Cherrysoda

Yes- easy commute to both places) Pasadena adds time on as the 210 is horrible East at commuter times so LC is a great choice.

julymermaid

Hi N1cky

My husband's company is moving us to Thousand Oaks come October. He will be working for one of the big pharmas in the region and on enquiring through his future colleagues, everyone seemed to recommend Westlake Village. I'm intrigued and frankly a bit worried after reading your feedback on the area. We are a family of three with a five year old son who will be starting kindergarten and are looking for good school districts. Westlake Village seemed to tick that box and the area looked decent enough ... but community feel is important to us as well. Or rental budget is $4000 pcm initially .... Would you be able to recommend any other areas in the region that are within commuting distance of no more than 30 mins to Thousand Oaks, with good elementary schools (we are open to private schools as DS is in private school in london at the moment), and a community feel?

Thanks in advance

Cherrysoda

Julymermaid- I would not worry too much. Thousand Oaks is perfectly pleasant, clean and safe and close to Ventura and all its beaches. I find it a little homogenous and sanitized but that is how a lot of LA feels until you get to know a place and I have eaten at a cafe there once so what do I know. I love places I get to know mostly.

The schools are good up there and if it is near your husband's work that is the most important thing. Minimizing commute time will improve your quality of life more than being in an area that resonates a little better with you-nothing wrong with Thousand Oaks at all- very family friendly. You will get a nice house with a pool for 4K.

Cherrysoda

You will not need a private school in TO- actually some private schools here have to be avoided- you do get smaller class size but the teachers may not be credentialed- that may not be important to you but bear it in mind.

eg76

Good luck with the move. We are now definitely going, but likely not to happen until end of the next (uk) school year to minimise disruption to the kids schooling (we have a 2, 7 & 9 year old).

So, I took a long look around Westlake and liked it a lot, but we think the commute will be too much for us (job is in Burbank). There seemed to be a lot of families and a real focus on kids and schools. It does seem a little sterile and lacking in character, but I wouldn't necessarily take that as a bad thing. I would suggest having a good chat to HR at your husbands company and find out where other expats (from the company) are living and go there.... strength in numbers! We had a look around with a realtor and liked it far more than Calabasas (which seemed soulless).

Other areas you might want to look at - Moor Park, Topanga Canyon (bit further, but I thought it was much more eclectic than Calabasas, Westlake, Thousands Oaks etc.

Let me know how you get on. Have you done a 'pre move' trip yet?

kodokan

With those ages, I'd very strongly consider moving them mid-year. They're too young for it to make any difference academically whether they finish out a UK year or not, and it's SO much better socially. Elementary classes love it when a new kid arrives mid-year to freshen up the social scene, and the teacher typically has time to plan their welcome compared to the hectic school year start. My kids arrived in December to find their desk all set up with their name taped to it, books neatly shelved, and lots of kids eager to meet the fascinating foreign newbie their teacher had said was coming that week. Everyone knew they were new, and allowances were made for them not knowing systems like lunch and gym, they were assigned helper buddies and teaching aides to help them iron out difficulties like not enough fraction knowledge and so on.

Arrive at the start of the year, and the teacher and some of the kids may not even realize you're new; US elementary classes are reblended every year from the year group rather than keeping the same 25 kids together. Also consider the difference in school years - your kids might be finishing late July and going back early August, which'd be exhausting for them in the move circumstances.

eg76

Thanks for the info - hadn't thought about it that way.

N1cky

It's all just personal opinion, I just don't like that much suburbia. I was back there last week, I went for a walk around the lake with a colleague who was in from Hawaii, went out for dinner a couple of times... There really is nothing wrong with the place, it's a great place to bring up kids, clean, safe, open spaces, good restaurants, malls, sports centers, close to the beach... Lots of people I work with live in Moorpark or Camarillo, and lots of them transferred their kids into Westlake High School, it has a great reputation, and gets good results.

