Is Haywards Heath Nice?

[LoftyOP]

We're thinking about moving to Haywards Heath as it's cheaper than SW London where we are currently and are just wondering whether it's a nice place? Are the schools (secondary) any good? Thanks

I'm late to the party but standing up for Haywards Heath! We moved from London 20 years ago and are really happy here. The town exists largely because the cute villages, Lindfield and Cuckfield, both said no to a train station and the train line was put through the middle and Haywards Heath grew up around it (Haywards Heath, Lindfield and Cuckfield have melted into each other). Great for commuting (you have the choice of London Bridge (40min) / St Pancras (1h) and onwards up to Bedford or Cambridge and the Victoria (45min) service). In easy reach of Brighton. The buildings are unremarkable but there are three large parks and lovely countryside within easy reach (plus three National Trust properties within a 20min drive). The shops have what we need (there's Waitrose, Sainsbury's M&S, Fatface, Jo Jo Maman, Accessorize, Next, Waterstones etc) and we can go to Brighton and Crawley for more. Some nice cafes and restaurants popping up too. Oathall is a great secondary school. It narrowly missed out on getting Outstanding in the latest Ofsted and my children thrived there (the farm is a tremendous asset). We chose it over Warden Park. Primary Schools are all good.

Do NOT send children to Oathall. Just terrible.

DD is considering moving to HWH, do you mind me asking what the issue is with the school?

Disruption in classrooms - awful