Chertsey's schools are one of the best reasons to live there. More than nine in ten schools across the county are rated good or better. A primary is about a ten-minute walk from the typical home. The town has two state secondaries of its own. Parents here mostly argue about which good school, and that is the right argument to be stuck with.
Ofsted has graded 159 schools across Surrey, the authority Chertsey's schools sit under, and 147 of them came out good or outstanding, a little over nine in ten. Thirty were outstanding, seven require improvement and five were judged inadequate. Another 194 settings in the county have no published grade yet and are simply waiting for an inspector, which tells a parent nothing either way.
The short trips are what make the county figure useful in Chertsey. On the Department for Transport's 2019 modelling, the nearest primary is about a nine-minute walk or a seven-minute drive from the typical home, and the nearest secondary about an 18-minute walk or a nine-minute drive. Surrey County Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so being close to a school helps without promising a seat in it. Ask the council for the furthest distance offered at your preferred school last year and measure it against the house before the solicitor gets involved.
Two secondaries in town carry most of the decision. Chertsey High School opened in 2017 in the buildings of an older school on the site and moved into a new building beside them two years later, so for a while its pupils watched their next school go up outside the window. Salesian School, Chertsey is a voluntary-aided Catholic comprehensive that has been in the town since the 1920s, which makes it one of the few institutions here older than the bypass traffic. For younger children, Pyrcroft Grange Primary School and St Anne's Catholic Primary School are among the primaries on the local list, and families in Lyne have Lyne and Longcross CofE Aided Primary School on their own doorstep.
Schooling in Chertsey has a longer record than most. Curfew House in Windsor Street carries an inscription from Sir William Perkins, who founded a school there to clothe and teach the town's children, and Sir William Perkins's School still appears among the local schools today. The founder signed off with "Go and do likewise", which remains the most direct piece of admissions advice in the county.
For schools, Chertsey is a strong choice: good-rated places within a short walk, two secondaries in town and a county where poor results are the exception.