experience living next to a primary school

TCPPC

Hi

One of the property i am looking at is 1 min walk from a primary school, had a quick look at the school website. There's about 450 pupils.

anyone had any experience living next to a school, what is it like, i guess it can be noisy but if you are out at work during the core working hours then i suppose it wont have major impact...well except the morning rush.

the row of semi detach homes have their own driveway and goes out to the mainroad where the school is. the only thing i would say saves it is the trees blocking the view of school (not fully) hope this paints a better picture

I_have_spoken

I'd walk away.

There could well be after-hours sports in the summer, so every evening would be ruined by screeching kiddies, plus the roads would be jammed with cars parked up.

elsien

Main impact for my friend is the parking. People thinking its ok to block (or occasionally park on) the drive when they feel like it at peak times. She lived opposite rather than on the same side and hasn't noticed any other issues.
Some of it would be down to personal tolerances - playground noise would annoy me, my mum likes to hear it.
Otherwise, I'd rather be near a primary than a secondary school.

Mojisola

TCPPC wrote: »

the row of semi detach homes have their own driveway and goes out to the mainroad where the school is.

If you're going to be around at the start and end of the school day, parents' car will make the road a nightmare.

Try to have a look at the road at the relevant time and see what it's like.

Mandog

We don't live next door but pretty close to two primary schools.

Go see the property at. 8.50 and 3.25 on a school day. Round us there is quite a lot of chaos on the roads. But it's short-lived and if you don't need to drive away or come home then, who cares?

There will be a lot of noise at break times and during sports, the rest of the time and at weekends it'll be quieter - perhaps leafier? - than your average neighbour. I walk past one school every day at 6.30, if there are lights on or any sign of life i am surprised and wonder what's going on, it's so rare.

Also try to get a sense of whether the school is good, one that's climbing up the Ofsted ranking may add value to the house ( this has happened to us as one school is now 'excellent').

I can't really imagine any antisocial behaviour from a primary - doesn't happen on our road - but given such a large school there's always the possibility of minor loutishness or litter from unsupervised older kids.

bouicca21

The noise will be at break time. Walk past at break time and see whether you can cope. Given that it is a primary school the catchment area might be small (unless it's a rural area) so most parents will bring the children on foot.

Secondary schools are the ones that get parents trolling up in 4 by 4s and parking by the school gates - I used to live 4 to 5 minutes walk down the road from one, and that was ok, for people who lived right by the gates it was a nightmare. Parents always but always stopped right by the gates so their little darlings did not have to walk on the street at all. Some of them used to drive right into the grounds and do complicated and dangerous manoeuvres to turn round in a narrow space full of those children who had been allowed to walk.

But I digress, break at a primary school can be very noisy, but it's only for a short time and the sound of happy children playing might be one you find quite pleasant.

Paully232000

My grandfather used to live near a school and often had people park in front of his drive so he couldn't get out. I personally wouldnt want to live so near, no matter what the school rating was, and hence 'good' catchment area.
If you really want to move there, I would second going to see the house you want, and the area at 8.30-9am, and 3pm-4pm and do this on a lot of days to see what the inevitable chaos is like.

jackomdj

I think it depends upon the school. Our school is a nightmare for parking as a lot of parents live too far away to walk home then drive to work (we are a 35 min walk to school). We also have after school clubs a few nights and the school has two football pitches which are played on by adult teams in the evening (so more cars), plus the hall is let out to ballet, ninja tots and a church... So lots of activity outside school time.

I would say go to the house at various times to see what it is like. Also look on the school website to see what else goes on there.

Mojisola

bouicca21 wrote: »

The noise will be at break time. Walk past at break time and see whether you can cope. Given that it is a primary school the catchment area might be small (unless it's a rural area) so most parents will bring the children on foot.

That's not always the case. I was governor at an Infants School and we were always getting complaints about the parking - totally justified - from local residents. It was a perennial problem - over twenty years in my own experience - and there's no sign of fewer people using their cars for the school run.

Old_Git

I would rather live next to a school than a pub .
A ten minute of double parking in the morning and afternoon , no noise in the evening .

jaylee3

We used to live about 600 feet away as the crow flies, to a primary school with 600 pupils. However, it was the garden of 'next door but one' that bordered the side of the school field. It was about another 100 feet to the first school building.

We lived in a close where about 60 sets of parents and their kids walked from the school, through to their houses which were near us and a bit further away, (as there was a pathway to the houses behind us at the back of our crescent.)

But no cars came through. We were in a crescent of about 80 houses, and all cars went down the main B road (400 feet from our house) to the school. Our crescent went onto the B road. Our house was - as I said - about 400 feet away from that main road though.

However, the road that lead down to the school had about 40 properties (20 on each side,) and they were forever selling up, as it did become become a pain. People parked up and down all the time, from 8.25am to about 9.10am and then again between 3 and 3.30pm. And it was a nightmare getting in and out. Approx 100 cars came up and down and tried to park and were constantly blocking people in. In addition, there was often after school activities, and meetings and all sorts, which meant streams of traffic and getting blocked in between 4 and 6pm too. I don't think the school was there when they bought the houses.

So although it was OK where we were and the noise from the school (kids playing and yelling at breaktime/lunchtime) was actually not that bad, we wouldn't have lived on that road leading up to the school.