Moving to Sheffield - advice please!

[Homsa]

Hi, we're moving to Sheffield in a few month's time and I'd really like some advice on stuff like good areas to live in (we're currently looking at areas near the university, S10+11 I think), good nurseries (and how much they charge), good state schools, and things to do with an almost 2-year old.

I believe there are a lot of Sheffield mumsnetters around, hope you see this, I'd love to hear from you!!!

[Homsa]

Bump

[jamiesam]

Hi!

Don't think you'll go wrong with S10+11.

I live in S7 (Nether Edge), lovely but rubbish school catchment...

My ds's are in Breedon House nursery which is right in the centre of town (slightly odd 'industrial' area) but they are very happy there and I hope I never have to move them (until school of course). Sorry can't give you any advice on prices - direct debit gone a bit mad recently for unknown reason (plus ds1 just started getting his nursery 'rebate), so have no recent bills/payments...

I'm a bit rubbish at doing things with my boys, but there are loads of soft play centres (know of 4 within a mile or two of the city centre). Sheffield is pretty good for parks (the spring is nearly upon us, though did snow here yesterday!) - trains pass Millhouses (and great cafe), ducks to feed at Endcliffe (also great cafe) and loads of (farm) animals at Graves (cafe being refurbished, hmm, bit of a theme here...)

Try looking on www.linkmagazine.org.uk for more playgroups and parent/toddler than you can shake a stick at.

By the way, my ds's are 3 1/2 and 1 3/4 - would love to meet up when you are settled.

Keep bumping for other Sheffield MNs - Hulababy and Katzguk are both S10 or S11 I think (or soon to be - Hulababy just about to move so sure she'll be a great source of advice)

Good luck

[hatsoff]

I don't live in Sheffield anymore but was brought up just south of Sheffield in the Peak District and went to school in Sheffield. The university area is pretty nice - Broomhill is a nice shopping area (near my school). The Botanical Gardens are near there. I have lovely childhood memories of picnics there after school with my mum. there used to be 3 beautiful Victorian glass houses which, when I was a whipper-snapper, had tropical plants in one, birds in another and an aquarium in another. there was a wonderful minah bird that, if you coughed, would say "ahem, have you got a cough?" which was great fun. But my soppy memories are not much good to you. The best thing, tbh, about that part of Sheffield is that you can be in stunning countryside in about ten minutes. The best place to go with kids is a place called Padley Gorge - a beautiful stream up on the moors where kids will happily picnic and paddle all day (have taken mine there on several occassions - always fantastic. ) I am not totally sure about the postcodes but you could probably get your kids into Silverdale school (a senior school) which I think I'm right in saying is one of the top state schools in the country (top 100 or so) but don;t rely on me - check it out

[Hulababy]

Hi, only just seen this. I live in the city centre right now but we are due to move to S10 area in the next month or so. We have a DD, who has just turned 3.

My DD is in a lovely nursery in S11 area, very close to town - near the unis, hospital, etc. and we pay £26.50 a day (not FT rate).

There are some really good schools (primary and secondary) in the S10 and S11 areas.

Are you wanting anything in partcularly? If you want town type living Crooks, Hunters bar, Ecclesall Road areas are great. If you want more out fof town, family home type areas Millhouses (quite expensive thoughh), Sandygate and Crosspool are good. There are lots of other good areas though - much of S10/S11 are good

Latest leagure tables for Sheffield primary schools are on this link.

If you have seen a house you like, this site here will tell you which catchment school you would be in.

Good estate agents in this area are:

Blundells and Saxton Mee . A longer list of agents is here


Plenty of nice things to do with a 2 year old too - city and more rural petting farms, parks, swimming, ski village (with adventure playground), soft play, fire/police museum, butterfly house..... and further afield are Sundown Adventure playground, Chatsworth farm, Sherwood forest, etc.

If you want any further information, etc. please get in touch again - here, by CAT or e-mail me on claireandrich(at)beeb(dot)net

[Homsa]

Thanks for your messages everyone, that's very helpful! We actually just got back from a weekend of househunting in Sheffield, which has been quite a reality check - we had the illusion that, moving up from Cambridge, we'd be able to afford a bigger house in a really nice area, but most of S10/S11 seem to be beyond our reach.

Jamiesam - would love to check out the local cafes with you, sounds like you're quite the expert .

hatsoff - Padley Gorge sounds like the place my DS would LOVE. He's mad about water at the moment (and stones! and if he gets both things together, you've made his day!) Will definitly check this one out.

Hulababy, these are exactly the links that I needed. We're looking for a house close to the university, in a not-too-urban area (for which read leafy suburbs...), with a decent-sized garden, which seems to be quite tricky, as most of the houses we've seen so far had really tiny gardens. We saw a house in S7 yesterday that we liked, but I just checked your link and it turns out that the school catchment area isn't great. Sigh, never had to worry about this kind of thing before DS came along... all very bewildering at the moment. I think we've got a lot of exploring to do!

[Hulababy]

If you have a rough budget and a list of requirements I don't mind flicking through the Telegraph pages to see what is about. I have just spent past few months doing just that anyway!

[hatsoff]

Homsa - if you want directions to anywhere out in the Peak District - like Padley Gorge (there is nothing there, it is just what I said it is, so you might not find it that easily) just let me know.

