Moving to Penshurst

[vlbc1]

I'm currently a London mum but thinking of moving to Penshurst in Kent (which will mean becoming a commuter, but hopefully the countryside and the better schools will make up for that!). Does anyone have any thoughts on Penshurst Primary School and living in that area with children? I've currently got a 1 year old and am 8 weeks pregnant.....

Gosh you must be loaded

I used to live near Penshurst and one of the current teachers at the school is a teacher there now and has been for a few years. It's a lovely school but I am not a fan of the mixed year class system personally and I know it causes problems with my friend's teaching. That is the same for all the local village schools though.

It's a great place to bring up children provided you don't mind doing a lot of driving. It will help if your children are into ponies and are called Camilla

Sorry, I meant that one of my friends is a current teacher, dur.

Thank you for that! Sadly no Camilla, and I don't like ponies, so perhaps we won't fit in... Have just been trying to find somewhere that is not too far to commute, but is in the countryside.
I had only just noticed the mixed age teaching thing. I have no idea whether it is a good thing or not - I know the school is graded well by Ofsted etc, so I thought it would probably be ok, but you are right that I should think about this some more - am basically moving because of primary schools so this is going to be the main consideration.
Thank you again for your reply

Hi there, Penshurst is a commute and a half if you need to get into London! From my experience, if you use Penhurst station it takes a minimum of an hour for the train journey into town and you still need to factor in the journey either side. It's no quicker if you drive to Tunbridge Wells or Tonbridge...

It is lovely there (we deliberated long and hard) but opted for a more reasonable commute so that at least I could see the children in the morning (if rarely in the evening!) Sevenoaks not quite so rural but also only 25 mins to London Bridge and a stone's throw from great countryside and loads going on for the small people...

Yes Wealdma, and if using Penshurst station you have to factor in the fact that half the trains are cancelled and the other half late - and they smell awful!

Thank you for this. I was thinking I would probably go from Hildenborough station if living in Penshurst, since that's only 45 mins to Charing X, and I thought it might be better than driving into a town eg. Tonbridge or Sevenoaks. Hmmm.