Relocating to London - Location and school

[naft]

Hello, I'm not from the UK. I've been living in Leeds for a year, and I'm going to move to London due to my husband's job, and I have no idea where to start. My daughter will turn 4 in April 2024, so I need to choose a good location for primary school. I know little about London and was thinking about Bromley (further from the centre and cheaper) or paying a little more rent and living in West Ealing. Does anyone have tips on where I could start? Is there any website or service that could guide me?

I know west London really well (especially Chiswck/Hammermsith/Acton) and 2.5K wouldn't get you much in West London Zones 2-3 - especially nicer parts of Fulham and Richmond (every area has not nice parts that are cheaper). Rents are crazy. There are lots of great primary schools - although quite a few of the old 'outstanding' schools have been downgraded to 'good' so beware how old the last Ofsted is before you decide where to live.

For example Southfield Primary in Chiswick (under a new head) has just been given an Outstanding rating and you should be able to afford a maisonette on Southfield Road (overlooking the park) or just over the border in the Wendell Park area of W12 (type in W4 1BA + 1/4 mile). The commute is slow though as Turham Green is on the district line (although you can change platforms at Hammersmith for a quicker journey into town). North Chiswick is relatively quite but Grove park in the South has terrible plane noise.

Teddington/Twickenham are great areas and there are pockets of value around Fulwell. Plane noise is awful though (you will find this in West Ealing too). East Sheen/Mortlake have heaps of great primaries and you wouldn't have a problem getting a school place. Cheaper than Richmond but still lovely (and you have easy access to Barnes and Richmond Park) but again plane noise is terrible (Kew is the worst - but again lovely area and great schools). It's become a lot easier to get a primary school place in London and you are never very far from a really great school. I was amazed how many excellent school had places after offers day this year. Commuter towns may only have one great school and you may still have to live really close by.

But access into London town is no quicker on the tube than a train journey from some of the commuter towns (although it will be cheaper and more frequent on the tube).

Sorry I'm making the assumption that you understand that I'm telling you to type W4 1BA (+ 1/4 mile) in the property website Rightmove.

You can look up individual schools performance on the government website https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables. The Sunday Times does a yearly best school guide you can find online called Parent Power (you may need to subscribe to the paper) - I'd trust this over a pre-Covid Ofsted rating. Some state schools appear in The Good School Guide (although this is mainly private schools) - but they do also offer a service where you can advise you on schools / areas to live.
Hope that helps.

Look at the secondary schools as it is easier to get a good primary than secondary. Yes it is long time and thjngs change... but I would move to some place where there are few grammars and you are in catchment. You will find good primary school there

This is good advice. You can look at some of the threads in the mumsnet secondary education topic and see how much stress finding a good secondary school in London can cause. I wouldn't necessarily limit the search to areas with grammar schools (as that may not suit your child) but areas within catchment of some good / outstanding secondaries might be a place to start. As noted above these areas will also have good primaries.

Does anyone have thoughts about this area W12 9ND?

I know it well! Lovely area.

Chiswick has excellent state primary schools and also a currently very good state secondary. Ealing is lovely but I can't comment about the schools. A lot of kids travel from Ealing to Chiswick for secondary.