Villages around Bath

[NoisySheep]

Looking to relocate to the Bath area, with 2 preschool children. Would be grateful for any recommendations on villages with a good primary school. Also good community feel and access to the countryside (love walking!). We’re considering Freshford, but also keen to look at other options. Thank you

Winsley. Marshfield. Bradford on Avon. Atworth

great 👍 thank you, we’ll check these out 🙏

Keynsham. St John's and St Keyna's primary schools have at various times been the most over subscribed schools in Bath and North East Somerset.
It's a market town rather than a village and has the benefits of good transport links to Bristol and Bath by rail and bus (there's a direct bus to Bristol Airport too).

Thanks so much for the recommendation, we hadn’t considered this side of Bath. But will certainly add to our list of places to check out 🙏

Freshford is lovely, albeit pricey. I know the villages in the Frome direction served by the D2 bus and they are well worth considering. So Rode, Norton St Philip, Beckington. Bradford on Avon is great, but the traffic through it can be terrible and some bits are prone to flooding.

Thanks so much VVF, appreciate the recommendations!

On schools, Bath and North East Somerset operates a two tier system (so Freshford is a standard YR-Y6 primary) whereas the other villages I mentioned are in Somerset’s 3-tier system (so they have first schools, middle schools and senior). However, they are consulting on moving to two tier so it’s worth checking which system you would be in. Freshford is over-subscribed so if you wanted to go there without living in Freshford itself then somewhere like Hinton Charterhouse could be a good option.

For secondary, if you are planning on state then the highly regarded Bath secondaries are Ralph Allen (co-ed), Beechen Cliff (boys) and Hayesfield (girls). I think RA operates a normal distance criteria, but both BC and Hayesfield have quotas for children outside the Bath council area. They therefore take children from the South of Bath villages so it’s worth checking out their maximum distances. Obviously less of an issue if you go for private!

Saltford primary is excellent & it’s a lovely village with excellent transylinks to both Bath & Bristol

Thanks again VVF, that’s super helpful 🙏

Thank you Pegster, appreciate the recommendation. Adding to our list of places to check out 🙏