A warning to first time buyers

grizzly1911

wotsthat wrote: »

Horses for courses I suppose. The schools don't look that great to me - just a few £k (that you could have easily afforded) would have put you in a better catchment.

'round my way £10k - £20k makes the difference between a secondary school where 5 decent GCSE's would be considered a stand-out achievement and a school where it's the norm.

We moved with work when ours were just about to enter primary education.

Schools including high school, location and amenities, the ability not to have to get in the car for everything were our key drivers.

Luckily we had many to choose from in adjacent towns /villages in a similar price range without all those features if we hadn't needed them.

There is still strong demand because of those catchment area even though our children are no longer at school. I am sure it would be a key selling point (not a FTB property) should we decide to move.

wotsthat

Percy1983 wrote: »

Interesting but how do you know exactly where I live to know which schools I would end up with, Secondary schools are hard to judge right now as there has been many mergers etc, with that we can work on a wider catchment there. Primary schools have good ofsted reports, I currently work with one of them already.

You've said before you lived in New Moston?

The primary schools seem ok but the secondary schools are pretty dire. Did you check the league tables.

There's usually a connection between house prices and the quality of the local schools.

wotsthat

grizzly1911 wrote: »

We moved with work when ours were just about to enter primary education.

We moved because we needed a bigger house. Being in the catchment of the primary school we wanted kids to go to was a major factor.

At the time we moved we weren't in the catchment of our preferred secondary school but expected that the catchment would be changed. Luckily it was - if it hadn't we would have had to move.

Percy1983

wotsthat wrote: »

You've said before you lived in New Moston?

The primary schools seem ok but the secondary schools are pretty dire. Did you check the league tables.

There's usually a connection between house prices and the quality of the local schools.

As mentioned the secondary schools around here have all changed so much in the last year or so that its near impossible to make the call right now how the will be in 10 years, none of them have a long term good or bad report yet.

Anyway I am a firm believer that a child is only limited by themselves (or what there parents teach them to do). There is no difference in being the top 2 percent of a 'rubbish' school and top 50% at a 'good' school. If your going to make it you will make anyway.

Also being amazing when many around you aren't is much better than being amazing when everybody else is too.

grizzly1911

wotsthat wrote: »

We moved because we needed a bigger house. Being in the catchment of the primary school we wanted kids to go to was a major factor.

At the time we moved we weren't in the catchment of our preferred secondary school but expected that the catchment would be changed. Luckily it was - if it hadn't we would have had to move.

Our son went to a boys only secondary that was very good but the head left after he went to uni. It has slipped since.

Our daughter went to a 6th form college, academic not vocational and did very well but it was over an hour each way on the bus.

My brothers daughter commuted 25 miles each way to a 6th Form college in Warwickshire.