'll ring you and let you know but still provide lunch!

Moving to Kent I have visited a number of areas which I really like.
Namely:- Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells near Dunorlen Park, Paddock Wood, Pembury and Maidstone around and close to Mote Park.

Rightmove shows the list of school in an area and I have visited the website of respective schools however if any of you have first hand recommendations to which CofE primary schools are good / outstanding and which to avoid (as well as areas to avoid) it will be much appreciated.

The schools I have looked into so far are:-
St James School, Speldhurst CofE, St Matthews High Brooms, Rusthall St Paul’s, St Augustine Catholic Primary, Claremont, Darrick Wood.

Coming from Ruislip, which is a fairly nice place to live, you could walk down your road or the high street and bump into people from school who are happy to stop and chat.
People are friendly and the children are kind.

The reason we are moving is off the back of my divorce we want a change of scenery in a bigger house in an area offering good education and nice places to make new mummy friends but be near to a park / woods to exercise and run the dog.

I'm so grateful to anyone who can reach out and offer some insight into my move to Kent and prospective CofE Primary school for my 7 year old (who, when my house exchange is finalised - will be an in year admission).

Thank again xx

I'm not in Kent so no advice re individual schools but I would say it's worth think about Secondary too.

As Kent has grammar schools, the more able children are 'skimmed off'. So if your child doesn't pass the 11+, this can be an issue.

Bromley, only has 2 super-selective schools and so has some very good non-selective secondary schools.

Ex St James pupil here and I know several people who have worked there over the years - it has a very good reputation and is in a nice area for family homes and local parks. It's always had a good sense of community and is well connected to the church over the road. Not sure about the others you've mentioned - I know Claremont is supposed to be very good but it's in the centre of town where the catchment area is small and house prices are fairly eye-watering!

As Ducky says, Kent has the grammar secondary system. TW has 3 grammar schools, 2 church secondaries (CofE and Catholic) and an academy. There are quite strict entry requirements for the church schools but I know the academy is a lot better than its reputation, which wasn't great a few years back. Worth thinking about for a few years time!

Would also highly recommend Rusthall as a place to live - again I don't know much about the school but house prices are much more reasonable, it's got a village community/countryside feel to it but only about 30 mins walk/5 mins drive from TW town centre. Lots of lovely dog walks in this part of the world too!

As an in year admission, your choice is likely to be constrained by what's available. The most popular schools (St James, Claremont, St John's etc) are hard to get an in year place at even if you live practically on top of them, because places just don't come up that often and there might already be siblings on the waiting list. Even the less popular schools will still have year groups where they're full. Once you've secured an address, just apply to as many as you can, and be prepared to move school again if you can't initially get a place you're happy with.

Your first point of call rather than investing lots of time into finding out the 'best' school, is to find out what schools have a vacancy. You can then start to choose between those that do have a vacancy but the top rated schools are very likely full and have waiting lists.

We made the move to Kent 5 years ago. As well as school performance/vacancies, factor in house prices, commute times and availability of good state secondaries - as PPs have said, we’re a grammar county and the number of good state secondaries if you child doesn’t get into grammar are fewer!

We wanted to move to Sevenoaks but property wise we got a lot more for our money by moving to Borough Green on the outskirts. There is a direct train line (Borough Green & Wrotham) into London Victoria (45 minutes). Borough Green is a mix of older period houses and surburbia but has very pretty & old adjoining villages (Ightham, Wrotham and Platt) and very easy access to countryside for dog walks. Our Primary is CofE and only narrowly missed being outstanding last year but St George’s Primary in Wrotham (the village that joins us) is Outstanding and CofE.

Because of our position between Maidstone and Sevenoaks, DC from here are within the catchment area for the Maidstone grammars, the Sevenoaks grammar, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells grammars and children from here go in all directions! The local State school, Wrotham, is one of the rare State Secondaries within Kent with a good reputation and performance track record.

On a final note, trains to London are very regular and there are a lot of commuters living here. 25 minutes up the line is Bromley which has great shopping opportunities if that could be important at some point for your DC!

PS - wouldn’t recommend Maidstone to live. Hugely different area to the other areas you are looking at! Property prices are by very far the cheapest there but the population is very diverse and it can be pretty rough and there are some serious problems with homelessness and drugs. Mote Park is nice but still Maidstone. I’m fond of the town but wouldn’t want to live there and wont be letting DD hang out there at night!

I was about to come and support Maidstone and the schools around. Like all areas, including the ones mentioned in the op, there’s good and rougher areas.

. I don’t know much about Cof E junior schools.

However, looking further ahead, Maidstone has a very good non-Grammar Catholic secondary school, St Simon Stock Which had a good reputation if you want a Faith-orientated school.

There’s lots of Lovely villages around Maidstone you could consider also - Bearsted, East Farleigh, Loose Etc, plus lots of new developments near the hospital and Langley if you prefer new houses.

As above, I’m fond of Maidstone but rough Maidstone is a heck of a lot different to rough Sevenoaks! Just coming out of the train station at Maidstone East, the number of homeless people and teenagers obviously dealing is worrying. Yes there are some extremely nice villages surrounding it though with low property prices, wouldn’t disagree but you’d be looking at a drive to the train station (if not living in Bearsted) and a longer commute than the other options the OP is looking at. St Simon Stock is good (if the OP was Catholic and a regular churchgoer - it’s very over subscribed) but the other State secondary non Grammar options aren’t wonderful.

