I'm not sure if I'm writing in the right section but I'm in a dilemma about secondary schools for my DC.
There are very few secondary schools in our area that have any sort of decent reputation. We have an option of going into a fee paying boys only secondary school (school A). It has small class sizes and has an excellent rating. Aside from the academic side (although that is the most important angle for me), I think it would offer DS a community type environment which would suit his personality. The extra curricular activities are great too and include many of which he already does and I think it would overall be a fantastic school for him. We can just about manage the fees with a bit of scrimping and saving. It would mean taking a bus which is more than half an hour each way but could read/revise on bus.
We live in an area that I really dislike. Its in a big housing estate, there is no community feel and the amenities are few and far between. Although I have lived here for years and years, I don't know our neighbours. We wave to each other while passing in cars and say hello if we are both of us are on our drives at the same time. Cars are needed to everywhere. I've never been happy here but we've worked on the house little by little and selling it would give us a 300K deposit towards another property.
If we moved five miles away, we could buy a smaller house in an area that has more of a community feel to it. It isn't much better than where we are but there is a large non fee paying secondary school (school B) in the area and because of that the house prices are roughly 200K more than where we live currently. The houses we could afford would mean we are starting over again with doing up the house. The school has a good rating. It is mixed which my son would prefer. Because it is so large, it has a lot of extra curricular activities too, although they aren't run as well as school A. Results are good from school B but not as good as school A. If we lived in the area, our son could walk/cycle to school and maybe make friends locally with classmates. The area would be a little nicer to live in too. His commute to school would be less than half an hour each way and that would be either walking/cycling.
To complicate things further, I have two children. While DS1 would prefer a mixed school, his younger brother would prefer a single sex school. His younger brother would also benefit from smaller class sizes in school A and because they focus on results, I know they would help him reach to his full potential even if that is not very high.
What is the best thing to do? Prioritise school A and continue living in a area I'm really unhappy in or move house and see if we can get into school B and perhaps enjoying living in that area more than where we live now?
Both boys must attend the same school. Different schools are not optional.