Best place to live in Kent for Grammar school

[vik2017]

Hi,
This is my first question on this board....
and I wanted to know which is the best place to live in Kent and falls into Grammar catchment area and also if my son dont get to the Grammar at least will go to a very good comprehensive school.
Any suggestion will be appreciated even suggest to move to another place considering we both work in London.

Many thanks in advance...
Viki

vik2017 @MumTryingHerBest: No, they are not a random list

The criteria of access to London and high performing is very vague. It is clear how random that list is given the fact it has QEB and William Borlase on it. I think the only thing these two schools have in common is that they are Grammar Schools.

There are some nice bits of Rochester , mainly in the St Margaret’s / priestwood areas and down by Kings and the Cathedral , very convenient for St Andrews and the two better Grammars , also a reasonable place to commute from . Not somewhere I would choose to live but I think I’d rather live there than Bexley or Dartford , horses for courses I suppose .

My son is >4 years old and now let me come back to you one by one. I know some are trying to take mikey out it but this is well expected on online topics like that but I will still suggest them the refrain doing this, anyways:

@yolofish: He is too young with no doubt but I am taking this as opportunity to find a better place for his future and also so we can spend less in commuting and more with our DS coz at the moment by the time we reach home it is just his dinner time and then bedtime so two kill with one stone. So I am planning in advance considering his future. I know things can change by the time he is 11 but I cannot stop planning thinking things will change so will react later.

@Taffeta: Reason I know he is likely to pass (long story behind this tell you later) and additional to that I am willing to provide as much as support as he will need. For mum their DC are best always…
The area I was looking in Bexley was near A207 between Welling and Dartford which comes into catchment area of both grammar.

@Ta1kinPeece: We work in central London so as long as we have to travel less we are happy to move. I know you have a valid point about DS childhood but believe you me, I have no intention of putting any pressure on DS and he will enjoy as much as he can. We always take him to park and will find near new place as well and holidays can be spent abroad.

@roundaboutthetown: 45-55m commuting seems reasonable and I do bother about crime rate but town or outside town bothers me little. I did look at Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge and budget wise both are fine but TW is bit far and Tonbridge is called cheaper cousin of TW . Would like to hear from anyone living in Tonbridge. Airport is not an issue as you go occasionally there.

@Clavinova: Seems a nice option but as people suggested it is prudent to send to private prep school (who also prepare for grammar) as this is recommended way forward to grammar and I could not find any there (may be missed).

@nancy75: You are right and that is where all confusion started which led me to this topic, that is the reason I wanted to hear from mums personal experience.

@MumTryingHerBest: I picked them from top 100 and I was not looking for best but as good as I could find.

@Floralnomad: Does not sound Rochester very appealing

vik2017 I think you would be best to start a new thread on chat asking for suggestions of places to live where you can buy a house for £x within x travel distance of x station in London & good schools.
Rightly or wrongly people on this board obviously have strong views on the grammar system and from reading through this thread not very much of the info is actually going to be of much help with what you actually want.

@nancy75: I wanted to know the best place in Kent so can be in catchment area of a good grammar and then people suggested other places and I think it is totally relevant...

Ok, but kent is a huge place, some of it is lovely and there are some places you wouldn’t even want to go for a day trip!

Vik
I am genuinely confused.
One minute you say you are chilled about his outcomes
Another you become a tiger mum with Tiffin on the list.

Why on earth do you not just buy a house solidly in the Bohunt or Wavell catchments ?
(20 minutes by train to Waterloo - already your London station from Basingstoke)
Then you have no further stress / worry
and you'll be moving within Hampshire so can stay in touch with friends (both yours and his)

Which bit of the stress and horror of Kent parents are you wilfully blind to ?

Clavinova
The Thanet issue that you have rightly highlighted long predates the asuylum seekers.
Margate has the highest concentration of Childrens' homes in the country.
All of the London boroughs have been dumping kids there for years.
Add into the mix the lorry jumpers
and a historically Conservative council that prided itself on low council tax going back 30 years and the state of provision for those without sharp elbows is dire.

