Home Counties move - where?!

[lastminutebabyname]

DH and I are looking to move from SW London to the Home Counties, with 3 DC (eldest in Yr1). However we have no family in England, so struggling to choose an area. Key priorities are:

Good schools (private or state, currently in London prep)
Detatched house, big garden (budget up to £2m)
Commutable to Bank (DH 3 days, me 1-2 days)
Sense of community, easy access to countryside and nearby town

Places currently on my list:
Surrey - Oxted, Cobham, Surrey Hills
Kent - Sevenoaks
Bucks - Amersham, Chalfonts
Berks - Pangbourne, Goring & Streatley

Please help! Note we haven’t visited most of these, so I know we need to do more research/narrow it down, but any advice welcome! We really want to find somewhere we can settle with the DC, so they have somewhere to call home!

Sevenoaks is good for fast and frequent trains but so dull with not much going on

Look further down the line to Tun Wells for a buzzier, bigger town. Still very commutable

Thank you both @Troglodytes and @DibbleDooDah for such comprehensive answers - nothing like local knowledge! V helpful. We are going to go visit both areas in a few weekends time.

@hedgehoggydog thank you! Are you by any chance familiar with schools in Sevenoaks and TW?

Villages around Woking are pretty and fast train from Woking is 23min, the quick hop on Waterloo and City. I used to do commute door to door in an hour.

@Peonies007 that is a good commute! Will have a look - thank you

Sevenoaks is great because you just socialise in London! There's a train every ten minutes (or less) to somewhere in London and London Bridge is 20 mnts, Charing Cross is 30 mnts. It's faster than my trips to Soho from zone 3 London. So don't worry about Sevenoaks being boring!

Not sure of schools, but it's a grammar area and I know there are a couple of good state primaries/ secondaries. There doesn't seem to be massive waiting lists like in London.