Help! St Albans or Sutton- need to move by March!

[May83]

Hi all,

We need to move out of Greenwich, in London, by March. I’m looking for a safe, family friendly area with excellent state schools (my little one will start school Sept 2023).

I’m a full-time working mum, and 3 months pregnant with our next child. I want to continue working 3-4 days a week after my mat leave so the location needs to be well connected to London.

Also unfortunately I’m not physically/emotionally resilient with difficult/long commutes so that’s a big factor too. Equally, we want the best free education for our children…!

So far we’ve whittled down St Albans and Sutton as 2 potential areas to move to. I have some Qs I’d appreciate some inputs on please:

1. What’s it like living here?
2. How was your commute to London in terms of travel time and also the journey itself (changes/ seat/ temperature/ people)?
3. suggestions of other places with great connectivity to London, outstanding state schools, and family friendly safe areas are welcome too!!

Many thanks in advance…we need to move by March so am really hoping to make an informed decision with your input!

OP, I don’t think St Albans has any partially selective state schools actually in St Albans. Some children who live in St A do commute to the SW Herts Consortium schools, which are partially selective (even Watford Boys grammar and Watford girls grammar - around 30% of the intake is selective academic places), and largely in Watford nearby. But postcodes outside Watford are a lower priority even if your DC does well in the music/academic/sports tests, so it’d all be quite risky assuming you’d get in. But I guess that’s also the case with moving near to true grammar schools.

(That was in reply to your comment “ Clearly the info I’ve gotten here has been eye opening. - I’d previously had no idea that St Albans had no grammars…only partially selective ones”)

The fact that st A doesn’t have many/any selective state schools is a good thing!

I am in a grammar school area & the grammars cream kids off so that the normal comps are seen as an unattractive bet. Lots of parents then feel forced to go private/grammar… and so the circle continues. just thought I’d add that to the mix.

Actually, I did a trial run and St Albans train is super swift into London! Will explore Raynes Park commute later this week as a comparison. However I get a sense that all things in St Albans are v oversubscribed and people are having to pay over the odds for childminders/ babysitters/ after school clubs/ holiday clubs etc…not to mention housing and so forth