rtillsley

Hi all

I am a British Citizen, but have only visited England and never lived there. To mix up things, I plan on moving over for at least a few years with my family. I could really do with some advice on where to live.
I'm a primary school teacher, I have a school age daughter and my wife works for medium to large corporations.

I'd love to find an area that we can really settle into. It needs:
- to be large enough that there are medium to large companies within reasonable travel distance.
- have decent state schools
- not be insanely expensive for rent (Note that I'm used to expensive Sydney prices)

We originally were looking in and around London, but the mix of good schools and affordable rent seems to be in short supply.

Other areas I've considered include Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge and Reading. Do these sound right?

I need to make some decisions very soon, so I'd really appreciate any advice people can offer.

rtillsley

And a couple of other areas that I'm considering:
Chelmsford (I have some relatives in Essex)
Reading (Seems viable travel to London and I've heard there are a lot of corporate offices on the west side of London)

SanDiegogirl

The most important thing to focus on is where you are going to find a job. Not much point in deciding on best place to live if you are not going to be able to find work there.

As a primary school teacher have you researched into whether there are vacancies which would be applicable to you, will your qualifications be applicable in the UK and most importantly can you sponsor your family for visas if they are not British citizens?

Loads of people will give you all sorts of advice as to nice places to live in the UK (the ones you have mentioned, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Reading, Chelmsford all have decent areas)

However without work no-where is going to be suitable.

rtillsley

Thank you for your response.

We need to narrow down the areas so that we can sort out jobs. I'll be working with an agency for my teaching position, but I need to be able to give an idea of what areas I want to work in. And to do that I need to work out what sort of places fit the criteria I've metioned. If there are enough companies in the area my wife won't have trouble getting work.

Cheers

Sally Redux

Obviously you'll need to go where the jobs are but if something comes up in Chelmsford you could do a lot worse. I come from there although I moved away a long time ago I have a friend there who is a primary school teacher and when I visit it seems like a reasonable mix for living - train into London but not crazily expensive, town centre updated and quite good, nice countryside around it.

dunroving

Why don't you also take out a subscription for TES, and scour their jobs board? As suggested earlier, this will give you an idea where the jobs are.

Also, I can't quite match your remit for "not insanely expensive rent", but you are thinking of London.

The Midland conurbation is a huge mix of cities, that is much cheaper than London. I'm sure there will be jobs there.

christmasoompa

I'm a few miles away from Reading (near Wokingham - some of the best schools in the country by the way), and my husband commutes in to London (Victoria) every day for work.

Reading itself is godawful IMO, I don't ever go there unless I really have to! But where we are I love as we live in a super village that's very safe and has great community spirit, we're surrounded by beautiful countryside and can be in London easily and quickly.

Shout if you've got any questions about the area and I'll do my best to help.

mikelincs

Your daughtyer should already be a British citizen as long as you are not a British Citizen by descent, you do not mention the citizenship of your wife, but if she is not a British Citizen then you will need to get a spouse visa for her, read more here.

Citizenship/Passports and Spouse/Family Visas (UK) - British Expats

Given what you say about your wife, it is possible she could get a work visa through her job?

LondonSquirrel

Stevenage and Peterborough are commutable to London and not expensive for houses. If you want London you could do worse than Crystal Palace, where we live. It has a nice villagey feel and very reasonable prices for London, plus is in zone 3/4.

BritInParis

I would avoid Reading itself but some of the villages nearby are very nice. Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol are all perfectly pleasant as well.

rtillsley

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'll check out TES. I've used them for teaching resources before.
Rent wise, I'm looking for less than £1250 a month in rent. I get that much of London is a lot more expensive than that.

Is it colder in the midlands?

rtillsley

What makes Reading so bad?

Do the villages have cafes? I love the idea of beautiful countryside, but I need a few creature comforts like good internet, a cafe and a pub!

Cheers

rtillsley

I am by descent. My wife would need to get a job first to get a visa and that will be a pain. It's going to be messy one way or another, but this is thee path we are going to try. Discussed with a migration agent.

Cheers

rtillsley

Thanks, I'll have a look at the areas. I've heard the south side of London be disparaged a few times. Is there any real difference?


Cheers

rtillsley

That's good to know. Reading seems to be on the nose. May I ask what you don't like about it?

Thanks