Returning to the UK - where would you live if you could?

[ConfusedMover]

We are planning a return to the UK after 5.5 years abroad. We have a house in Windsor but not tied to it long term (too small). Need to consider schooling (DS will go into year one). Several options (southern England) at the moment:

1. West Berkshire/S Oxon.
2. Bath area (went to Uni there & DH used to live there).
3. Herefordshire (family in Chester & Bristol areas so good compromise).

Areas ruled out are Kent & East of country (no offence intended!). Having such a large choice is making it difficult to focus, any suggestions are very welcome....!

Where will you and your DH work ?

DH likely to be doing short term contracts abroad so commuting location not so important.

Hereford a bit of a hike to a useful airport, which your DH might not be so happy about if he is going abroad a lot

Are you likely to educate privately or state?

Well we live in Farnham Surrey, so midway between LHR and LGW.

55 minutes into Waterloo on the train.

There are some very good schools around here.

Agree Hereford is a bit of a hike, hence our first thoughts of W Berks, I like the area between Newbury & Hungerford.
Education - good state schol would be fanstastic but realise that we may well have to go private (day).
Farnham - yes I know it well. I have a friend who lives there and we look there ourselves a few years ago pre DS. I would prefer to be a little more rural.

Bath & area any time. Some great state schools especially if you extend your search to North Wiltshire.

I used to live in Newbury and did like it there, but not as much as the South-West. Berkshire much more expensive in terms of housing etc.

exbatt - which are the good state schools in N Wilts?

Farnham is lovely. DD took us to Farnham last November as she would like to live there.

There are no good state schools in North Wiltshire I'm afraid
Look at the tables - they are all embarassingly shite
South Wilts has a few OK ones...

Article in Telegraph Property this weeken listed top 50 market towns. Can't remember many but they included Moreton in Marsh, Bury St Edmunds, Winchester, St Albans... oh I'm stuck now...

Thanks for all the input, much food for thought...open to further suggestions.
I'll try and find that Telegraph article online, sounds interesting.

..and here it is www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2008/01/11/pcountrytowns112.xml&page=1

Depends on your definition of state school I suppose. If you take a totally non-selective school that still does well by the vast majority of it's pupils, I'd say that's better than a selective school that surprise surprise gets good results.

How about St Laurence in Bradford-on-Avon (BOA one of the Telegraph best country towns too!) This has a great reputation throughout Wiltshire (great for arts and music, right next to Wiltshire Music Centre and lots of links with it) and I don't think the raw figures do it justice.

Or Sheldon School in Chippenham. 71% achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs in 2006, with 59% getting the five including Maths and English. Again, this is a totally non-selective school, either by ability to pay, academic ability or house prices, so not a bad result. Sheldon is in Ofsted's 'best of the best' honours roll and was listed 25th in the list of best comprehensives in the country according to national league tables. Last year's A level results were better than many respected independent schools locally.

Hardenhuish School in Chippenham is also very well regarded. Again, no selection at all.

Primary schools - many village ones in North Wiltshire very well thought of, including Kington Langley. In Chippenham I think you would honestly be pushed to find a 'bad' school. Some have more mixed intakes than others, and this is reflected in league tables, but then I would never make a decision purely on league tables. In the town itself, St Mary's and St Peter's quite sought after. Ivy Lane good but the tables don't always reflect that. Redland again does well with quite a mixed intake.

Again, statistics can be read many ways. For example one of the schools listed above does not score as well as some of the others on pure SATs figures, but last year was in the top 11% of schools nationally for value-added.

Enough rambling, I'll have a think and ask friends in various other parts of North Wiltshire what schools are like there.

59% getting 5 GCSEs including maths and english is good? So that means 41% don't?
We have a different opinion of what makes a good school I think exbatt.

Paloma, like I said it depends exactly what the intake is like. If there is absolutely no selection involved at all, so therefore you're getting every type of child and every type of parent, and yet that school is still adding more value than many other schools, then yes I would. That includes children with special needs, those from disadvantaged backgrounds and yes, even the 'thick' or the 'bog-standard'.

Add to that the fact that at that school it is now the norm to do A levels, whereas other schools with a similar intake still see masses leave at 16. If you look at the tables you seem so fond of, that particular school has on several occasions been named the best comprehensive in Wiltshire and the best in the whole south-west region, and on some measures does better than fee-paying schools. But actually I don't look at tables, I look at what a school seems to be doing with/for the children it gets. When I lived in Berkshire my nearest school was bottom of the
county league tables, largely because of it's intake, and yet I knew gifted, special needs and plain average children who really thrived there. The work the school did with their children was amazing.

For some children, getting one GCSE will be an achievement, a good school will help them achieve that and perhaps get them to 2 or even 3 GCSEs. That is just as important as pushing the bright children to get their 10 A*s. A 'good' school helps all children achieve their potential, even if for some that might only mean 4 good GCSEs rather than the 5 needed for a table.

It makes me laugh when a school that selects according to strict academic criteria and/or the ability to pay is then lauded for producing 'good' results.

Anyway, this isn't helping the original poster. I would reiterate though that there are many places around Bath and North Wiltshire where I would be happy to live and to send my children to school there.

I agree - the 'added value' tables make far more interesting reading. My sons go to the 'top' school in our town and they're getting on fine - but not as well as other friends who attend a comp where only 39% acheived 5 A-C grades. I know several children there who gained 12 A and A GCSEs last year, including one who was in the top 5 candidates in the country for RE. So the fact that it's in the middle of a huge council estate with a lot of less academic children hasn't prevented the bright ones achieving. Surely that's the most important thing - that every child can reach his or her full potential?

Another friend has a child at a bog standard comp in Kent... he has 14 A* GCSEs and is the top pupil in the county. So people can pay as much as they like or move near a 'good' school - their child can't do better than him!