Moving to Reading - Please advice!

[Blapclap]

Hello everyone, I am looking to move to Reading and am here for some advice. We have never been towards that side, new to the country. What do you all think of the area? We will need to commute to Warren Street/Kings Cross.
We like a prep school for our daughter - Caversham prep school.
Will appreciate your advice on good areas, areas to avoid, areas which work for the school and the commute. Really appreciate all the help and the guidance.
Happy to rent for some time ( rent around 1800£ pm) and then buy a 3 bedroom house (budget around 700k).
Any advice at all with be truly appreciated.

[PrincessButtockUp]

Have you considered Twyford? One stop out from Reading on the London side but pretty much every train stops there. Yes the school is in the other direction but if one is doing school drop off and one is commuting to London it could work. There are some lovely properties around there and it's a lot more villagey.

[Curioushorse]

So.....Caversham Prep is a fairly average decent prep. It's fine. It's similar to Crosfields or St Jo's. As always, it depends what you're looking for- and if you felt like your daughter would be happy there, and you were happy with it, then awesome- and ignore everything else! The Caversham state primary schools are excellent- and I'm not sure why many people living in the area would consider sending their child to a private school, unless there were some issues. That, I suspect, is what the previous poster is saying. I'm not sure Caversham Prep does a better job than state, in that area- not because it's bad, but because the state schools are so good.

The school may well get some students into other private schools on scholarships- and that's fine if that's what you want. But did they boast about getting any of their students into Kendrick? Because that would be the real test, as it's a higher achieving and more competitive school than any of the private schools in the area (and the Caversham state primaries are some of the biggest feeder schools for it). As the CAT tests for the independent schools are largely IQ-based, I'm not sure how much praise Caversham Prep can take for getting students into various schools on scholarships every year......
(Plus, both The Abbey and St Jo's would be the obvious independent schools taking girls in Reading. Both of them have their own prep schools)

Good luck, OP. To be honest, you can't really go wrong in the Caversham area. It's a fortunate position to be in because it's a lovely area, and all the schools are good. It is worth expanding your range and weighing up loads of factors. The Henley/Shiplake/Wargrave/Twyford route is a branchline- but the trains are very regular, and there are fast trains morning and evening. Earley, on the other side of Reading is also nice- with similar access to the station. I think you'd have to change the school if you moved there though.

[ImNotWhoYouThinkIam]

This just popped up on my Google feed. you might find it interesting

[OnCandyStripeLegs]

FinallyHere good to see ER linked here

[MrsJamin]

Explore Reading is also a brilliant blog in addition to Edible Reading. Obviously things are a bit different at the moment but there's a good load of varied things happening in the town.

[OpalKoala]

Hi all. We are moving to the UK (from South Africa). We have a high-potential 6 year old son, whom we're looking to enrol in an independent school in Reading (day, co-ed). We came across Caversham Preparatory, and we really liked what we saw on the website and the ISI report. Does anyone have any personal experience with this school and could share some insight?

[Twiglets1]

If you have to travel into King’s Cross wouldn’t it be better to move to an area like Hertfordshire rather than Berkshire where trains go direct to Kings Cross? Lots of good schools in Hertfordshire.

If you are committed to this one particular school then agree Caversham heights is lovely but a pain to get across the bridge by car at busy times. You really need to visit to experience it before buying there.

whoops just realised zombie thread.

[Twiglets1]

@OpalKoala

Hi all. We are moving to the UK (from South Africa). We have a high-potential 6 year old son, whom we're looking to enrol in an independent school in Reading (day, co-ed). We came across Caversham Preparatory, and we really liked what we saw on the website and the ISI report. Does anyone have any personal experience with this school and could share some insight?

You should start your own thread with the title Caversham Prep