emmajanemac

Anyone moved from the UK to LA?....

My husband is close to being offered a job in Los Angeles and he’s successful we will be moving as a family early in the New Year. They want him to start Jan/Feb.

We have a 5 year old boy, 4 year old girl and a 4 month old baby boy so its going to be a big upheaval involving schools as well as a place to live.

From my initial research and trying to figure out where we want to live, budget and quality of life etc my impressions of Sherman Oaks/Brentwood/Palos Verdes Estates and possibly Pasadena are good family locations with some great schools, although I’m aware can be expensive too!

I think my purpose for joining this blog is to ask anyone who has moved from the UK to LA with a family to offer me any advice or tips when it comes to choosing the right area to live and the right schools. (The VISA subject is taken care of and the company are sorting that out with my hubby - my job is where to live and which school!) We will initially rent a property in order to check out the surrounding areas before we necessarily commit however I obviously need to make the right decision re schools for my kids sake. I've also been advised to go for an expat gated neighborhood while we find our feet…has anyone got any views on this? If so, can you recommend any?

If anyone has any recommendations of neighborhoods or schools in those areas or anywhere they think I should avoid (apart from the obvious ‘no go areas’ ive read about) I’d be most grateful.

This is all so new to me and so I’m trying to gather as much useful info as possible while keeping an open mind to enable me to make an informed decision…. Can you help??

Jerseygirl

Hello and welcome to BE.

If you pop over to our US forum you should be able to find several recent threads about moving to LA. I also recommend you take a look in the US section of the BE Wiki...there's loads of info in there about moving to the US. After sifting through the info post your questions in the US forums...we have several members living in the LA area.

Please give me a shout if you have any site related problems.

Sally Redux

Welcome

I have never heard of an 'expat gated commumity'!

Where will your husband be working? LA is very spread out.

emmajanemac

Hi...thanks for getting in touch...

His job would be in Vernon....industrial i know, but he expects to commute upto an hour outside of Vernon (his current job takes longer)...although i appreciate traffic will take up a chunk of this commute!

I think i meant an expat neighborhood...with fellow Brits nearby to help us out initially while we find our feet....

Hope this clarifies...

Sally Redux

I had to google Vernon - so it's south of Downtown.

Yes, traffic is bad here so I would try not to go too far. Pasadena is very nice but you'd have to try out the commute in rush hour. Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach are also nice and look like possibilites from the map. I doubt Sherman Oaks would be worth the commute, Brentwood is lovely but very expensive - not sure what your budget is. Are you thinking of public (state) or private schooling? A lot of people don't rate the LA Unified School District (I think Sherman Oaks and Brentwood are in this) and send their kids private.

Still not sure what an expat neighbourhood is - there are a lot of Brits in Santa Monica.

emmajanemac

My husband likes the sound of Santa Monica...keeps saying so! We'd consider public or private schooling but i have no idea of costs at the mo, getting a good school is very important to us so sacrificing where we live, ie a big and/or nice house to get the kids in a good school we would definitely be prepared to do.

Without disclosing budget on here my husband will be on a good salary and will have a relocation package included so at this stage were happy to consider both public and private schooling options.

I really appreciate your advice...thank you!

Sally Redux

If I had the money I would love to live in Santa Monica - I believe it has its own school district as well.

You might find this site useful: http://www.greatschools.org/find-schools/

N1cky

We moved to LA when our daughter was 5. It was a really hard transition as the schools here start 1 year later than in the UK, she was very advanced in reading and was reading Charlottes Web when we were looking at schools. Here she was going into Kindergarten where they were learning their alphabet and reading very basic books...

We went private and had a horrible experience at the first school, it was supposedly one of the best, but actually what this meant was it was full of LA celebs paying top dollar for their kids to be childminded all day, when they weren't out of the country on tour with one of their parents. We ended up moving her after 6 months to a much smaller (and cheaper) private school that didn't have anywhere near as nice facilities, but the schooling was excellent.

We don't live in LA anymore, but we have briefly talked about the possibility of going back. I would probably move to Pasadena if we did go back. I like the vibe of the place, it has a downtown area with restaurants, parks, shops... which is missing in most of LA. Although I like Santa Monica, I wouldn't want to live there as I think it is too touristy. Waiting an hour for a table at a restaurant, or driving around aimlessly looking for a parking space isn't so bad when you are on vacation or just visiting. When you live there I should imagine it becomes very tiresome very quickly.

I too have never heard of an Expat gated community.

Sally Redux

Come back to our bit

N1cky

I'm not coming back

Although the opporunity to go out and drink wine on a weekly basis again is tempting

emmajanemac

Thanks N1cky...where did you live in LA just out of interest?

....and would you advise figuring out where we want to live/lifestlye first then shortlist both public and private schools to check out nearby?

Emma

N1cky

We lived in Woodland Hills, so way too far out for you guys.

Personally I would narrow it down to 2-3 places you would be happy to live first. Then look at what public catchment areas these fall into. If both work you have found a perfect match, if only the area fits look at private then, you can always commute to the school.

Chances are if it's a nice place to live the schools will be good, as they do seem to go hand in hand. If people look after where they live, there are plenty of local business', shops/restaurants aren't closed and empty, and it's an affluent area... they want good schools for their kids.

Bob

Welcome to BE and good luck!

I'm guessing the visa is a L1 company transfer? That'll allow you to work, so that'll help with the budget or in settling in. If it isn't a company transfer, the other usual options are H1, but unless it's at a uni, wouldn't be starting in the new year and the other is O1 for exceptional talent/skills.

You're getting great advice on the area, but as mentioned, the wiki is well worth a look, it has a lot of info on things to consider in a relocation package as well as things to consider in general and think about in a international move. Then there are plenty of decent threads to read over about kids adjusting to school, which really won't be much concern at their age, but plenty of other useful advice about school life though

Sally Redux

I don't know if you found this Nicky, a small caveat which a mutual friend came across when seeking private schools, a lot of them have a religious affiliation and eg. don't teach evolution.

N1cky

I'm sure this is true, we didn't look at any faith based schools so this wasn't a problem for us