Moving house - Amersham/ little Chalfont or St Albans ?

[ThatAmberViewer]

Hi we are looking for best areas to live when we leave london - ideal frame frame to do so by next Autumn 2027 before my daughter begins primary school in September 2028. Currently thinking little Chalfont (or possibly Amersham if we can still definitely get away with living there and be comfortably in the catchment for Dr Challoners girls school) or possibly somewhere else like St Albans where there are excellent state schools. I am a secondary school teachers so having good schools around will be a good plus for me, too. Any advice on comparing these two areas would be greatly appreciated! We are really keen for access to nature so I’m leaning towards Amersham for the chilterns as the landscape doesn’t seem as interesting in Hertfordshire but please do advise if you think I’m misinformed here! Thank you 🙏

We live in Little Chalfont with two young kids and love it. There's loads of big country parks nearby and it's easy to get onto London - you get the benefit of both amersham and chesham met line trains, plus the Chiltern line. It's a really beautiful area. LC itself has some lovely restaurants, Costa, Tesco express, pubs, nature park, playground, library etc. Amersham has more of the same and a great leisure centre with a couple of playgrounds, soft play, cafe, library, pool, gym etc. Honestly we love it here.
I'm sure St Albans is lovely too, but not lived there!

St Albans is full of London computers and has quite a Londo-centric feel in some ways. There's limited interesting countryside around, I'd say.

Have you considered Radlett? Near St Albans and excellent schools.

Nice though the city is, traffic (and parking) in St Albans is a nightmare. Amersham has a nice feel to it. Train links to London aren’t as good though.

The traffic in St Albans is awful (my SIL lives there). I’d go for The Chalfonts or Amersham personally. I’m in North Bucks but use the rail facilities at Amersham quite often and like it a lot over there.

St Albans would be hands down for me, I enjoy the vibe more although if you haven’t considered it Berkhamsted is brilliant and quieter

Little Chalfont is very nice. Amersham is larger and has some areas that are nicer than others like most towns.

I take it you are focusing on your daughter getting into Dr Challoners. What would be your plan if the 11+ wasn't passed? At the moment your child hasn't even started Primary School so a house move based on Secondary School catchment of a highly selective entry school is quite some forward planning.

To be fair to the OP @Lindy2we moved to the area because of the schools - primary and secondary (or at least partly, there were other reasons like liking the area and the fact it's midway between our parents) - and I wasn't even pregnant with my oldest at the time. A lot of mums I met on maternity leave were the same.

Commuters, not computers!

Agree with the comments about St Albans traffic being bad.

Thank you @locoono that is really helpful and reassuring. Do your kids go to little Chalfont primary school and or did/do they go to a nursery around there ? If so I’d be very grateful to hear your views. Also interesting to hear that other parents move to the area for the schools, too. I can see dr challoners high has exceptional results, hopefully a positive culture, too. Also I saw there was a lot of redevelopment/construction planned in the area and there seemed to be some opposition to this from the local community online. Just wondering if you have any views on that, too. Apologies for all the follow up qs.

@Lindy2 yes fair point it is indeed very advanced planning! My second daughter is not even due until November so it is even more of an advance plan for her! I think possibly linked to the fact I’m a teacher myself I just find myself thinking about our kids’ education planning a lot, but am also aware we won’t be able to plan everything out perfectly, and I guess they would go to the comprehensive in Amersham if they don’t pass the 11+.

thank you for the other suggestions around Hertfordshire I will check those out, and very good to know re traffic in St Albans.

@ThatAmberViewerno, my oldest goes to Chalfont Valley - which is also in the village and had great results this year. It's much smaller and historically had a bit of a reputation but it's really turned around and has had great results this year. For info, I've heard that even some people in the catchment didn't get into LC primary this year. My youngest (and oldest before they started school) went to Acre Wood which is a private nursery nearby and was also fantastic. I've also heard that Amersham Comp is a good school, just not as good as the grammars so gets talked down a lot - but I have no experience of it there.

Re the development, I'd rather it wasn't happening, but there's not much you can do really.

Honestly, we genuinely love the area for raising kids.