SCHOOL OR HOUSE FIRST? SUTTON AND SURROUNDING AREAS.

[DDKL]

Hi everyone,

my husband has just secured a job in Sutton. we currently live in Kuala lumpur. i have no experience of living in London, so all tips are gratefully received.

Happy to look further afield, but not further than 30 min's. Preferably on a train line with access to the city.

my son is 11 years old and will be starting yr 7 after the holidays. This was a rather unplanned move, so looking for a secondary place is going to be like finding the needle in the haystack!

So the big question is, do i look for a place to rent first or for a school? help!!

Thanks so much.

state school would be our preferecne.

Somewhere to rent near a good school as places are given by distance most of the time. The closer the better.

The nearer you live to a good School, as soon as possible, the higher you will be on a waiting list and more likely to get a place you want.

Places for September have been allocated already. So it's pot luck.

My experience moving from abroad... We moved, not to London.... Moved unexpectedly in August. One child was allocated a school place in second week of September. Other child was admitted on Appeal in late October.

Cheam high looks excellent but you would have to live very very close as waiting lists are long.

The schools in Sutton are generally good. Even the ones with a less desirable reputation are actually still decent really, just not as good as the most popular ones like Glenthorne, Cheam High etc.

You could ask Sutton LA of they can tell you where has spaces. They won't keep one for you for more than a couple of weeks but might give you an idea. You could also consider renting near a transport hub with lots of buses etc.

There are good train lines into Sutton from places like Epsom, Dorking, Horsham. You could look at those places if you prefer the location (smaller towns nearer to countryside, whereas Sutton in more suburban). Personally I think Sutton borough (so Cheam, Carshalton as well as Central Sutton) is a great location as decent amenities and easy to get into London and out to the surrounds.

Looking at the LB Sutton booklet online, if you, or more pertinently, your DC, are currently living outside the UK, they would be unlikely to accept an application until you have an address in the Borough anyway (assuming that you were to look for a house there, but other areas are likely to have similar rules and school applications for the main round of transition to secondary school - which we are still in, I believe - have to be made through your home LA).

You could start at a prep (Homefield) for example and then sit on waiting lists for a school (Cheam High, Glenthorne, Harris Academy). Generally they are all ok apart from Oaks Park and Carshalton Boys.

It is easiest all round if you are near central Sutton for school choice but if you had to veer in one direction over another it would be towards Cheam rather than Carshalton school-wise.
Is your son academic?

I would look for an area with a selection of decent schools around (the excellent ones are unlikely to have spaces, and you dont want to end up close to an area with unpopular schools as that is where you will get allocated if they are anywhere near).
Then find a house. You cant apply for a state school without an address (and usually you need to be in the country, although our application was accepted when I contacted the council 3 days before we moved, but the school was very undersubscribed- - it is ofstead good, and absolutely knock the pants off everything from our "top" international school except for lovely facilities and afterschool clubs).

Good luck with the move.

Has to be house first as you can't apply for a state school place without a local address. Love as close as possible to a good school and hope the waiting list moves quickly.

You will probably get a less popular random school allocation at this stage. Places for September have already been allocated but the LA are obliged to find a place although this may not be nearby or at a school of your choosing. Most LAs will ask you to wait until you arrive or shortly before considering an application, providing proof of address.

To keep 30 minutes by train from London you could probably go out to epsom but just keep an eye out for the train lines. The quicker trains from epsom and further out don't so much go through sutton (I don't think) they would go into waterloo or east Croydon. Not an issue if your London Trainline can be a different one to sutton.

Sutton secondaries are generally good. Oaks park is the one that maybe isn't so much - recently failed ofsted although I believe the new head has made a lot of good changes.

There are selective schools - not sure what process is to get into them as an out of year and whether you feel it's an option.

Glenthorne and Cheam get good results I think. Also greenshaw. Catchment for greenshaw is very small though - 1300 metres approx if not a selective place. I hear good things about carshalton boys and I think that has a larger intake area.

Although Croydon has good links to sutton I would be wary of living in that borough as the council has gone bankrupt and so services are being cut. Also be wary of going as far out as Banstead as the train line didn't use to be the best service.

Cheam village and carshalton village are nice options I would say although not sure how that will fit for schools.