RJB123

After over 30 years working as an expat in the Middle East, Far East and Caribbean it is almost time for me and the family to return to the UK. Our daughter is in her final year of primary school so the timing is right to return to the UK next summer. For the past year or so we have been debating where we should base ourselves but are finding it hard to come up with a location that gives us all what we want.

I grew up in SW England and love the outdoor life and walking in particular. My wife comes from NW England and whilst she appreciates the outdoors her preference is to be based close to civilisation and culture. We are also wanting to give our daughter an excellent secondary education and by avoiding areas with inflated house prices we can if necessary afford to go private. Does anyone have any suggestions on somewhere that provides us with the balance we are looking for?

abi31

Yorkshire.

Though you may need to buy a cagoule.

Adnams

How about Suffolk?

Trixie_b

Cheshire, close enough to Manchester / Birmingham & Leeds, great shopping, arts & concert venues, and countryside enough for wellies.

Cumbrian Lass

We moved back to the lake district......beautiful ! but house prices are through the roof

holly_1948

For the North-West:
I'm looking a Hoylake. No problem parking a car but excellent public transport.
Beach for walking, nearby golf and sailing. Old fashioned main street shopping (like you were used to 30 years ago!) and half way reasonable prices whether buying or renting.
Liverpool is a quick train away for big city life or to catch a fast train to London.
Merseyrail is frequent and has the best on-time record of all UK train operators.
Chester ancient shops or North Wales mountains if you want the touristy stuff.

RJB123

Thanks for the suggestions. Lake District or Yorkshire both appeal to me but not sure whether I could handle the climate and a very long way from my family in the SW. My wife would love Cheshire as it is where she comes from but it has never been my favourite part of the country although I do think Chester is a lovely city. Strangely enough we were watching "Fantasy Homes by the sea" on TV a couple of nights ago and there was a family looking for a holiday home on the Suffolk coast. Looked interesting but does anyone know what the schools are like around there?

One area we have considered fairly seriously is the area around Ludlow and Church Stretton but are struggling on the school front. Have also proposed Exeter area which ticks most of the boxes and has the bonus of being close to my family but it is a long way from my wife's family in Cheshire.

Any more suggestions are very welcome.

christmasoompa

Have you considered a grammar school area? That might give you the secondary education you're after without paying for it, although obviously house prices tend to be higher in those areas as they're so sought after.

RJB123

Had a brief look in the area around Colyton Grammar school in Devon about a year ago. Excellent school and not a bad area from my perspective but the area didn't tick the boxes as far as my wife was concerned. Too far from her family and not very near a sizeable town. Is it feasible to return to the UK and manage to gain a grammar school place in an area that we currently have no connection with? Surely we would have to enroll our daughter into a primary school in the area for a few months first? Maybe someone has some advice in that regard? It would potentially save us a lot of money and our daughter would from an academic perspective stand a very good chance of getting into a grammar school.

rebs

It might be worth trawling round the websites of the schools for their admissions policies as there can be variations as to how they treat out of area applicants.

For example, where we live we are roughly equidistant from 2 boys grammar schools. Each school has an intake of about 160 per year and has an entrance exam.

In one school, they rank all the boys that have taken the exam (irrespective of where they live) and allocate 120 places to the top performing boys. The rest of the places are allocated to boys that live in the town borough in order of their test scores.

The other school places each boy in one of 2 groups - either met or did not meet the standard. They then take the met the standard group and allocate places to boys that live in the town borough that met the standard. If there are places left after that, they then offer places to boys outside the borough in order of their test scores.

In neither of these scenarios does the primary school attended come into play - just the address of the parents. However, I do not know if that is the case in other parts of the country (we are in East Dorset).

You can also find out a lot about which tests are used for each grammar school pretty easily.

christmasoompa

No need to enroll in a primary school first, the usual criteria for a grammar school will be testing, and address.

It does vary massively though, we used to live in Bucks (loads of grammar schools), where it was relatively easy to get in to one as long as you passed the 11+ because there were so many grammars.

Whereas now we're in Berkshire and the only option for us would be one for boys and one for girls in central Reading - consequently competitive is massive and they will literally pick the top scores in the 11+, and also look at other things such as extra-curricular stuff to get the brightest/best pupils in their view. But the area you can apply from is huge, the catchment area goes as far as 20 miles away, so that's another reason why competition for places is so tough.

So it really will depend, if a grammar school is of interest then you'd need to look at the area you want to move to, and see what their admissions criteria is.

rebs

That's interesting what you say about looking at extra-curricular activities - I've never seen that on a state school's over subscription criteria. I've only ever seen the usual stuff about statemented pupils, pupils in care and then test results and address in various combinations.

Our local schools show details about what they do in the event of a tie break for the last place, but it all seems to be very objective criteria - down to how they measure the distance to school.

I wonder how they would apply that sort of criteria - seems very subjective. How do they word it on the admissions policy?

christmasoompa

Very cleverly, they don't! They do an interview, and ask the applicant about all of their extra-curricular stuff then, and the interview also goes towards the admission criteria, as well as the entrance exams.

Places are so hotly contested here that the competition is incredibly tough. Not surprised though, last year the girls grammar had 99.8% that got A-C grades in A levels, so it's no wonder that it's so popular.

rebs

I was just reading that the girl's grammar in Reading is often at the top of the league tables nationally, so I don't doubt that it is hugely popular and massively oversubscribed.

I just can't find any references to interviewing candidates though... not on any news stories or on an 11+ forum I use. In fact the only reference to interviews there is from back in 2005 or 2006 which mentions that they are no longer allowed to interview borderline candidates.

Is it done in secret? are parents/pupils made to sign a confidentiality agreement?

It just seems so subjective and open to being challenged at appeal to include an interview as part of the criteria.

I know private schools do it, but then they are not state funded. It's a bit different in the state sector where the criteria have to be open.

Maggiepie

I come from the North West (as does hubby). Our last place in the UK was in Malmesbury, North Wiltshire. We now let it as a holiday let as we love to visit. Gorgeous place with an old Abbey. High street still has individual thriving shops. Lots of clubs to join. It would be half way between the NW and Devon. Good selection of private schools. Not as pricey as Oxfordshire.

Nearest main centres Bath 40min, Cirencester 30min, Swindon, 30min. Paddington station 1.5 hours by rail.