Marlow or Teddington......

[Florelle]

I have a six year old daughter and currently live in Chiswick but have decided to move to either Teddington or Marlow areas for better schools and hopefully a bigger house. I would really appreciate any advise on the schools (mainly secondary as will continue private for primary) and any experience of what it is like to live in either of these areas. Thank you so much! I have sold my house and need to be somewhere new by April so need to get a move on....

I would move into the waldegrave school for girls catchement area .it is one of the top state schools in the country see good schools guide.it is in twickenham/ teddington border.
Teddington school also good if you want coed
Have friends in marlow lovely place with grammar schools house prices still high and need to take marlow donkey train into consideration if u need to commute in nightmare
All state primary's in teddington excellent can't go wrong more villagey than chiswick used to live there also.

Marlow is lovely and has a super grammer school.

Mind you, Teddington Is lovely too.

I'm not sure you will get much more for your money housewise in Teddington than Chiswick, it is a lovely place to live with good schools, and houses in school catchments are in demand. The schools are heavily oversubscribed as well so you would need to plan carefully. The catchment area for Waldegrave has shrunk to just a few streets in West Twickenham, it comes nowhere near Teddington, and in a secondary catchment centred on Richmond.

Marlow you're in a grammar borough, so there's Borlase in Marlow itself or the Wycombe grammars. Great Marlow school is the comp in the town and doesn't have a great reputation, though my information on that is a bit out of date. The train in Marlow is rubbish for getting into London.

Are you certain you will get into the grammar in Marlow? I know people who made that move but didn't get in

The houses at the "grammar school" end of Marlow are very pricey too! It's a pretty town, reasonable selection of shops, quite touristy, especially in summer. Like others have said, rubbish train service.

The grammars have mostly become academies round Marlow so I don't know how entry is shaking out. House prices in Marlow vary hugely according to primary catchment - Spinfield is very pricy for (IMO) quite ugly houses - but if you're private that won't matter quite so much. Which private primary would you go for? That might influence which part of Marlow you choose.

It's quite good for a teen, although there are the same problems you find in any affluent area pretty much.

Thank you all so much for your comments..... Went out looking at properties in Cookham, Marlow and Teddington on Saturday (was a long day..........).. I am leaning towards being brave and making the break to move out mainly for the schools as there seems to be more selection in Marlow / Cookham... Just wondered what sort of problems there are ... Also do you have any recommendations for private primary? I was looking at the small one in Cookham Dean.. thanks