Good State Secondary School in walable town commutable to London

[AnotherBloodyChinHair]

Dear all. Newbie here (to mumsnet and the UK) so please kindly direct me to the right forum if I'm not!!

Basically, we're looking to move away from current location because it does not offer suitable options for secondary schools (we have one DS and one DD).

I would like to live in a nice friendly town that is walkable (shops, schools, restaurants, etc) and that it has excellent state schools (primary and secondary).

I do not want to risk going for the 11+ if there isn't a very good plan B (i.e. excellent State Secondary school within catchment). DH works in central London, willing to do 1hr commute each way.

We have already looked into Guilford (houses we can afford within catchment of George Abbot are really not to our taste at all, i.e. not period, very run down, ugly), Weybridge (not a lot on offer) and Tunbridge Wells, absolutely gorgeous town, spot on what I wanted but grammar system way too competitive and state secondary schools are bad.

Private is not an option. Budget for house is £700K.

I was wondering if you might be able to suggest other locations. Size-wise, TW and Guilford are perfect; Weybridge is just about as small as we're willing to consider. Doesn't matter if it's North, East South or West as long as the commute is reasonable and the town is pretty and friendly and we can make it our home for years to come.

Thank you all so much.

Basically what we need is to find a nice period house in a nice sized town that offers co-ed, non-selective, non-religious education, ideally not having a large proportion of local children creamed off to private or selective state schools.

Winchester? Ticks all your boxes but precisely because it does the property is not cheap. £700K would get you Victorian terrace near station. If you wanted garden and garage and period property, you'd need deeper pockets.

Oxted?

Schools reasonable, as far as I am aware (my girls are still small). Primaries are excellent. Believe Secondary to be good too.

Commutable to London - 30 mins into London Bridge.

Good road links too, for getting away at weekends. and good for Gatwick/Heathrow commutes as well.

Thank you gramercy, I'll look into Winchester.
Thank you silverfrod, I have looked into Oxted but it is way too small a town.

it is a very small town, yes.

my only other recent experience is Kent - so back ot the ridiculous competitive grammar system. TW (as you know) good, as is Sevenoaks.

hope you find somewhere!

We're in Epsom, which ticks many of your boxes - lots of period properties, good commute, good schools at primary and secondary as well as the possibility of grammars.

Harpenden/St Albans? Good commute, good access to M1/M25, Harpenden schools excellent - don't know as much about St Albans.

Is Epsom a town? Is it nice? Lots going on and stuff?

I think if you're looking for a big town it will come down to specific areas within the town/small city when you are thinking about schools. The places I know where the schools are overall pretty good are Fleet and Wokingham but I fear neither would be big / vibrant enough for you. Bigger places like Reading, Guildford will have some great schools but some pretty mediocre ones too. Sadly once you get any reasonably large population centre the whole catchment area / house price hell kicks in.

Godalming - 50 minutes to Waterloo, fantastic non-selective school (Rodborough) and excellent 6th form college.

Epsom is a town, yes, and it has plenty going on. It has an 8 screen cinema, plenty of shops, leisure centre, and Kingston just 20 minutes away for major shopping trips. It has loads of playgrounds, open green space, the Downs, good playgroups/primary/secondary schools and decent housing - lots with big gardens and walkable (or short cycle) to the centre/train station. We moved from Fulham in London, so were used to having lots around us and being close to restaurants etc, and were a bit nervous about the change, but we are very happy. We looked around a lot - at Weybridge, Walton on Thames, Esher, Claygate, Woking, you name it! before ending up here. It's not perfect, but it ticked more of our boxes than anywhere else, and the children are very happy at their school, which is a 5 min country lane walk away, which is ideal!

DH commutes into Canary Wharf, which takes about 1hr 15, but you can be in the city in a hour.

We used to live in Epsom, and it is an ok town. But, tbh, we prefer Oxted even though it is smaller.

We found that even in the larger (and far more convenient town centre wise) Epsom, we were often going ot larger towns, eg Kingston or Guildford at tthe weekends for shopping. so living in a smaller town now makes no difference.

Having said that, it is a reasonably nice town (we moved because of schooling issues with dd1 - she is at a SN school)

There are other schools in Guildford, you are more likely to get a period house in Guildford County catchment, which is still quite a good school compared to a lot. In fact I know people who prefer it to George Abbot (I am assumign you are not Catholics BTW).

Bishops stortford, st albans, saffron walden all have good non selective comps

£700k is a pretty large house budget - particulary if you're looking north of London. Could you not widen your net by going for a smaller house but considering private?

Ascot? Catchment for Charters.

Farnham? Like a minature Guildford, good schools.

Another vote for st Albans - gorgeous quality of life, good schools, house well within budget.

Go see it - esp on a Wed or Sat when the market is on - you'll fall in love.