[jamiesam]

Ooh, yes, give us a budget and I'll go head to head with Hulababy

Must confess I still look in the property pages most weekends to see if we can afford to move to S10-11 yet

[Homsa]

Wow, thanks for the offers, that's really nice of you!!!
DH's future employers have arranged for a property paper to be sent to us in Cambridge, though, so we can have a look ourselves. But hey, if you do spot something, maybe a house that's only just come on the market in your area, do give me a shout!
We don't know yet what we're going to get for our house in Cambridge (we're putting it on the market today) - somewhere between £270,000 and £290,000 I guess. So that's our budget for Sheffield. 4 bedrooms (or 3 big ones) would be nice, and a garden is a must (20 sqm. of concrete doesn't count!). I could also imagine buying a renovation project for £200,000 or so and doing it up.
We saw a house in Sharrow last weekend that we liked - is that a good area? House prices seemed rather low there.
jamiesam, which school are you going to send your older DS to? Is it difficult to get into a good school outside your catchment area?
hatsoff, directions to Padley Gorge would be great!
Thanks all

[jamiesam]

Feel guilty when really I'm just being dead nosey!

I'm certain that you could find something for the £ you're talking about, but maybe a tiny bit further out than near the Uni?

Parts of Sharrow are really nice - I would say it's an area that is generally on the up, but you'd be wise to have a good look round. Some of the areas round Sharrow/London Road have a bit of a bad reputation. Tell me the address and I can be more specific.

You also want to be careful with the catchment areas, as you've already picked up. Basically, there's a big wedge shaped catchment area, that takes in Sharrow and Nether Edge, for Abbeydale Grange high school which is not really very good . It's nice in that it's a small school, but it's feeder primary schools don't do very well.

I'm in the catchment area for Abbeydale Primary School and Abbeydale Grange high school. My options (hopes) at the moment are Clifford CE or Porter Brook CE(ie independent from local authority) or Ecclesall Infants (la). Basically, I started stressing about this around 18mths ago. I reached the momentous decision with dh that we wouldn't move house to be in a decent catchment area and would trust to luck. The alternative schools are not easy to get into and I wouldn't recommend anyone else to trust to luck if they could afford not to. Friends whose children are in this Sept intake and live in my catchment area were lucky to get into Clifford - and found out that Ecclesall is full of siblings/catchment area kids for this year so they wouldn't have stood a chance...

I'm relying on the falling school role, and the fact that we're not that far from decent high school catchment areas, for high school - or we'll move by then.

[Easy]

Hey Hatsoff, I was brought up in the Peak District (Hope Valley) and went to School in Sheffield (Sheffield Girls High), so sort of snap.

Bet I'm lots older than you tho'

[Hulababy]

Do you like new or old properties. TBH in S10/S11 you would get something nice in a good catchment. I will keep my eye open

[purpleturtle]

Link magazine is great. See Chatterbox for m & t groups/playgroups etc in the S10 area (also covers some of S6, which you probably won't be so interested in).

I'm very happy in Hillsborough, but we're in a 3 bed terrace with tiny garden, so probably not your cup of tea. I think Middlewood is quite nice though, but you wouldn't choose it for schools...

[purpleturtle]

Yay! My first ever link, and it works! [proud emoticon]

[Homsa]

jamiesam, we're all nosey that's why we're on MN . The Sharrow house we looked at is in Steade Road and falls into the catchment areas of Abbeydale Primary and Sharrow Junior school. Neither of them seem to be doing very well at all, which probably explains the lower price. Yeah, you are right, this school catchment thing is something we really need to think about very seriously. I wish you lots of luck with getting your DS into the school you want!
Thanks Hulababy! I like older houses, but it doesn't really matter that much.
Thanks for the link purpleturtle!

[jamiesam]

By the way, I take it you've spoken to estate agents. Sheffield has a slightly unusual housing market in that the asking price is the MINIMUM that is expected - ie if I put my house on the market at £200,000, I'd be expecting to get offers between £200,000 and £230,000.

[Hulababy]

Yes, that is the case generally - even Location Location crew found that out!!!

However, the market right now for houses above about £140 is very slow. Therefore you may find some buyers who are desperate to sell and get yourself a bargain. Good luck!

[katzguk]

hi

another sheffield mum here!!

if your looking to buy the uni has just released a load of housing all dirt cheap need some work but cheep, check out apple

can strongly recommend chatterbox as purpleturtle said, i would thought i'm on the staff!!

I have a a 2.5 year old and a baby on the way (due in June).

We currently live in an area called Crookes which is lovely.

There are lots of good nurseries, we use the university nursery which is great for us as it does school terms (DH is a teacher).

CAT me if you want more details

[Hulababy]

Another vote for Crookes I am supposed to be moving just up the hill from Katzguk in the next month

[hatsoff]

ohmigod Easy. I've got that "I'm about to be scuppered" feeling. Tell me how old you are. Quickly or I'll go nuts.

[Homsa]

katzguk, thank you so much for the tip, we checked it out last night, and got terribly excited!
(Actually, I got a bit worried as DH suddenly started fancying himself as a landlord and talking about bying an 8-bedroom house and letting half of it out to students ... sigh of relief as we found out that the university doesn't allow you to do that)
It really looks like there are some bargains to be had there, and it's even an area with good schools!!! Do you know Crookesmoor road at all (several houses for sale on that one)?
Also, do you happen to know what the uni nursery charges for half days?

[purpleturtle]

The thing about Crookesmoor road is that so much of it has been let to students over the years, that it's not much of a family area anymore. Lovely big houses though. Generally no off-road parking, and the road can be very busy at rush hour. Lots of students park there for the law dept, and to walk down to the main campus . In my day, students didn't have cars!

[katzguk]

you should be abel to find info on the uni website at this link

\link{http://www.shef.ac.uk/nursery/nursery}

good primary school in s10 area would be westways, lygate, nethergreen, broomhill infants

crookemoore road is in a good area but a little bit studenty,best be5 if poss is to go and see and check what the nieghbouring houses are. if you let me know i can always have a little reccy for you, its not far from me.

[katzguk]

try link again
nursery

hello purple!!!

[katzguk]

any sheffieldites fancy clubbing together to buy crookesmoor house bargain at 1,500,000

47 bedrooms