You won't need to go private, and $4k is a very good rental budget for the area. Let me know if I can answer any questions, (and I won't bring my negative suburbia views into it).

julymermaid

Thanks N1cky. I'm not a huge fan of suburbia myself ... and understand the 'sterility' it may have to offer. I'm coming around October for a scouting trip and will look at Moorpark and Camarillo as well. Many Thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated !

julymermaid

eg76 .... Thanks ever so much for the suggestions - Lots of people recommending Moor Park so will definitely have a look. I guess you have some breathing room with your move being pushed out to next summers. Schools seem to be such strong decision points for all of us I suppose! For us, we are doing a term of Year 1 until December and moving just before Christmas ..... (which is slightly depressing in terms of Christmas in a strange new country with no family or friends!) ... I'm doing a scouting trip over half term in October, although DH travels every year for work and has done some preliminary exploring. We are currently moving on an expat package - i.e. options to return after 3-5 years if we wish to. I have to say I'm more anxious than excited at this point as it seems to be such a big cultural change! Fingers crossed

julymermaid

Thanks so much CS .... your posts seem to be very informative and I'm not actively looking at homes from the websites you've suggested as well. Would you know which private schools are to be avoided, if you don't mind stating, in your opinion of course. We are currently considering Viewpoint and Carden Conejo schools. We have ruled out Pinecrest and Muse school as they didn't feel right. The greatschools app isn't a great indicator for private schools and seems to have much better reviews and information to offer on public schools. I'm doing a scouting trip in October and then finally moving in December.

julymermaid

This is very reassuring Kodokan as we arrive in December with DS starting kindergarten in January after the holidays. Thanks

N1cky

Sorry, I'm diving back in here. Our daughter was in private school when we moved to LA. She was at Berkeley Hall School for 6 months, and we hated every moment of it. We went to look at ViewPoint and felt we would have the same problems there as at Berkeley. I felt we got suckered in by how gorgeous it all looked.

The main problem we had was, it really all was about money. Having had my daughter in private school in the UK, lots of people were in the same boat, making sacrifices to send their kids to a good school. Berkeley was just full of people with tons of money. Kids were often missing from school as they were on tour with Mum or Dad. Projects were based around what private island you'd spent the summer on, constant fund raisers where people were often writing checks for $10k plus, absolute extreme kids parties... There was very little learning actually going on, and my 5 year old went from loving school to hating it.

We ended up at a Woodcrest in Tarzana, which looked horrible, but was actually a wonderful school where the teachers really cared about the kids, and it was a great place of learning.

We were seriously considering Sierra Canyon when we took the place at Berkeley. I think that may have been a better option, or maybe it would be just the same.

Honestly, virtually everyone I work with in the TO area has kids in their 20s. None of them went private, and all went to the uni of their choice... I wish we'd saved the money.

eg76

That's really interesting what you say about Private Schools. We have our kids in Private School in the UK and we love it, but are sacrificing other things to put our kids through. We are only focussing on Public Schools in California for that reason alone. I don't suppose you have any knowledge of La Canada and South Pasadena?

eg76

Understand the anxiety! So my Uncle in Law lives in Moor Park and although nice, I did find it a little sterile and slightly Truman Showesque... but I guess you can't really get away from that in the area. Preferred Westlake - seemed a little more open (not sure why I thought that, but just seemed a little nicer....). My Uncle in Law used to live in Camarillo, which was great, but you might find you are the only expat for some considerable miles! Have a look at Agoura Hills and Oak Park. I did a drive around Oak Park with a realtor and had a look at the Elementary School there (10/10) and it looked very nice.

In terms of cultural change, you will have a blast. Southern California is awesome, bar the roads (which are terrible, crowded and take a lot of getting used to....). I have just come back from a scouting trip and whilst it was very hot, we had an awesome time driving around the coast and over the hills from Moor Park/Westlake to Malibu. I think it will take a little getting used to, but I would go in with a very positive mindset. If you do that, it will work.

Good Luck