More expensive house in nicer area or cheaper house

[Gemh1]

Hi! We bought our house for 192,500 7 years ago and have completely renovated it, adding an extension to the back and side to create an open plan kitchen/dining/living space and a utility room. We’ve also boarded out the loft to create an office space. We love our house and although it’s an ex council house, it’s on a lovely road, close to the local village and the neighbours are great. The catchment area has changed for our local high school though, meaning that our youngest will have to go to a school that is further away and not as good as the one that our eldest child goes to. Our dilemna now is, do we sell ours and move literally 3 minutes up the road to stand a better chance of getting our son into the good school but have to pay another £75,000, or stay where we are and accept that our son will be going to a school that Isn’t great? We’ve done our maths and due to our house going up considerably in value, we’d be able to afford another house, however the cost of moving is very high and our outgoings would increase by around £450 a month so it would mean less savings for luxuries like holidays. So my question is - would you prefer to have less financial pressure, enjoy going on holidays and spending quality time with your kids or move to the nicer area and ensure that your kids were in a better school but accept that you’re going to be skint and that the house you’re moving to isn’t as nice or as big as yours?

I'd stay put and try to get your younger son into the same school as his brother, if your elder son will be registered there when you apply for your younger son.

no point in getting yourself into debt unnecessarily.

In my area having an elder sibling at the school top trumps catchment area. Please check this before doing anything else.

You could rent within the catchment area whilst your application is in - if your absolutely desperate.

But no, I'd be reluctant to spend £75k to move to a lesser house. That sounds an unenviable position to be in.

Stay put and work on the school. I know many LAs and Trusts have changed admissions policies as described by an early post that a sibling already in the school gives higher priority. Was to overcome the disaster many parents faced a few years ago to be driving all over trying to get multiple kids to multiple schools....another stupid policy aimed at creating fairness

Sray put, the financial hardship will affect everyone too much and it's not your fault the school changed catchment that was a life curveball. Fingers crossed for you. Even if he gets in the lesser school try waiting list.

Your area sounds nice, I'd stay put. Also, there's no guarantees the nearest school will always be the best. Under the same Head our local secondary has gone from excellent to adequate in seven years. Also, if your second son does struggle a bit or you want to offer extra support, you'll have money for extra tuition if you felt that was right for him.

Where we are because one was already in the school just out of catchment area they accepted another 2

I think almost everywhere has 'sibling priority' plus there are extenuating circumstances which you can provide evidence for on most school applications. As the boundaries have changed, it should be possible to show (rightly) that as your eldest is already there and it is the closest school, your second child should also go there.
Where I live sibling priority overrides most things (and it drives me mad as people move out to cheaper areas after their first child is in..!)

Definitely wouldn’t be moving.

and surely having a sibling at the school will push up the priority level.

and also who’s to say the heads at each school won’t change - thus changing the school.

Won’t he get preference despite being out of area due to being a sibling?

Same happened at ours. New head, the performance and feel of the place downgraded. And 75 grand buys one hell of a lot of tuition if the teaching does turn out to be worse.

Any grammar schools about? We have a few that have a large intake from one particular part of town where they moved the "good school" boundary.

We chose to send our kids to the local secondary. It's fine but not brilliant.

If I had my time again I would think hard about whether to try harder to send them to a better school.

Not sure what the answer is

Stay.
Am assuming the local school is less good and not actively terrible though.
Mine all went to the ’worst’ comp in the borough. They all did well and were happy. Moved at 6th form though when academic achievement was a factor and not just distance.

My first child got into an extremely popular high-achieving state school from out of catchment. No sibling priority though and later on we ended up with 3 DC at different secondaries. Very difficult to manage so would go through admission criteria in great detail before deciding.

It depends on your priorities. For me education trumps pretty much everything else so yes I would move to the best catchment area possible.

We did similar insofar as we weighed up those cost of moving to the best state catchment area vs the cost of staying where we are and using private schools.

What happens if you move and so ds goes to the better school and he doesn't fit in, hates it, struggles to make friends etc?
You've moved for nothing.
Try to get ds into the better school as he has a sibling there if not send him to the other school and see how it goes.
If it's as bad as you imagine you may then be able to apply for a place at the other school, there may be places mid term as people move on.
Another point to consider is where are his friends going, if he has friends where you live I would assume they're all going to the lesser school?
Personally I wouldn't put the whole family under financial strain, lose a much loved family home and area just because of a school place until absolutely necessary.
Your ds might like the lesser school, I'd definitely try to get him in the better school though then if that doesn't work let him try the other one but don't project your feelings to him, bull up the other school, make it exciting.
Good luck

I'm assuming your oldest won't be there when youngest starts and sibling over subscription criteria doesn't apply.
Keep your lovely home and happy settled home life - send to catchment school - pay for tutors.

Thank you so much for your replies everyone. Sorry, I should have explained that there is 7 years between our two children so the sibling rule won’t count as our eldest will be in sixth form (assuming he stays there for his A levels).

The other issue is that the high school in question is one of the only comprehensive schools in our catchment so children on our road who haven’t been given a place there have been made to travel several miles away. This is something I am absolutely not prepared to allow my son to do. We wouldn’t be in a position to drop him off/pick him up because we both work full time which is the norm for most families now and why it drives me crazy that children would be made to leave their area of residence to attend school. The catchment area used to be 1 mile, it’s now heading towards 0.7 due to an influx of people from overseas moving to the area, due to the good schools.

We do have some fantastic grammar schools nearby so I’m in two minds about whether to push for that and hire tutors. I’m a teacher myself (primary) so education is very important to me. I do however have to be realistic about the financial pressures as we’re already working 60 hour weeks to afford to live where we are (ex council house).

It’s a double edged sword living in what is classed as an ‘affluent’ area!

OP you say you have grammars nearby - I would definitely go for them. Anecdotal obviously but DH and both DDs went to grammar and were excellent schools, really motivated my v bright but rebellious youngest and steered her when veering right off thank goodness. Iwent to rubbish secondary school, was bored stiff and have educated myself lifelong since, but a good education can be so life changing I would prioritise that.

Save your money and stay in your lovely sounding house if within grammar area and tutor yourself on exam technique using WH Smith guides etc or pay for tutor to prepare. Good luck, it’s hard deciding all this stuff.

Tricky. I’d either move or go all out for grammar schools. That depends on whether you think your child has a good chance of getting in or not.

The move is / can be temporary but the good / bad education/ school affects the child for the rest of their life.

Can you start/carry on volunteering at your sons school as staff & familys will have priority even if the eldest has moved on

An update;

We’ve sold our house and have had an offer accepted on a house closer to the school. It needs a lot of work doing but we’ve been approved by the bank to borrow money to get us started and the rest we can do ourselves over the next few years. It was the right decision to make - we wouldn’t have settled until we were confident that our youngest son was given the same opportunities as his brother. So we’re back to square one of living in a building site but it’s for the best.

Thank you so much to everyone who replied to my original post.