Moving house and new school - please take a look, a difficult choice!

Nicki

The other thing to bear in mind is that when they say the school is oversubscribed, they only mean that more people have applied for reception places, than there are places available. There may very well be places available higher up the school, as people move house and school all the time. Unless you have been told there is a waiting list for your child's year group, don't assume he won't get a place relatively easily.

I'm on the governing body of a popular primary school, and this year we received 10 applications for every place we had in reception. However, of the other years, only 1 or 2 are full to capacity for this reason. It's also possible to start your child at one school and keep him on the waiting list for the other, so when a place does come up you can choose whether to transfer him or to keep him where he is if you are happy with the second choice and he is settled there.

So I'd say go for the cheaper house, and try for the better school, and keep trying for it if necessary. Once you have one child in the school, with luck any younger ones will get sibling places and the problem will be resolved for good.

Lindy-Lou_2

Fly Baby have you considered putting the £300 into a high interest account or school fees plan in preparation for secondary school. My dd and ds were lucky enough to get the schools of their choice at secondary level, my dd was very happy, my ds's school did not 'practice what they preached' and we had no option but to take him out because he was so, so unhappy and put him into a private school.

If you are able to save some money 'just in case' and do not need to use it, you will have saved the money anyway and have a few pounds to do with as you wish.

Incidentally, my ds went back a year academically and settled into his new school very well and is very happy. It is a school which has an ethos of being a well rounded school for students of all abilities and is as interested in the pupil as well as their achievement - I think this is important as nobody feels a failure because they are given an opportunity to try numerous things and each person to find their own niche.

Good luck as it has been a dilemma close to my heart.

Fly_Baby

Lindy-Lou wrote: »

Fly Baby have you considered putting the £300 into a high interest account or school fees plan in preparation for secondary school. My dd and ds were lucky enough to get the schools of their choice at secondary level, my dd was very happy, my ds's school did not 'practice what they preached' and we had no option but to take him out because he was so, so unhappy and put him into a private school.

If you are able to save some money 'just in case' and do not need to use it, you will have saved the money anyway and have a few pounds to do with as you wish.

Incidentally, my ds went back a year academically and settled into his new school very well and is very happy. It is a school which has an ethos of being a well rounded school for students of all abilities and is as interested in the pupil as well as their achievement - I think this is important as nobody feels a failure because they are given an opportunity to try numerous things and each person to find their own niche.

Good luck as it has been a dilemma close to my heart.

Thanks, Lindy-Lou! We ARE saving a fair amount every month and going for the affordable house will enable us to continue putting this money aside - although currently it all goes into a deposit fund (some day, we will buy something in our lovely but ridiculously overpriced South-East).

This house is close to one of the best secondary school in our area - so if we are still here in 4 year's time we should have no problem getting into a really good secondary school.

It's the primary school that I am concerned about.

robbiecaratiger

Honestly Fly-Baby, I wouldn't beat myself up about the Primary School.

The reputation of a school (especially Primary) is so dictated by its Head. Get a good Head in, and the school can blossom. Get the wrong Head in, and it can go down the pan very quickly.

I've seen it happen - both ways.