State Schools in SW (Kingston / Surbiton / New Malden)

[FreierGedanke]

Hello there,

We are looking to move back to the UK with our little boy (11 mo) due to work in the next 6-12 months and are now looking at family friendly areas with a good state school network.

We have been recommended Kingston Surbiton and New Malden for state schools (can't afford private) and in terms of affordability for a 3 bed semi-detached with garden.

Grateful if all the mums and dads out there can share their thoughts on those areas, or indeed, suggest other good ones in the SW?

Thank you so much!

New Malden is full of 3-bed semis. Not so much Kingston, which tends to be terraced cottages (or mansions).

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/

You can find stats on schools there. All the areas you mention will have some excellent primary options. For secondary, there are the selective Tiffins. As far as non-selective options go, Coombe Boys and Girls are excellent. North Kingston also has the recently opened Kingston Academy - no results yet but expected to be a successful school.

Another suggestion with excellent schools is Sutton and surrounds. The most desirable areas are Cheam Village, South Cheam, South Sutton (incl Belmont Village) and Carshalton Village/Beeches. Lots of greenery, v family-orientated with excellent amenities and zone 5 stations with direct links to Victoria, London Bridge and St Pancras. It’s generally cheaper than the borough of Kingston so you’d get quite a lot more house for your money and a combination of v successful primaries, 5 grammar schools and excellent non-selective options.

Oh, if you’re church goers, you’ll be able to live most places and still get into some excellent schools.

If you are into looking at long term planning it helps to find a cluster of schools that you could go to as a school that is outstanding now might be in special measures in 4 years. I was chair of gov of a school where we avoided special measures by the barest of margins due to the ill health of the head. With illness they had taken their eyes off the ball and things slid very quickly. The flight of parents to nearby schools was a thing to behold.

London can have an issue with aided school admission policies. It isn't all the church schools. I'm chair of an aided church junior school and we don't have a faith criteria. We are not full even though we are rated good by OFSTED. The next door church primary school (OFSTED outstanding) does and they have to put on extra services for parents who are on their knees to avoid the fees. To be fair the community outstanding school had parents paying silly prices for houses in the catchment area. Odd that so many are driving the children in as the catchment area is about 500m from end to end.

I don't know the areas you are looking at very well. What seems to happen in the bits of London I know is that it is very mixed and you get good housing stock next to very poor housing. Once you have narrowed down your search go and have a proper look. Maybe air B&B and get a feel for what your preferred area is like during the week and weekends and daytime into nighttime. I like Kingston a lot as it has a good shopping centre but there are some really rough bits and not many houses that are under 1mil. It seems to be mostly flats and families move out to Surrey when they want a house.

Also distances in the capital are deceptive. It can take an hour to go 5 miles. On the other hand if you are on a fast line you can be in the city from a long way out in 30 minutes.

Good luck.

I’ve never heard of rough bits of Kingston. Some are full of students, though. North Kingston is the popular family area.

That was from someone who works in safeguarding. I don't know the area outside of the rather good John Lewis and Bentall's centre.

Thank you for all the feedback, really appreciate it!

I've looked up Sutton and it seems like a really nice area and much more affordable, but the commute to London seems to be relatively longer (that's the tradeoff I guess)?

We aren't religious unfortunately, so I guess other choices are more restricted.

After further research Surbiton seems to be a good balance between affordability (vs Kingston) and accessibility (vs Sutton). However, there don't seem to be as many schools nearby - may I ask if the catchment areas for state schools are fairly wide, i.e. is it very possible for children living in Surbiton to go to a state school in North Kingston or New Malden?

www.kingston.gov.uk/info/200130/education_schools_and_nurseries

Somewhere on there you should find the admission distances for the past 3 years to give you an idea of how far you can get in from.

Surbiton has very quick trains comparable to travelling from zone 3 even though it’s in zone 6 but I’d say the school options are the weakest out of the above areas for boys. Definitely no chance of Kingston Academy or Coombe boys from there.

New Malden would have v good options for primary and secondary and it’s 24mins to Waterloo from zone 4.

Sutton is definitely better connected than Kingston. For the city, it’s 30mins to London Bridge and then a walk over the river so door-to-desk in 45-50 mins if you aren’t too far from the station. The City Thameslink takes much longer but you always get a seat (DH takes that and gets a lot of work done on the way) + there are Victoria trains and it’s a short bus/Uber ride from the Northern line which runs 24/7.
I suppose it’s very cheap as it’s miles away from anywhere pricey so there’s never been any overspill from more expensive areas + the town centre is a bit drab and it’s also a popular retirement spot. So it’s just pretty uncool (but amazing if you’re outdoorsy or sporty).

North Kingston is the most expensive and least well connected of the bunch but I suppose people pay a premium for proximity to Richmond Park, the river + it’s one of the busiest shopping areas in the UK with tons of nice shops and restaurants by the river etc. Probably very appealing if someone likes city living but doesn’t have zone 1 budget.

the catchment areas are tiny. there are lots of schools in surbiton though...at least 5 or more i think... it would be very rare to get placed in a school in kingston if you live in surbiton or new malden.

And when it comes to the academically selective schools, children sit the exams at the start of Y6 so when they’re 10. To apply for the Tiffins in the borough of Kingston, you need to live within a certain radius (so Kingston, Surbiton of New Malden would be all fine).

The 5 Sutton grammars, are part catchment so anyone can sit the exam but it’s much easier to get in if you’re local.

Yes catchment areas very small - my mum is governor of a wildly popular C of E primary school in North Kingston and their catchment is tiny though some years they have taken bulge classes.

You can definitely get a house for less than 1 million even in North Kingston - again I know because my parents live there.

Around the Cambridge estate can be a bit rough (was even in the 1980's!) but really not that bad by the standards of other areas of London, both Kingston and New Malden are very middle class.

Thanks everyone for your feedback - I have a much better idea now what to expect and where to look.

I am still drawn towards the North Kingston / Surbiton area, so will do more research into which are the good parts and which one to avoid (though from what I read there's really no actual bad parts).