Pit Bull.

There's so many fantastic places you can live in the UK you are spoilt for choice, not far from the coast, or a city and a major airport, but definitely in the countryside somewhere, far away from the built up areas, best of luck.

christmasoompa

But Kendrick isn't a 'normal' state school - it's been an Academy for a couple of years, meaning it's independently run (and therefore not subject to the normal local government admissions criteria) and funded by donations etc.

rebs

What you say is not entirely accurate - 'Academies are required to follow the law and guidance on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as if they were maintained schools.' (from the attached page from the DfE)

They are also not funded by donations or fees - funding is still provided by the state.

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/...hatisanacademy

Regarding interviews, specifically, take a look at the good schools guide which points out that state schools are not allowed to interview potential pupils -

http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/he...secure-a-place

Having said that, the one exception to the interview policy relates to state boarding schools, so perhaps it is the boy's school that you are thinking of that conducts interviews? They would be allowed to interview for their 12 boarding places.

christmasoompa

Rebs, I appreciate the time you've taken to Google. However, with the greatest of respect, I have actually 'been there/done that' last year (no t-shirt though!).

All academies are allowed to select up to 10% of their pupils based on an aptitude for a particular subject, and can therefore pick pupils that are particularly strong in, say, music or dance. Therefore these 10% of pupils can be hand picked by other means.

Academies also usually have sponsors and funds (Kendrick has a charity set up for the school fund) which provide a huge chunk of their income.

Anyway, I think the OP's thread has probably been taken off track enough! I'm very pro grammar schools (and am the product of one myself), so think it might be a good option for the OP to look in to.

rebs

Links? or we simply leaving the OP to your misinformation?

christmasoompa

It's not misinformation - unlike you, I actually live here, work at one of the aforementioned schools and have a lot of firsthand experience of the application process! Sorry, but to call it misinformation is quite rude imo.

Anyway, links re: academies being able to select 10% of their pupils on their own selective criteria - "Also, schools with specialisms are allowed to select up to 10% of their pupils on the basis of their aptitude for a particular subject, such as music, and many academies fall into this category." Taken from this web page - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13274090

And Kendrick being part funded by donations, here is their charity page from the Charity Commissions website. http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk...idiaryNumber=0 There is no longer the requirement for an Academy to have a sponsor (used to be essential), but many still do have private or corporate sponsors that help fund them.

Hope that helps, but I really think this has taken the thread off track enough for the OP. I was simply trying to share my experiences and say that all grammar schools have different admissions criteria - some require the standard 11+ exams, some have their own entrance exams, some look at extra-curricular activities, etc.

I will leave the thread now and wish the OP well in choosing an area of the UK to return to. So many beautiful parts to choose from, I'm sure he can't go wrong.

RJB123

Many thanks to those of you who have posted replies. Have done a bit of research on some of the areas suggested and am certainly going to take a more detailed look at grammar school areas.

Thanks

Beccarose

To RJB123- does work not factor in to where you will end up?
I'm curious because I'm also struggling with deciding where, but ultimately it will have to be where the work is. Trying to sort all of our ideals plus adding jobs on top of that is pretty challenging and I am at a loss.

MrMuffin

Yes we're in the same boat as Beccarose. It's all very well choosing the 'perfect' place to live but ongoing work is a major factor and sometimes the perfect place to live isn't near a major city with better paying jobs. My wife 'may' have an opportunity close to Northampton and my best prospects are in central London so now we're considering somewhere within easy reach of both... like St Albans, for instance.

RJB123

Any work that I do end up with is likely to take the form of short term overseas contracts which means that we can pretty much live wherever we want in the UK.

Maggiepie

I can recommend Ashwell. My brother in law takes a direct train into central London and it is not far to drive to Northampton. The large village has several pubs, butchers, stores etc

MrMuffin

Sounds great... thanks I'll check it out Apologies to the OP for the highjack.

steviedeluxe

Some very nice parts of Derbyshire are inexpensive, and you're not too far from shopping cities like Derby, Nottingham or Manchester.

sallysimmons

I think my area of Yorkshire might be a possibility for you. I'm renting near Harrogate at the moment.

From here you're only 15 minutes drive from the amazing countryside of Nidderdale, and 35-40 minutes will get you right into the heart of the Dales national park. You can also head up further up into North Yorkshire, which is beautiful but flatter. Walks galore whichever way you go. And the coast is only 90 minutes away

But for your wife, we're also on the train line between two cities - Leeds and York - which provide good culture themselves and have great train connections to London, Edinburgh and Manchester.

The only problem is house prices. Harrogate is one of the most expensive places to live in Yorkshire (along with Ilkley). Not sure how the prices compare to the south, but a 4-bed house can be £100,000 more here than it would be a few miles away in Ripon. I doubt we will buy here for that reason. If I were you, I'd consider the Ripon area which offers many of the advantages of Harrogate without the high prices. Only disadvantage is that you have to drive further to a train station as Ripon doesn't have one.

abi31

Ripon is very inconvenient for trains so no good for commuting to Leeds unless your willing to schlep the A1M.

However, it does have a grammar school.

And it also has an army barracks, as many places do, but it's very small so it's far more apparent.

If trains are an issue Harrogate isn't great as the trains aren't that regular , are very busy and stop running quite early. I've just been on another thread yammering on about how great York is and that certainly ticks the box for trains, as well as a lot of other stuff