Which Hampshire secondary school??

[SJS83]

Hi,

I'm looking for some help. We're relocating to Hampshire with two children, 8 and 3. We're obviously looking to move within a catchment of one of the better secondaries, and need to be within around 45 minutes commuting time to Southampton. So far we have shortlisted the following:

• Thornden + Toynbee
  
• Perins
  
• The 3 Winchester schools
  
• Wildern
  
• Romsey schools
  

The problem is finding a reasonably priced house within these catchements i.e. £600-700k for a 4-bed in the Perins catchment!

Can anybody recommend any other good secondaries in the area that we might have missed? We would prefer somewhere more rural if we can find one.

We looked at Salisbury but as we're not religious and don't want the stress of a grammar test, we have ruled out living in Wiltshire.

Thanks

[Ta1kinpeace]

suited
The important point about catchment / non catchment is transport

I sent my kids to other than my catchment school
so I had to pay for / arrange transport.

Families 200 yards away but inside the catchment got a free bus for their kids.

If you live in a village, access to the free bus is a significant factor in school choice.

[SuitedandBooted]

Ta1kinpeace

The children in question from our school weren't even offered a place, where previously they would have been.

Literally, children 2 years older who live in the same road go to the requested school, but they cannot.

Transport didn't come into it!

[Ta1kinpeace]

Did they live in catchment ?
If they are in catchment they should get both place and transport.
Catchment maps are on the HCC website.

[Whereismumhiding2]

Mountbatten school is good and if you lived in south Romsey or North baddesley you'd get houses far cheaper than Winchester.
Also chandler's fors is large, Toynbee is an excellent school as is Thirnden (you won't get into Thirnden unless in catchment and houses are smaller or £50-150k more expensive on average in that upper part of chandler's ford). Toynbee catchment has lots of choices of affordable homes.
Another thought is wynvern over in fairoak. Brilliant school too and houses on general cheaper over that way. BUT the traffic from there is shocking into /via Eastleigh in rush hour.

I'd say look at chandler's ford or north baddesley, both easy to commute to Southampton.

[Whereismumhiding2]

Sorry meant Thornden not Thirnden! And Wvyern

[Ta1kinpeace]

both easy to commute to Southampton
but the OP's DH will be commuting to Whiteley ....

[TheLesserWeevil]

I second a pp's comment about traffic. DH currently working at Whiteley, we live just outside Winchester. M3/M27 are regularly awful at peak times, but just getting off the site at Whiteley can add 20 mins to his commute on a bad day :-/ God knows what went on with planning but the whole place turns into a car park at rush hour. Not such a problem if you can work flexibly, but worth factoring in when choosing a place to live.

[Ta1kinpeace]

www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/proposed-developments/england/hampshire/fareham/north-whiteley

[SuitedandBooted]

They do not live in catchment, and neither do/did numerous children who attend that school, and are in Year 9 and up

Basically, if they were applying in 2015, they would have got a place, but not now.

And that brings us back to my first post; in many parts of Hampshire, the areas in which you can buy a home AND expect to have a choice of schools are changing, and contracting.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter to parents if its know as catchment, boundaries or willywingnuts - the effect is the same. The days when you could buy a house, and realistically choose between your closest schools, and ones further away are coming to an end, particularly if you live in a popular area.

[BabyAlexander]

I grew up in Bishops Waltham and went to Swanmore. My DC goes to school in Waltham Chase. Really lovely villages around there, great schools, easy to commute to a Winchester School on the 69 bus if you prefer, very easy commute through country lanes to Whiteley.

[Whereismumhiding2]

Ah she said Southampton in her OP.

Whiteley is down M27, so you might want to consider fairoak way and wyvern then as he can drop further along M27 via Hedge End from that side. Beautiful houses out there for 2/3 or less of Winchester prices.

Since you have 3 & 8 year old, i'd be considering primary schools too.
Tbh nearly all the chandler's ford primary schools and stoke park/fair oak juniors are all brilliant too. It's much of a muchness in schools down here, (my London friends would kill for standard of choice in schooling we have!). It is all catchment based

To commute from Winchester to Whiteley means your OH will have to go via M3/M27 junctions which is a bottle neck in rush hour and gets delays if an accident on M27.

