JudyFisher

We're moving back the UK next September and I'm just trying to work out which to go for when looking for a place to live: school or house? Should I look for an outstanding state school and then work outwards to postcode or should I just find an affordable house we like and then look at our school options. What did you do?

Spacecake799

I would look at areas you like, check the school out and then email the school to find out what chance you have of getting a child into the school. Be guided by that.

moggi1964

We looked at length of commute into city, then areas we could afford to buy (though we are renting for a while first), then looked at the schools in that area (OFSTED and other info). We narrowed it down to a shortlist of 4 or 5 that had all the boxes ticked.
Then we visited each of the places to see which felt right and then looked for a house to rent. We were fortunate with Sale in that we had two schools that were very good.
The fact we moved over out of term time (late July) meant it was difficult to get certainty as to which school our son would go to until just before the school year started. Neither school we considered could commit to whether there would be a space available until we actually moved in to the area and school was about to begin. A little bit of a tense few days for sure (though the school he got in to said they were pretty confident they would have space).

brits1

We kind of did both, we looked at the "6th forms" but within a certain area of where we wanted to return to and then went and had a look at the 6th forms and then the area's, one area with an excellent 6th form and in a supposedly very up market area we all did not like so we ruled that out as we would of been miserable living there while our son was at 6th form. We finally settled in a way on the area and our son went to an okay 6th form (grade wise) but he and the friends he made there passed with top grades, he was happy and we were happy to live where we did.....saying that we might be moving completely out of the area next year !!!! Good luck

mentalist

Are you moving before the start of or in the middle of a new school year? If the latter, you may find the most popular state schools are full. We found that when having to move in January. We are currently going through the appeal process but, being unable to attend the appeal in person, our chances are slim.

JudyFisher

Thanks for your reply, it's taken me ages to write. Good advice. We will be moving in the summer holidays. I am narrowing down areas and I will contact schools to visit soon.