Which house and which school? Help! WWYD?

[mamatime]

Hi there - I would appreciate ANY advice please as we are going round in circles & need to offer on a house this week. We sold our last house due to noise and are now living in a pretty dismal rental in an area we don't like & need to move ASAP. This will be our third house purchase in five years and my Mum is living with us.

We've found two houses in the town we like.

1st House

• Catchment to one of the best primary schools in the country (it's a big school, & we've heard negative things such as it's just results driven, however we really like the look of it after visiting it)
• Big & modern (Mum could use utility as a little kitchen)
• BUT it's on a busy cut-through road, & there is construction going on all around the house (the road is bungalows being demolished and converted)
• Next door (1 metre away - walls practically touching) is waiting for planning permission to be demolished and rebuilt.

2nd House

• Village setting & much quieter
• Smaller, but also modern (sharing a kitchen with Mum)
• Small village school which is a OFSTED rated good school, but I don't think it will suit my LO as much as the bigger school.
• 13 houses might be built 100 metres away at end of garden, but neighbours think it won't happen (it's behind trees - so won't spoil view).

SO, the question is...Do we move to a noisy house on a road, with potential contraction to get our LO into a brilliant school? I don't like noise, but I'm willing to put up with it for the sake of our daughter's education. She is very bright and I think the opportunities / challenges would be much better there. OR do we move to the quieter house, send her to a small village school which I think is OK but felt quite chaotic and cramped (though has good results and happy pupils) and be a little bit more on top of each other in the house?

Sadly both are going to be temporary as no room to build an annexe for Mum. But we have to move and settle now, even if it's just for a year. This house hunting has to stop as the stress is affecting all of us! My OH feels like he's going to have a heart attack and my 3 1/2 year old hasn't started nursery yet as we're not able to settle.

Thanks for reading - sorry it's so long and thanks in advance for any help!

After reading it's just temporary I'd maybe go for the better school and then aim to compromise less on your next move.

The thought of all the stamp duty you've paid/ will be paying over the next few years with so many moves is making me wince!

No advice but wondering if near me as we’re looking at 1 of 13 new builds soon to be build in very small village area and the local school is rated good by OFSTED

We moved to our current house in some such circumstances where it was a matter of pick a house...so we did,with the plan in mind we would move within a year...20 years later we are still here,circumstances changed ,house prices rose and were trapped in a house I hated.so my advice would be to move to neither and go back to the drawing board,maybe a different area???

1st house for me if I felt the school was best for my child. Once you are in catchment and have a place you can always move.

Thanks so much for your replies, I really appreciate it.

I know - the stamp duty loss is painful. We've just had such bad luck with houses :(

I wonder how important a primary education is compared to a secondary? As if both schools are good, does it matter? (We're looking in Surrey btw Justwaitingforaline - is that where you are?)

I hate noise so much, but just so desperate to move. Staying put isn't an option as we just need to get on with our lives .. we've been looking for 2 years!