Looking for a village or town in catchment area for good primary and secondary schools...

[1000cals]

We've got four children and live in a 3 bedroom flat in London. The time has finally come for us to admit that we can't afford to live in London any more. Where's a good village or town to move to that's in the catchment area for good primary and secondary schools?

Any advice would be heartily appreciated.

North Essex - lots of lovely villages around Colchester with great primary schools. Both Colchester and Chelmsford have very good grammar schools too.

chandlers ford. again.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm still dithering! But will read about the schools and areas that you've mentioned.

chandlers ford? please no. quite possibly the most boring place in britain.

what abour fleet/hartley witney area?

Chandlers Ford or Winchester. DH commutes to London no probs.

I'd go for Kent Sevenoaks or Tunbridge Wells - some really great state primary & secondary schools plus plenty of good grammars and a lovely part of the world to live. Sevenoaks is about 30min commute into London Bridge/Waterloo with Tunbridge Wells being about 15 mins further out.

LCN

I live in Chandlers Ford - it's a very nice place to live and bring up a family, and has both excellent primary and secondary schools (although you have to be careful which part you choose to live - consult the schools for catchment boundaries and don't, like we did, rely on the local authority to give you the correct info).

Canterbury.

Seeker just beat me to it.

Canterbury now an hour from London with train link and the primaries very good. Grammar school system for secondary schools so great if you get in, not so great if you don't (unless you are religious in which case good Catholic/CoE options at secondary)

House prices much more reasonable than Home Counties

Not convinced by St Anselms's, stillsquiffy, but I've heard good things of Archbishops.And Canterbury High is, I think as on the up as Chaucer is on the way down.

St Albans - 20 mins into St Pancras, v good state and private.

Watford - 18 mins into Euston - v good state (don't know about private) and property loads cheaper than St Albans

Bedford - good private girls' and boys' (google Harpur Trust). Longer commute (1hr I think) but many do it.

PS - when working out the commute, do consider where in London you / DH works - we are currently in St Albans, the train itself is 20 mins but my total door-to-door commute to Westminster area is more like 1hr 10mins.

We are about to leave Bucks and have found the primary schools to be very good. We have only been here a year and had the choice of 3 primary schools when we arrived. (Hasn't been so easy moving to Wiltshire) I have heard that both the grammar and the local comp are also excellent. We are near Wendover/Aylesbury

Rugby has a great grammar (boys and girls) and is only 50 minutes into Euston.

Cheaper than home counties too.

As previously mentioned, South Cambridgeshire/North West Essex - good schools at both primary and secondary level and reasonable commute to City/West End.

The Knights Templar School in Baldock is superb. Always comes in top in OFSTED. Great emphasis on sports. Problem is it is usually over booked so you will need to join the waiting list - but if you are planning a move then you should consider Baldock and then you'd be in teh catchment area.

For a primary in the same place then go for the Hartsfield Junior Mixed and Infant
School - it's also brilliant. If you can get in at this primary then you should be ok for a place at Knights Templar..

I am not looking to move at the moment (will wait for couple of years), but really got interested in Chandlers Ford - please tell more! Is it really boring? Can it be boring when Southampton is next? The most importantly IKEA, my favourite shop, is close!

Toja, Chandlers Ford has some excellent schools, so attracts families, however, it also has an elderly population - probably people who have lived in the area for 30-40 years (or more - our neighbours are in their 80s and have lived here all their lives), brought up their own families here and never moved on. There is a mixture of housing - the original part of C/F, plus houses built in the 60s, and then newer estates in the 80s/90s. C/F has a couple of supermarkets and most local shops you need. There are good motorway links to M3 and London is an hour on the train from Winchester. Southampton is OK for shopping if you want the usual shops, but Winchester has more quirky independent shops, and a proper high street (as opposed to shopping centre). Lots of nice countryside - South Downs/New Forest - close by, and ferries to France from Portsmouth if you fancy a change of scene. I was brought up in the area, moved away, and then moved back when kids were small. As previous posters have said, probably not the most exciting place to live, pretty middle class, but it depends what you're looking for. To be honest, betweeen work and kids, I'm a bit too knackered for any excitement, so the place suits us very well!

Stringbean, thanks a lot for your reply! It really helps to can a vision of the place. We can call ourserlves middle class, and as long as we can get out to a nice restaurant or to take our DS to swimming pool or other children activities, I guess we would love the place. But we are a mixed family, would we be a minority there? Our D/S is mix of White/African, I don?t want him to get bullied at school because of his heritage? Hopefully not.
Would you be so kind to comment on these houses: this and this , how would you rate location and what would be opinion, if you have time...? Thanks again, what I would do withough Mumsnetters

Not much of a cultural mix unfortunately, and probably the majority of non-white families are Asian (eg three children in my dcs' classes, so probably less than 10% across the school). Having said that, I would say it's a pretty liberal area, with a lot of professional families, so I would be surprised if you encountered any problems. You'd need to come and see for yourself and look round schools etc. Unfortunately I can't see any houses on the links you've posted - sorry! Hope this helps anyway

Harpenden - excellent range of schools and 24 mins into central London. A really lovely place to live.

Where in London do you live?

In general Belsize Park, Hampstead and St John's Wood come out to Harpenden and St ALbans. Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Stokey go out to Welwyn Garden City, Tewin and Old Welwyn and sw London go out to Guildford. And do SE Londoners go out to Kent?

How much do you have to spend and how many bedrooms do you need?

I live in Bucks and love it but the nice parts are mega bucks unless you don't mind living on a housing estate in one of the newer towns.

chandlers ford is quite frankly, the most boring, unaspiring places in south east england. average, middle class, very white, gossipy, shit shops and mediocre over priced restaurants. southampton is a grotty (although apparently the greenest in the UK) city. its only redeeming feature is its proximity to winchester and surrounds, and the new forest. but the traffic getting in and out of the NF is so bad in the summer you wont bother going anyway. i dont actually know many people that have chosen to live their, its really people who were brought up their and have stayed, have family.
if you have a choice, there are many nicer places.

HerHonesty don't suppose you have any suggestions for good primary schools, safe area within 30/40 min commute of south west London? St George's hospital to be exact.