Help me mumsnetters! Should I move to bigger house out of catchment?

[Sweetchildrenofmine]

Please help me by providing your opinions on this.

We have a house very close to a very high performing secondary school. The houses around the area are small, even when fully extended. Our house requires substantial repair and has serious problems like damp and structural issues. Expensive but we can afford to do it.

For the same money we can get a bigger house. We wouldn’t get a place in the very good school
only a school that is… average.

Cant really stomach extensive repairs and want to move to nice big house but am worried am making a bad choice for my dc who is 8.

What would you do?

Are they in year 4 or 5? If 5, you only need to be in the catchment until the end of the year, or whenever the application deadline is.

Check the entry rules for the schools and then speak to admissions
our local high school changed its admission criteria with address being pretty low down the list
you can always apply for the school with current address and then move in a subsequent year
I wouldn’t move if the school is so much better

moving now negatively impacts your dd longterm. Moving later negatively impacts you short term.

At the moment I wouldn't think of putting a house with substantial issues like damp and structural problems on the market. You'd struggle to sell (even if you priced it very low to allow for the works needing doing to be done), as nobody wants extensive building work just now, it's so expensive.

If it was me, I'd focus on getting my house sorted out and planning to move by Y6, once my child had a place offered for the better school.

(I would also visit all the local secondaries to get a feel for how they run and whether they would suit my child. Sure you're planning to do that but it's a better judgement of them than looking at OFSTED results.)

Thank you for replying! The very good school requires you stay in the catchment a minimum of one term after your child starts school. I don’t know how they would enforce it!

Thanks for responding. In my heart I totally agree with you, but the current house makes me so miserable, I’ve been so unhappy recently. I suppose I wonder how much difference my dc going to an ‘average’ school really makes?

It really depends on why the school is judged lesser and what sort of pupil your child is.

If one of the major reasons they've been downgraded is that they don't have very good results for middle-achieving boys (the first thing I think of because it was in our kids' school's report), and your child is a high-achieving girl, then you might not need to worry quite so much. If it's because their pastoral provision is lacking, then you need to think very carefully. If it's their SEND, is that going to affect your child?

I'd stay a few years for a really excellent school, if it is truly excellent and not just Ofsted outstanding on paper.

I'd say put.

Valid about the enforcement question, given the lies some people use, such as temporarily moving in with relatives, never mind those who 'rediscover' their faith and lose it once their children are all 13 or over.

Thank you for your response. For clarification where I live is in an ofsted rated ‘good’ school but beyond that they have very good results and excellent facilities. The place where we could get a bigger house we would only have the option of another ‘good’ school but results are worse and the facilities are far less inspiring.

You are right that all schools offer different things and where one child might thrive is different for others. I find it impossible to know. There is huge demand for the school we could get into, and a bit of frenzy around it which makes me feel very worried that I’d be giving up something great to move to another house.

i know it would be better for me and dp to move, but at what cost to dc’s education?

Thanks @Almahart i appreciate your opnion!

Thanks @LlynTegid. Yes and gaming system seems too stressful and not guaranteed. Unfair as well - although how high prices are around this school is also deeply unfair.

Hopeful bump for the Sunday morning crowd!

Would your ds go to the same primary and be able to see his friends in the same way? It’s not just the school but the local area.

@Supersoakers thank you for your reply, yes they would stay at the primary school they are at. The area we’d like to move to is 0.5 miles away! What would you do in this situation?

I would look at the admission stats for the school you like and try and judge whether catchment will be cast wide or narrow for your ds’s year; any plans for expansion?
But ultimately it depends how much you like your local area. I would live in a smaller house to stay round here because I love it and it’s not just about the school.

I would absolutely stay until your child is safely in the better secondary school. I speak as somebody who underestimated the difference between a great secondary school and an 'ok' one. My DC has done alright in the 'ok' one, but is on a very different path to the one they might have taken in a great school.

I'd stay. With VAT going on private school fees, there is going to be an increase in demand for good state schools, and who knows how catchment areas will be impacted even for the not-so-good-school? And you'll get more for your doer-upper then

@downsizedilemma this is incredibly helpful thank you. Can you tell me what the difference has been? It’s the part of the move that I’m finding it hard to reckon with.

@Sandwichgen this is a very good point. The secondary school we are in the catchment for is definitely seen as where you go if you can’t do grammar, so may well be affected by private school closures.

I would stay. There’s a good chance you would need to do the work to sell anyway.

@Sweetchildrenofmine My experience is that most primary schools are pretty good. But in secondary school there is a huge difference between schools where there is an expectation of academic achievement and ones where there is not.

In my DC's ok school, there is minimal setting so a lot of classes have to operate at a more basic level. Even where subjects are set for GCSE, there are students in the top set working towards a 5. Everybody has to do a language for GCSE. 70% of students fail. My DC is one of only 2 in his language class who are not doing Foundation. Most of the children have given up and accepted they are going to fail. Although the teacher is truly lovely, there isn't exactly an atmosphere of striving towards your best. Although my DC is talented at languages, he is grudgingly working towards a 6/7 when in another school I am sure he would be on track for a 9. Not the end of the world at all, but it does mean that in general (not just for the language) he has gone off academics and is just coasting. Had he gone to a more academic school, he could well be on track for Oxbridge applications etc. Again, not the end of the world at all, and I am sure he will go on to do something really worthwhile, but it has been sad to see him lose his interest in learning. Of course there are children who are extremely self-motivated and do brilliantly despite this atmosphere but there are not very many of them.