West Sussex - Places to relocate to !

[Teddy77]

Calling all mummies living in West Sussex - could you advise me on where would be a good place to relocate to in this County please? We have three daughters, 8,8 and 12 years old. My oldest currently goes to a good Catholic Secondary School so ideally would like to find similar. We are keen to move to West Sussex (from London) to be near the sea, currently looking at houses in Aldwick as it has nice big family houses with access to beach - but also need somewhere with good provision of state schools.

My husband and I work from home, so as long as we have good broadband we can work from anywhere but may need to commute into London a few times a month.

We don't know anyone who lives there so interested in how easy people think it is to make new friends in this area, is there good community interaction / ways to integrate?

Thank-you

It’s a good few years since I lived in West Sussex but St Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill used to be highly regarded and had an Outstanding Ofsted report rating. I don’t know how wide their catchment area is if you want to live near the coast though.

Horsham - Millais is a state girls school and is outstanding, you could choose one of the villages around but you will find its oversubscribed so you need to make sure you get in the catchment

St Paul’s in Burgess Hill is also an excellent school and you could live in various villages around there but again it’s very competitive in terms of getting in.

Personally I would go for villages in either of the two areas above with easy access to the countryside, particularly the South Downs. I personally wouldn’t move to the W Sussex coast as the state schools aren’t great and there are issues of deprivation unless you are planning independent in which case Worthing area and attending Lancing College is a possibility.

Good luck!

Feel free to PM if it would help

West Sussex mum here! Aldwick would feed you into The Regis Academy which is very average. If you want to be coastal then Shoreham Academy is good but you would want to try and live in Southwick as the catchment areas have changed.
Steyning is nice but in land a bit and the local school is decent if not a bit big for my liking.
Burgess Hill had an excellent Catholic school but you will need to be a practising Catholic as it's v popular.
There is a nice small Catholic high school in Goring, West Worthing called Oscar Romero. Less strictly Catholic but Catholic all the same and that is right on a nice bit of the coast. It's a smallish school with a nice feel.

Sussex known for its poor treatment of Catholics - burning the pope traditions etc - so I'm afraid there aren't big Catholic populations to feed catholic schools. Religiously speaking, it is either Anglican or non-conformist.

My extended family all live in Sussex and all Catholic so either went to Anglican/secular state schools or small expensive private catholic schools.

Rubbish that Sussex treats Catholics badly,good grief,I read some stupid things on here,but that is a corker!

I went to St Wilfrid’s School in Crawley.Ended up an Officer in the Army,it is a good school.

Sussex treats catholics badly?! I've lived in west Sussex my entire life and never once heard or seen anything of the sort. Are you referring to Lewes Bonfire or something?

Op there aren't loads of Catholic schools no but pretty sure there aren't loads across the UK in general. St Paul's Burgess Hill, Oscar Romero West Worthing, St Wilfrids Crawley, Cardinal Newman in Brighton, or for a private option Our Lady of Sion in Worthing.

Worthing for coast/country/town balance. Good schools too

Sussex known for its poor treatment of Catholics - burning the pope traditions etc

If you are referring to the Lewes bonfire tradition, you should maybe go a bit further in your research. The 'burning the pope' thing is about burning an effigy of a pope in remembrance of the burning alive of 17 protestants during the reign of Mary I.

It would be more accurate to say "Sussex known for its poor treatment of protestants"

🤣 treating the catholics badly in Sussex

Who even knows who's catholic?
Having been brought up catholic, I would never bring my kids up catholic and hate everything about that religion and I'm from Sussex so perhaps there is truth in the tale 🤣

Can’t even start to get my head round West Sussex treating catholics badly, what a nuts comment. 😂

If you want to be near the sea then places like angmering, little Hampton, arundell etc would work.

St Philip Howard in Barnham would be the closest Catholic secondary and very much a realistic option from Aldwick.

Aldwick itself is lovely, but as a PP has pointed out Coastal West Sussex has pockets of significant deprivation and Bognor Regis is one of those areas.

I'm not familiar with Catholic primaries in Aldwick / Bognor, bit there are schools in Chichester and Arundel which would be worth investigating.

Regarding the local treatment of Catholics, if you're thinking of Lewes, then don't forget that's East Sussex. West Sussex is home to the Dukes of Norfolk who are well known for their faith.

Laughed out loud at the comment about treating catholics badly.

I was coming on to recommend St Paul’s Burgess Hill, but see it’s already been mentioned several times. We live in a village to the south of it, so both the school and the coast are easily accessible, as is the main train line that goes from Brighton to London.

Lovely community round here and newcomers are always welcomed.

Great thanks everyone, really appreciate all the useful information.

Does anyone have any feedback or thoughts on 'St Philip Howard Catholic School' in Barnham ? As that seems to be the most accessible catholic secondary school for Aldwick. It has an outstanding ofsted report, just wondering what kind of reputation the school has locally ?

Thanks!

SPH has a very good reputation locally, it is popular and can be difficult to get into.

Agreed with PP regarding pockets of deprivation in West Sussex, Bognor is most definitely one of those areas. It has beautiful, big properties but they are cheaper than other areas for a reason and it’s worth checking insurance prices in the PO22 and PO21 postcode areas.