Less mortgage or more London?

[philbee]

It looks like we might be able to move out of SE London to Bromley and just about wipe out the mortgage. House would be like for like, hopefully near enough a good primary and good secondary, as we are here. Commute 20 mins longer, and we'd be in proper suburbia, not the kind of inner London suburbia (yes, I know) we are in now. Would you move? There's a lot to do here, DD1 likes her school, we have friends here, it's 10 mins into London on the train. We can afford the mortgage, but it does tie us to earning a certain amount so retraining etc. would be tricky. Is it worth moving somewhere we like less to lose it? What would you do?

[nessus]

Phil this is my manor so I will wade in if I may. Not sure what you have now but Beckenham is proper expensive. The only place I would live around Shortlands is Den Road area and that I think keeps you in Langley Catchment. The two primaries mentioned are the cream of the top but you would need to be Croydon road end of Beckenham to get a look in at CH, for MV you need to be Eden park / Elmers end but neither give the Beckenham vibe. The Beckenham Hill area might be more affordable but then it starts leaning into Catford territory.

DD went to MV and though I technically live in Bromley, post code is resolutely SE London, and unless you are moving to Hayes, Keston et al you are essentially still in the suburbs of SE London as attested by the screaming sirens around. Unless you are currently living in the bowels of Elephant and Castle I would stay put where you are until you can genuinely put some distance between you and SE London as I afraid to say Bromley or at least the parts you mention won't do that.

And if by good schools you are thinking of those nuisance academies, I would think again...

[nessus]

Typing on tablet makes for terrible grammar but then it might be the Penge affliction from living so close :p

[nessus]

Btw fast train from Beckenham to Victoria is 14mins and I drive to Norwood Junction for fast train to London Bridge in 12mins so not really much to getting into 'town'

[philbee]

Thanks Nessus. I think the suburbia type feel is what we dread, but Sydenham / Beckenham seem too far from school. In Bromley I was looking at Langley school as Bullers Wood too far out and the grammars likewise and possibly too selective. Here we are closest to Prendergast Hilly Fields. I don't know how it compares to Langley at all. In either place it looks like there's be one good option but not really any more than that, seems impossible to be in catchment for more than one good school, but so much would be about the DDs feeling it was the right place for them, it's a bit of a gamble just picking one now. I guess if we waited then we could go and visit with older DD and see what she thought.

[littlecrystal]

StainlessSteelBegonia this is very true but I often notice that the difference gets opposite for secondaries..

[GrandPoohBah]

Sydenham puts you in the catchment for Prendergast and Haberdashers' Aske's, and has fantastic transport links.

[TheWave]

I would look at the prices very carefully. Affordable might mean just that bit further from a decent secondary.

[philbee]

Grandpoobah, I don't think that's true. According to the distances last year Haberdashers had a max catchment of about 800 metres, and only in one ability band. Prendergast is further, but only 600m in the top ability band, and you don't know until year 5 what band your child is in.

[Mintyy]

Philbee - it is very true that it is almost impossible to be in catchment for more than one good school, so the notion that we have a choice of six is laughable. Or it would be if it weren't so serious.

[GrandPoohBah]

Is Aske's not exam entry any more then? Used to be that as long as you were in the boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark or Greenwich you could apply.

[Mintyy]

No, it has changed now. Aske's is a catchment school, tiny catchment at that.