Your school in Ruislip sounds fantastic so I don't really understand why you are moving, apart from to be near a park/woods. Are there no parks in Ruislip?

We lived in Kent (DH's birthplace) for 27 years and even he was glad to see the back of it and move away. You don't say whether you actually know Kent at all, but IME people in the street are not friendly at all. Road rage is endemic and people drive aggressively.

We moved SW for work and were really surprised when total strangers talked to us, and other drivers let you out of junctions with no beeping horns (unfortunately starting to change as more and more people pile out of London into this area).

Any good schools will be oversubscribed, unless you are really lucky, so it's unlikely you will have a choice, and as pp have said, Kent has a grammar system so you need to pick somewhere that has decent High schools unless you are certain DS will pass the 11+.

Sorry to rain on your parade but your OP reads as if you haven't actually thought this through. The commuter belt of Kent is also very expensive so I wouldn't have thought house prices would be any cheaper than your current area.

True, Sevenoaks is very nice, and has house prices .

How much do you have to spend on a house? As a rough guide, I’ve put in £250 and these some of the two bedroom houses that come up.

Sevenoaks

Tunbridge Wells

Paddock Wood

maidstone

If you have a price range, Maybe people could suggest areas, and the schools nearby.

The Sevenoaks property is in Seal - Seal is nice but isn’t in Sevenoaks itself, it’s a village on the outskirts and you’d either have to drive into Borough Green or Sevenoaks in the morning traffic to get to a train station. Unless you could get into Trinity on regular church going evidence, you’d be stuck with Knole as your secondary option (or if you got lucky, a place at Wrotham) which has a very mixed reputation. The Primary School in Seal is ok.

The Maidstone property is in the centre of town rather than the more leafy Mote Park area. It’s not a horrible area just south of the river but it’s very mixed residential/commercial with a lot of big houses broken up into multi tenanted flats. No idea about schools.

To be fair to Kent, in terms of Street ‘friendliness’ it’s not dissimilar at all to the majority of the South East. Many people who live here are DFLs (down from London). Yes no one speaks to generally unless they know you but with DC you do get to know people relatively quickly. Also having a friendly mutt helps - I’ve met quite a lot of people through the dog!

@Standrewsschool has asked a really pertinent question about your budget OP as that will price you in (or out!) of certain locations.

Some amazing over-generalisations on this thread!!

Kent is a huge County- I have lived in Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone & now live on the Coast.

Friendly/unfriendly people and rough/plush areas in each

My advice would be check admissions/catchment for schools. House prices tend to reflect the transport links and 'quality' of area.

Would agree in part..there’s rough and rough! Maidstone itself has some lovely buildings and a great deal of history but has & attracts a different demographic to Tunbridge Wells!

Hi, thanks for your response

Hi there,
Certainly true! Am thinking for a few years time and considering the option for secondary/grammar schools. But the house and the area are very important.

Atm I’m looking at Weavering.

Hello!
Thanks so much for your message.
Rusthall sounds nice.
The thought of changing schools again, not so much.
My budget is £450k and what I hope for that money is to get a 4-bed detached.
I realise what Ruislip offers in terms of school and location is the ideal package, but with that in mind, it’s time to move, so locating to a like for like area in a beautiful part of the world (and not a millions miles away) makes the top part of Kent, close to the M25 corridor, the most logical and feasible option.

You won't get a 4 bed detached in TW for that budget unfortunately. I've just put it through Rightmove and not one came up, it's stupidly expensive. A 4 bed semi in my road just sold for £680k.....Also, St Augustine's is Catholic, not CofE.

St James is excellent but highly sought after and as a previous poster has said, many of the 'best' primaries are very hard to get into as they rarely have in year spaces.

Tonbridge has good primaries and may be more in budget - although prices are rising fast there too, as it has good train links, lovely parks, the river etc, but for some reason it is a bit less sought after than TW or Sevenoaks.

@HolidayMom40, appreciate that you’d get a 4 bed detached in Weavering for £450k but (& honestly no offence meant!), you might be prioritising house over education in the longer term. If your DC pass the 11+ then the grammars in Maidstone are all good (and a few are under subscribed) but if they don’t, it’s not great news. Yes St Simon Stock is a good school, unless you’re Catholic though (and it’s a popular choice for Catholic parents in a wide area) you really aren’t guaranteed a place. Christian but not Catholic children rank at priority six on their admissions doc.

These are the state alternatives, do look at exam performance stats as they aren’t good - www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&parliamentary=Maidstone%20and%20The%20Weald&geographic=parliamentary&for=secondary&basedon=Overall%20performance&show=All%20pupils

The PP above recommended Tonbridge and I think she’s making a sound suggestion. You won’t get a 4 bed detached for £450k but you would get a semi detached. It’s often under rated as a place to live but school wise, many of our kids go to its grammars and state secondaries as they are good. As the PP says, it’s got a mixed reputation in terms of the demographic it attracts (largely Sevenoaks and TW people being a bit snooty!) but the upper part of town is lovely and historic. Many professionals live there. I’d seriously consider it!