Can you tell me pros/cons of living in Portsmouth, Southampton or Chichester?

[Tellmewhyyou]

We are a family of 4 with 2 kids primary ages and are thinking of relocating to the south coast due to husbands work.

We'd like a city vibe and want to be centrally based on south coast with access to east and west south coast for visiting family in both directions.

Give me your thoughts and experiences :D

Interesting. We live in Fareham so probably not that relevant for us but are you talking about Ark? Lower 9-4 in Eng and Maths for 2022 than PGS though, unless I'm reading it wrong.

Our two are LAC so yes, we want them to be as far away from their old influences as possible. However, we can't afford private.

Folk try and get their children into Oaklands over in Waterlooville but St Eds has consistently the same results. It is in the middle of the city though.

Also churns out some vague celebs 😂 (Matt Edmundson and Suzi ruffle)

Flo and Joan went to Oaklands

@SorrelForbes no St Eds. I don't know about Ark tbh. I though it was failing to be honest. I know some folk are put off St Eds because of where it is but I can't recommend it enough.

Myrevengewillbesweet I'm very surprised if that's not a grammar or private school. But delighted to be corrected as my experience in Portsmouth secondaries is utterly depressing.

@onlyconnect StEdmund's

@SorrelForbes who's Flo and Joan? I know Penny Mordaunt went to Oaklands didn't she?

My ex went to oaklands, that's enough to put anyone off.

Stephen Morgan went to priory so there's that

Portsmouth Academy is also a good school.

I hated living in Chichester. Was glad to leave!

The thing that annoy s me about high schools down South is that after Yr11 ,the pupils have to go to Sixth Form College and Portsmouth ( and I believe Soton etc) don't have on site Sixth Form College. I find it a worry tbh as it's a big transition and then they have to do another transition to uni or work or whatever after that. Just what I'm used to because I'm Scottish and we have the old Fifth and Sixth Years at school. Is that because the children used to go to naval college or work at 16 + ?

In Southampton I would live in Shirley/Upper Shirley or Bitterne Park. These places have a nice community, family vibe, good schools, close to the city, bus routes, river (BP), common (Shirley). Nice people! Or Highfield is lovely if your budget permits. Yes, they are not as pretty as Chichester but I like cities and I like these places.

@Blueyfan123 really? It looks gorgeous! Always fancied it but could never afford it! It has a great ska night on monthly!

Chichester is quite nice but personally I would look at B'mouth/poole area or Winchester (very pricey though) I thought Christchurch was a nice little town too and very handy for B' mouth

To counter that, the transition to college after school massively helped in heading to uni. The amount of students who called lecturers sir and miss in the first few weeks who had been to sixth form was quite amusing.

I'm sure there are arguments for both

Myrevengewillbesweet I haven't been to St Edmund's for a while but it was one of the better ones when I did visit.

@Mummys I'm sure it will be ! Sounds sensible. Just different for me !

I’m here to support Winchester. We moved a few years ago and love it so much.
The schools are all great, we have young kids and have found Winchester to have an amazing community. We live in the Abbotts Barton area and it’s a little piece of paradise for me, if there is crime - we haven’t been affected (1 week after leaving London someone was murdered outside our old flat).
The shopping is pretty rubbish but it’s easy enough to go to Southampton or Basingstoke.
The cafes are lovely - our fave is South Downs social. There are a billion activities for the kids to do and unlike London - there is a reasonable chance of seeing friends there. Tis quite a small community in Winchester.
There is not the same urban vibe that you have in London - there are less people in the Winchester than live in the borough of Islington.
but it has its own charm and London is an easy train ride (I’m always happy to come back home). There are lots of country walks etc on our doorstep. We moved to Winchester blind, having only ever been to the place 3 times (to look at houses), and the risk paid off for us.
No chance I’ll be moving any time soon.
Good luck on your search

Chichester unfortunately doesn’t have very good schools. There is only one good primary and the secondaries are pretty run down. The high street is also full of closed up shops. Definitely avoid if you want a city vibe. For what it’s worth, I would be looking at Brighton

Winchester is indeed lovely, with good schools, but it is expensive to buy there.

I can only speak for Chichester over ten years ago, but hated it. Schools coasted and had poor pastoral care, but managed to get away with it. Boring for teenagers, so you’d need to be happy funding travel to other places for nightlife if you’ve got teens. Lots of undercurrent racism ‘I’m not racist but…’ and mentioning race in a negative light. Mostly right wing, which sucks when you’re a leftie. However, I probably disliked it more than most and I did have fab friends there. They do have a good writers’ group and some nice social events.

Out of those I would choose Chichester although the by- pass with all the roundabouts would get frustrating as often a bottleneck when I go through there.

I live in Portsmouth and have worked in schools in both Portsmouth and Chichester. Much prefer Portsmouth.
Portsmouth has lots going on, lots of places to visit. The seafront is gorgeous (always feels like you're on holiday in the summer). Loads of lovely places to eat and if craft beer is your thing there's at least 3 breweries all making fab beers that I can think of. I can't imagine living anywhere else

Bishop Luffa has very good results as a secondary but would agree that Chi High facilities aren’t great. Free School is in almost new premises (but no 6th Form). Midhurst and Portsmouth Grammar ate also options for secondary.

Chichester is a small cathedral city, good high street (not many closed up shops at all - only House of Fraser really, and that’s an old, awkward building), lots of restaurants and agree that the theatre is excellent. It is a bit sleepy hollow but you have the coast to the south and the South Downs to the north, and lots of outdoorsy stuff.