Move to a bigger house or prioritise better local secondaries?

[tuliptintedglasses]

Help me settle a stalemate with my DH. We are now finding our house too small and local secondaries are not that great. Would it be better to:

A. Stay in our current location but move to bigger house, and send DC to private secondary. We have lots of friends in this area. Would be long commute for the DC.

B. Move to same-size house in area with much better secondaries and closer to one of our workplaces (but further from the other’s). We would have family living close by. Little hope of bigger house with current income.

WWYD?

B

I’d pick option B too. Can you afford private fees for 7 years potentially, taking into account rises each year? Can you afford the associated costs? Trips, uniform, exam fees?
Option B is the better option as it ensures minimum disruption for your child. If you found yourself unable to sustain years of school fees it would be worse to then have to enter the poorer secondary school.

It is worth checking your local school is as bad as you think, go and visit and talk to pupils and parents. I go into a lot of schools and even schools with poorer Ofsted reports are rarely so poor I wouldn’t send my own child there.

I would pick based on the school you want

I don't understand how you can't afford a bigger house in area B but can afford private school fees in area A.

Move to B but find a house with potential to extend in the future, when you can afford it.

How old is your child? Schools change a lot depending on head so depends how far off they are from starting. I wouldn't send to private school. Depends on child's personality and ability some can still thrive at local schools, most do actually as most don't have any other choice. I'd find a middle option of bigger house and dc get bus to a half decent school if possible. Our schools are OK round here but my dd gets bus to catholic school which is a better school and she's doing very well. My son probably wil go to the local school as he'd rather be with his friends and not have to bus in.

Rent for a couple of years in the area with better schools. Meanwhile let your existing house. Move to a bigger house once the yiunhest is settled in year seven.

If you can't afford a bigger house in school catchment, how do you propose funding the school fees. When ours were both at private day schools, 15 years ago now, the fees hit £37k of net earnings pa, without the extras - add an additional 15% pa for those.

How good is the private school?

Will private school stop you from saving for uni/holidays?

Will you at some point still end up wanting a bigger house? particularly if other private school parents have them.

Sorry I should have said that houses are cheaper in the area where currently live than in the areas with better secondaries that we are considering.

Whilst our current location may be objectively inferior, the DC are settled with friends and activities. We are also close to a large amount of green space. However, the local secondary has a bit of a reputation and it is not uncommon for families to move or send their DC to other schools for secondary. Our eldest DC is a sensitive soul and I fear that he may struggle at the local school. He has less local friends than our DD.

I still don't understand the economics of this. Is 'DC' one or more children?
If multiple DC then private school fees will be huge.
If only one DC then I'm surprised that a house (OP says house, not flat) is too small.

Two DC.

Basically the decision is whether to stay in a cheaper area (but where we have put down roots), upgrade the size of our house and pay for private secondary. DC have a six year age gap, so not much cross over of fees.

Or move to a more expensive area with better secondaries, but very unlikely to have a bigger house (possibly even smaller).

I live abroad, so the economics may be slightly different to UK, but that is the reality here.

B.

private school fees only go up. Both mine went through private school.

if you move to area B your money goes into your house and you can sell it when both are through school.

no brainer for me.

A for me. B if you prefer family to your friends

This question wouldnt make sense in the UK as Private school is over £20k a year and rising.

It also depends on what you mean by too small house. As in are your DC sharing a bedroom... or just that extra space would be nicer?

Minimal 3-bed here, so extra space would be nicer.

I live abroad
That sounds like a fairly key bit of information that you missed out. Without knowing the local situation I'm not sure that we can help

I would move where you will have a better lifestyle and where they house will make you happy and give you a better long term investment.

Secondary schools can change hugely in a few years. Ours was outstanding when we bought our house. It is absolutely no longer outstanding. 😂 Private school is not guarantee either. Our closest one is rubbish and I’m happier with my dc being at the kinda shitty academy trust school. Similarly, jobs can change too. We originally looked to buy a house close to the station for my London commute. I no longer commute to London and we wouldn’t have been as happy there.

We bought the big house a bit further out, with lifestyle in mind. Our kids have very happy lives. School is fine and we have the money for tutoring when it comes to exam time because we aren’t pumping £8k a term into an independent school. But day to day, we love where we live and it’s given us a wonderful quality of life and an excellent investment.

Because houses in the catchments of good schools are so overpriced

I think you need to visit the schools and have a think. How long and how safe is the commute, it’s hard to walk a long distance in the dark carrying text books and hockey sticks etc. and how certain are you that they’d be accepted to the private schools, are they competitive entry? If they’re not, then are they good enough schools?

how important is being close to friends in your day to day life as you won’t make new friends as easily when not taking kids to school. Think about your empty nest years - you’d probably like to be close to friends then (although I guess you could move back).

If you’re going for the state school option, I’d be tempted to sell up and then rent right next to the outstanding state school then use that time to assess if you do want to buy in the area and if so buy his out of catchment so you can afford slightly bigger place.