[Ta1kinpeace]

The days when you could buy a house, and realistically choose between your closest schools, and ones further away are coming to an end, particularly if you live in a popular area.
But if you buy a house in the right catchment you WILL get a place.

My catchment school is beyond awful so its an issue I researched in great detail

[BabyAlexander]

Fairly small class sizes in Waltham Chase, 20 ish in a class in year R, a few more as they move up the school.

[RosaMallory]

Mountbatten has been in the local paper twice as knives were found on pupils.
I recommend Romsey Primary and The Romsey School. Dcs have done amazingly well at both. House prices are less than Winchester and the town itself is low crime and people are really nice. But Southampton is near enough for great shops and a good hospital.

[Ta1kinpeace]

Mountbatten has been in the local paper twice as knives were found on pupils.
Yup, you put 1500 teenagers in a place and what a surprise, some of them have swiss army knives
whoopee do

you'll be surprised about the drugs at Symonds next

[Whereismumhiding2]

@RosaMallory That's not typical of Mountbatten school though . It made the newspapers as was unusual.

[Whereismumhiding2]

Actually, the PP that said Bishops Waltham was lovely place was right & had spotted you said rural preferrably. Even our towns/villages (Romsey, chandler's ford, valley park, bishopstoke, fair oak, horton heath, otterbourne, Hursely, Bishops Waltham, Botley, etc) have a rural feel to them surrounded by countryside and woods. But have better bus routes than isolated villages.

There are some lovely very rural villages between Bishops Waltham /fair oak and /Botley triangle, open countryside, lots of riding stables that way and country road routes to whiteley.

And lovely villages too around Romsey and Winchester. Depends on how rural you want!

Why don't you come down and drive around the areas? You'd get a good sense then.

[SuitedandBooted]

But if you buy a house in the right catchment you WILL get a place. My catchment school is beyond awful so its an issue I researched in great detail

Exactly, Ta1kinpeace, and that's the point I've been (boringly!) making - the OP mustn't get derailed by thoughts of, "Kids from this area have always gone to X, Y or Z" and assume her much younger children can do the same. Buy right in catchment of somewhere decent, and do NOT assume that you will be able to look further afield, simply because other have in the past.

Many parents at my son's school felt very let down by the whole "choosing" a Secondary process. We were all sent invitations to Open Evening's, STEM days etc at the out-of-official-catchment school, which many former pupils had gone to. This year, however, it was impossible for everyone, unless they moved house!! Why raise the children's hopes, if they can't go there?

[SJS83]

Yes, that’s one of our big concerns. We’re seven years away from our second high school application so it would make me nervous living right on the catchment border.

We haven’t really considered primaries as we figured it’s quite likely we’d get into a local one somehow. We’ll be relocating after the start of the next school year and I believe we can’t even apply until we have evidence of new address. We’re gonna call round all the possible primaries once we’ve figured out an area.

Plan to drive down there and spend a few days visiting towns and villages

[Ta1kinpeace]

TBH if you are in the border zone between Perins / Eggars / TPS
you'll still have a more relaxed life than any Londoner
Romsey / Mountbatten have not changed much since I first started watching them in 2000
ditto Thornden / Toynbee
Wildern / Wyvern / Swanmore ebb and flow
but basically they are big Comps in a rich county with clear admission policies
Enjoy living in Hampshire. Lots of us do

[Whereismumhiding2]

I moved to Hampshire 21 years ago, having lived all around the UK, extremely happy with lifestyle, area, leiaure activities, career opportunities, transport and particularly the schools here (you'll have to drag me out of here in a box!)

[Eve]

ta1k

My friends daughter commented same drugs issue in Symonds as at Barton, but kids and Symonds can afford more expensive ones.

The Romsey, Winchester schools used to take a lot out of catchment to til spaces. Due to all the new building going on lots of schools have lots of new homes in catchment now.

[Grumpbum123]

The knives for Mountbatten was a joke really it was an arts and craft knife not a machete

[CanadianSquirrel]

Strictly speaking I don't think it's right to say that if you're in catchment you WILL get a place definitely. Schools have a PAN (published admission number). So if this is say 180 and if the number of children in catchment who apply exceeds 180 then, depending on the small print and any other factors in the admissions policy, the nearest 180 will get a place.

[Ta1kinpeace]

canadian
Please read the Hampshire rules
the PAN expands and contracts