Dover will always be more isolated than Southampton
guess why I moved back here after a couple of years
But if there was one big school with pooled resources and staffing support, rather than three small ones, it is likely that average performance would improve
and possibly the upper end of performance would also improve.

Southampton is over 10% Polish now. And yet the exam results go up year by year .....

I’ve bought up 2 children in Kent , and been through the system myself and I don’t consider we’ve suffered any ‘stress and horror ‘ . OP there is some nice countryside around Rochester that is lovely and you would still get the benefits of being near both reasonable Grammars and nice private schools whilst still having a good commute . Maidstone also has some lovely areas and lovely countryside and that would also bring Sutton Valence school into the mix . Kings Rochester do still run buses from Maidstone AFAIK .

vik2017 QEB is on your list. I suggest you stay where you are, put your DC in for the QEB test and when allocated a place you can move closer to the school.

This is a strategy a lot of parents use for this particular school as places are allocated by score top down. Your location will only matter if your DC is on the cut off score with a number of other children, then it will come down to distance.

QEB and Latymer are North London ad very far away from Kent - now I am very confused as to areas you are targeting.

But I meant
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham (mixed)

vik2017 But I meant Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham (mixed)

Then why not add QEB to your list and then you can stay put for a while.

If Tunbridge Wells is too far why are you looking at Faversham? That’s about 1hour 40 to London Bridge compared to TW 45 mins to London Bridge.

And faversham is nowhere near as nice a TW as a place

IME Tonbridge “nicer” than Welling/Bexley/Dartford....

But - there are villages around that are nicer than the main towns. You’d just need to look at catchments. With Tonbridge, you’d have access to both Judd and Skinners if your DS scores highly, and TWGSB if a lower pass.

And a fast train from Tonbridge to London Bridge ( on to Waterloo and Charing X ).

Problem is, who knows what the schools will be like in 5 years time? Hayesbrook for example looks good for the last set of GCSE results but I hear they are now having problems filling it.....

@nancy75: Dear, this list was the ones which I thought are good grammar schools and commute is possible but never meant I will choose the farthest one as faversham however, it is bit nearer than Canterbury which some also suggested but that did not mean they are not suggesting good. It is more about narrowing down my list to only few (3-4) and then plan ahead, simple. Some from list are from Buckingham but again commute point of view I have better options. I am welcoming everyone's suggestion and hopefully I will have my final list which I definitely share...

.... I should say I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than live in TW! Just not my sort of place, at all.

Which is worth considering. What sort of people do you like mixing with? Do you like a town or village environment? Do you need to live on top of a train station for your commute to work?

Doesn't the high speed go from Faversham? Less than an hour to London. And there's always Sittingbourne- two grammars and a couple of decent non grammars and cheap housing. And High Speed to London.

vik2017 Dear, this list was the ones which I thought are good grammar schools

I think it's safe to say that QEB is one the top Grammar Schools in the country (based on academic results) and I suspect it will be a lot quicker/easier for you to travel to work from there than some of the Grammar schools you have on your list.

taffeta , totally agree , I would hate to live in TW or Tonbridge , although Pembury hospital is very nice if you are an inpatient . Sittingbourne is being massively developed at the moment and has lots of amenities and there are some very nice villages around it .

An afternoon in TW is lovely- any longer and I get an uncontrollable urge to smash windowszzzzzzz

I don’t even like it for shopping and it’s hideous to get to .

@Taffeta, @Floralnomad: Just out of curiosity, whats the reason behind your opinion, some personal experience or something else as it may help in my decision making...coz most of the people I heard saying TW is posh and nice to live there...

It's difficult to describe TW. It's overwhelmingly "respectable". There's an old stereotype that still rings true "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". The sort of person who writes to the BBC and complains about too much sex in the afternoon play.