Live in a better area with great schools or work part time?

[Yumyumbananas]

What would you choose?
I work full time but could afford to go part time if we stay in our current house. But the schools here aren’t great (they’re pretty bad) and we have a DC to consider.

If we move to where the best schools are then I would definitely need to continue working full time. We would either have a smaller house that’s a bit more expensive than ours or a similar sized house that is almost double the value of our current house.

How would moving either give you a smaller more expensive house or the same sized house worth twice as much? Is it two different areas you are considering?
How bad exactly are the schools? Would the move impact on childcare, mean longer commutes, leave you worse off etc?

Two different areas. Current area isn’t as nice and local primary and secondary are requires improvement and/or inadequate. The other area has outstanding schools. Commutes would be shorter in the new area by around 10 minutes or so. No impact on childcare.

What about full time work paying in to your pension? Can you afford the cut to that as well?

Well so far the other areas sound better. Would they both mean a reduced commute? Are you happy working full time or did you hope to go part time? I guess it depends on how long your hours are and how old your children are but all schools being below a good rating isn’t brilliant (not that I pay too much attention to an ofsted inspection).

Move. Continue to work FT

Things change - prob less likely shit area will become fab though

We're just moving to the 'better area'. The school situation was so bad that it wasn't fair on child to NOT move. I don't want to move.

Pension: yes I could take the hit working part-time for quite a few years while DC is in primary school.
Commute: slightly reduced if we move to the new area but this isn’t a huge factor for us.
Age of children: eldest is 3 and will start primary in September.
Ofsted reports: I know these aren’t the main things to look at with schools and I have researched other factors thoroughly including knowing people who work in the schools. There is one ‘good’ primary locally that is better but there isn’t a secondary option I would consider and they haven’t been ‘good’ for a long time. This has much more to do with the area than the efforts of those who work there. The better area has a consistently outstanding secondary.

Option A: stay put in cheaper area where we are happy with our house and neighbours; DC can attend a local primary (hopefully the only good one!) but with currently terrible secondary options; I could go part-time or stay full time.
Option B: move to more expensive area with either a smaller house and bigger mortgage or a similar house with a huge mortgage; I’m sure we would be happy there too; DC will attend outstanding primary and secondary schools; I will stay working full time.

Move to the better area and keep working.

Move.

If the schools are really bad I'd say move.

I would move

Move. Working PT with your DC in a bad school is an awful lifestyle.

Could you stay where you are and invest in private tutors or activities?

Moomin that wouldn’t be a problem at all. We already pay out for a lot of activities and would happily add to that as DC get older - including tutors, if necessary. There are other concerning things about the poor local secondary schools though: low expectations/aspirations, social issues etc.
We moved to this house from out of the area and before we had DC. We live in a small, pleasant part but the majority of our local area isn’t like this.

Is there a compromise option eg another area with good schools?

The better area is one that we know well as we both work there. So yes we could look elsewhere but I fear getting it wrong again!

Well, the smaller house with bigger mortgage. How much smaller are we talking?

If you are dependant on state education then you owe it to your children to move them where the hood schools are. I’m surprised that you would even consider going part time at the cost of sending your children to a school that isn’t good enough.

Current house: 4 bed with kitchen, living room, dining room, two bathrooms, downstairs wc and playroom.

Bigger mortgage in nicer area house would mean 3 bedrooms and fewer of the ‘extra’ rooms (eg some have no playroom or dining room, some have no downstairs wc or extra bathroom).

Racecardriver: no, me neither really! The part-time is a side issue that I was considering before the school/area issue arose. I always expected DC to go to an independent secondary school but DH vehemently opposes this. As we are about to apply for primary schools for the eldest DC, this has come up and at the end of a somewhat heated discussion it was independent secondary or move house. I am just panicking about the cost of such a move but I think the answers on here are clear that it’s an investment in good/great schools and back that’s important.