Bigger house in nice street and near good school, or smaller house in lovely road with outstanding school?

[beansprout]

I think the latter, but with 2 boys, a bigger house is not to be sniffed at!!

[tiredlady]

Depends - how much difference is there in the size of the 2 houses?

[Twiglett]

former ... an outstanding school now may be a good school next year and vice versa

bigger house

[NotABanana]

Former.

[LyraSilvertongue]

Bigger house.
We went for the small house in great street and are regretting it now. We soooo need more space with two growing boys. Now we can afford the bigger house we're having trouble selling ours

[LyraSilvertongue]

What's the size difference? Are we talking tiny two-bed terrace versus four-bed detached with garage?

[edam]

Go and look at the schools. Outstanding one might not be as good as it appears on paper, or might not be right for your boys.

[artichokes]

Only you can know.

How do you feel about the feel of each house and street? Does one feel like home? Are they both equally lovely but one is just slightly bigger?

Are the parents at the good school happy with it? What points stop it being outstanding? Are those points important to your boys?

[DarthVader]

Go for the best area

[yentil]

no brainer; go for best fit, bigger house, good school. this would suit the entire family....its not all about the kids!

[ecoworrier]

Bigger house every time.

[smartiejake]

My dds are at an "outstanding" school. Not quite sure why. Ofsted reports are not always all that. Important to see the schools but I would still go for a bigger house.

[savoycabbage]

I sent my dd to an 'outstanding school'. I did all the things you should do, read every OFSTED, visited, grilled the head, asked other parents, listened in to every conversation at the pre-school gate. Then the head and nursery teacher both leave. They get a new head. She is shit She employs a new nursery teacher. She is AWFUL. Simply awful. And I am screwed! It was horrible.

You can't control what is going to happen in a school. The staff, the other children etc.

[noddyholder]

How much smaller is the other house?I would prob go for the bigger house too A good school is more than a lot of people can dream of so is still desirable.

[Anna8888]

Smaller house for lovely area/school. Definitely.

[WonderingWhy]

Big house every time

It depends on how muc nicer the school would be though - but check it out first. I spent ages searching for a house near the 'best' school, only to find my friend's child isn't happy there and it is cliquey etc.

We love the school we ended up with, it is also excellent, so don't judge by what 'most' people say until you have been there yourself and had a good look round.

Anyway I love indoor space, it saves on fights, they can still play when it's raining, all that kind of stuff.

[WonderingWhy]

Oh God yes especially if you have boys!!!!

[ScienceTeacher]

I would always put quality of education ahead of material possessions.

[WonderingWhy]

But it might not be the best school for the OP's children...education isn't all about ofsted results!!

[claireybee]

Depends on the size difference. Also on how much storage space the smaller one has. I can cope with not having much living space but not having a place to put things drives me mad

[HonoriaGlossop]

I think it's just so hard to judge: my ds' school was outstanding when we started there, and the recent inspection has rated them 'good'....TBH, I cannot see a difference in the quality of education and one of the only points for the school to action was better policies and procedures to do with attendance, so I don't feel the 'good' rating is a real threat to quality of education here!

If you were comparing a school in special measures to the outstanding one, I'd say go for the smaller house every time.

But in this case it doesn't sound like there's an awful lot in it.

And you don't spend all your life at school - your boys will like the space in a bigger house, and they're only going to get bigger after all!

[beansprout]

Thanks for all your replies. The bigger house has a through lounge and that would effectively give us an extra room (use the back bit as a study/play area). The smaller one has a fair size kitchen diner and a smaller lounge, so we would spend all our time in the kitchen diner. Gardens are similar.

What really draws me to the smaller house is that it is in a small cul de sac and people (other families) are clearly very friendly and there is a real sense of community there. This really appeals to me as I am quite isolated where I am now and having other families as neighbours would be fab. I'm just not sure about the space though but hey, who doesn't think they need a bigger house?!!

[noddyholder]

Sometimes a through lounge is a bit of a waste and doesn;t really give you any quiet space.If the kitchen diner can fit a sofa i would go for that and have it as a family room.

[stuffitllama]

Bigger house every time if the other school is also good
then get involved in the school to bump it up!

[beansprout]

Are you allowed to do that?