Moving to Amersham

[GreatWestRoad]

My husband and I are planning to move to Amersham within the next year (hopefully!). We currently live in west London and have a baby and a toddler (one girl, one boy).

We will both have to commute into London for work. I can work 2/3 days a week from home, but my husband will need to commute most days.

We have seen quite a few houses but nothing has been quite right so far and also the current market situation has made us a bit cautious. We originally had a budget of absolute max £2m (but looking for properties more around £1.75m), but given where mortgage rates now are we think we are going to have to look more around £1.5m - £1.75m.

We would like to have the future option of sending the children to grammar school if they pass the 11+, so would like to be in catchment of the Challoners schools.

We have visited The Beacon and really liked it and have also heard good things about Heatherton. However, I know there are also some good state primary schools in the area.

I’m basically looking for some advice from others who live in the area or know it well as to good areas / streets to look. Location is probably the most important thing as we don’t want to be making our lives a nightmare in terms of doing school runs on top of commutes.

Hi OP @GreatWestRoad - did the you make the move?

Yes, we moved at the very end of August so have been in Bucks for about 4 months now. So far we are enjoying life here, although there are some things we miss about London too. I am hoping that goes away once we have been here longer and know more people / have local friends.

At the moment we are living in a rented house as we didn't find
anything to buy in time. Although it's not ideal, it has crystallised our
thoughts about exactly which locations we would be happy to buy in. One word of
warning is that we found it very hard to find something suitable to rent.

Our son has just gone back for his second term at The Beacon. He
seems really happy there and we have been very pleased with the school so far.

We have also been to an open day at Heatherton and, prior to
that, had a meeting with the headteacher and a personal tour round the school.
Although Heatherton doesn't have the same facilities as The Beacon (or some
other girls' prep schools locally) we liked the headmistress and the school has
a lovely feel to it. For us, logistics is a very big part of the decision
making process and Heatherton works for us from that point of view.

We have spoken to parents who have girls at Godstowe and Maltman's Green. Some have criticised Godstowe for being a bit old fashioned and not all parents being particularly friendly. I have heard stories about bullying / unkindness at Maltman's, even among really quite young girls.

In terms of the commute, I travel into the City on the
Metropolitan line, which takes roughly an hour. It is quite long but, because
you are overground for a lot of it, I often use the time to respond to emails /
do life admin. I pretty much always get a seat on the way to work. On the way
home, I sometimes have to stand until Baker Street. If you get the Chiltern
line train into Marylebone then that is obviously much quicker, but it depends
on where you need to get to from Marylebone as to whether that is overall going
to be a quicker journey. Using Chalfont & Latimer station is good, because
then you have trains going to/from both Amersham and Chesham passing through.

Welcome to metroland life!

The majority of parents who use Godstowe are looking at different destination schools to the other preps mentioned. Therefore it’s not the same and is valued for its traditional outlook. It’s really a case that parents should choose what prep school suits their chosen destination school.

@GreatWestRoad sounds great! Happy your DS has settled in nicely

Are you seeing anything more suitable start to come up? I think Christmas time isn't great for the housing market as barely anyone puts anything up but hopefully things will start to pick up now