Where to move to Hertfordshire/Northamptonshire

[AltCupid]

Not from UK but DH is. Moving back and DH needs to be somewhere between Birmingham and London, I need commutable access to London.

We are prioritising a good secondary as we have DD7 and DS9. No religion. Can do prep for remaining primary but really not so concerned about primary and prefer an academic state secondary with good sports provision (cricket & football and netball & hockey)

What are the good comps and what's living in the local community like?

From desktop looking at dept of education tables:

Harpenden: Sir John Lawes or Roundwood (houses pretty expensive)

Wellingborough: Sir Christopher Hatten. Seems small and further off from London than Herts.

Broxbourne: Broxbourne school

Bishop's Stortford: BS Boys and Herts/Essex girls, Hockerill (probably cant get unless find a house smack next to it...unlikely). BS College (indie)

St Albans: ruled out sandringham and beaumont as I don't like the houses within budget nearby. We want to buy.

I looked at Cambridge which is too pricey. Another possibility is a smaller Cambridgeshire town + mid tier private - St Neots for Kimbolton come to mind. But have no idea what that sort of life is like!

Any comments or advice welcome!

Have you tried Rugby, can be in London in 50 minutes and two very good grammar schools, plus an outstanding state with a grammar stream.

Also transport to other privates in villages etc

Stortford probably has everything you are looking for in schools and easily commutable to London.

I have one in yr 10 at H&E and one about to start TBSHS in september. Hockey and netball are the two main sports at H&E and it has all weather hockey pitches. TBSHS is more of a rugby school though (it does play cricket in the summer though). It still does football, just not to the extent it does rugby. It is shortly to move sites though so you may want to bare that in mind.

Agree about Hockerill though - need to be within 400m to get a place. Not for us though due to saturday school.

Stortford college has excellent facilities if you were going to go down the prep route however all the primary schools in the town are excellent.