To move from the big smog to the Highlands?

[Rattusn]

I have lived in London all my life, and it has been a bit of a love/hate relationship. I do love all the local facilities, and rarely for London, we do have some community. We do however live in a very deprived area, and I can already see my primary school age child becoming very streetwise, and being exposed to things I would rather she wasn't. The local secondary options are appalling ( very rough - think heavy gang involvement and frequent physical fights). If we stayed I would be dreading what will happen at age 11.

Our area is very high crime, and has a lot of social problems. Very ethnically diverse without much integration, with the resultant issues.

We have holidayed in the Highlands and it has been divine: Stunning scenery, with lovely friendly people, and altogether much more child friendly. Afaik all Scottish children go to their local school, so no more trekking across London because I couldn't get a place at a nearer school. House prices here are also incredibly good value for money after being used to London prices.

Altogether it seems like a an easy decision, but I'm not sure that it is pie in the sky. Aibu to uproot my dc across the country?

[CaptainCrunch]

Friends of ours moved to Campbelltown to extricate their ds from the local drug culture in Edinburgh only to find it was ten times worse up there. They were both well qualified and left good jobs, all they could get up there was Tesco, the scenery is lovely but not much else.

[Charlieismydarlin]

To be fair, Campbelltown is incredibly remote and not in a good way.

I'm not sure it is directly comparable with the likes of Inverness-shire towns

[whatishistory]

Regarding Scottish universities--providing you meet the residency requirements, you do not pay fees.
But:

1. It's getting ever harder to get into university for many popular courses. In my department, we can only accept 10% of Scottish applicants and they generally come in with AABB at higher. We take any English student wafting their £9kthat wants to come. Some had CCD at A level. It's no surprise that there's resentment on both sides--English students resent the amount they have to pay, while Scottish students feel that the English can buy their way into uni. Both sides have a point
   

• We are a mid-level uni on par with Aberdeen. The truth is we cannot survive without English students. The amount we are being paid per Scottish student keeps being cut. Scottish HE is in a really bad state. (And before someone states that English uni's are struggling too--they don't know they're born.)
  
• I will eat my hat if tuition fees aren't introduced in the next ten years. We just can't survive unless something radical changes. I expect that it will take the virtual collapse of HE before the SNP will even consider that.
  

Otherwise, I love living in Scotland. We couldn't get a standard of life like this anywhere else.

[Rattusn]

what is

I didn't realise the situation was that bad.

I accept that fees may be introduced, but I think it's likely that they won't ever be as bad as England, where the fees are going up exponentially. 3K a year was reasonable, but the soon to be introduced 12K per annum is most definitely not. Especially in course with little contact time.

[whatishistory]

I hope you're right. I abhor the idea of tuition fees, but things are so dire that I don't see any other option. We only get around £3.5k per Scottish student. With the state of the economy, I would rather see NHS Scotland prioritised over higher education.

I expect that the loss of EU finding that will eventually hit universities in a post-Brexit era will result in fees rising even more to compensate. I reckon that will be the final straw in Scotland--we don't have that ability to raise revenue.

I should add that I think students get a good education up here, but jobs are being cut again and again. At some point, we will just not be able to keep going.

[SpanielPlusToddler]

If you are considering any towns outside Inverness, then there are some lovely towns and villages along the moray coast, Nairn, Forres, Findhorn, Elgin, Fochabers, Keith. Then continuing East you're into Aberdeenshire and it has some lovely bits too and is consistently highly rated for schools and as a place to live. I know less about specific towns there. Have heard Inverurie is nice and good transport links to Aberdeen. Beautiful countryside, beaches, mountains, cheaper property and good schools. I left the area for university and have returned to raise my family. Love it and wouldn't live anywhere else! Am glad of the invention of online shopping though!! Good luck.

[PrimalLass]

I'd rather earn less and have zero career progression than ever have to live in London again.

Inverness is fantastic, but so wouldn't move there until they finish the A9. It scares me.

Come to Fife. Within an hour or so of where we live we can be in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Perth, Stirling, St Andrews. Plenty of scope for work.

[PrimalLass]

teenagers who weren't interested in outdoor activities instead spent their time having underage sex

We had underage sex outdoors. Killed two birds with one stone.

[PrimalLass]

I'd avoid Dundee

I grew up the other side of the bridges and it is the best place ever to live. I'd move home in a heartbeat if I could.

[emmantfc]

When I was 10 my parents moved us from the middle of a midlands town with all our relatives living within 5 miles, to a tiny village in the very rural north east of England. Absolutely beautiful, but a rubbish place to be a teenager (living miles from friends, poor public transport, no shops or cinema or entertainment nearby, slow internet, no mobile signal). There was only one possible high school to attend - I did okay but my sister was horribly bullied and the school did nothing to help and there were no other options for her education. Also very few of my schoolfriends still live in the area as we all had to move away to find work, so you need to consider the future prospects for your dc. I would definitely echo those who said rent first before buying, and leave your options open.

[OrlandaFuriosa]

Prima .

But can I just add that haystacks are not all they are cracked up to be...

[Charlieismydarlin]

primal Christ, your post made me laugh

I do agree. The towns south of the Tay are stunning. In fact, north Fife is always woefully underrated to me. It's stunning, yet not totally isolated.

I also like around Falkland, around Cupar, Newburgh, along to Abernerthy (no longer in Fife there, mind).

Was in Dollar recently and the bottom of the Ochils is stunning too.

Also like Forres way. The A9 is indeed a shocker but maybe not so bad if you aren't doing it too often?

[Charlieismydarlin]

I have used "stunning" three times in that post. Must find another superlative

[Rattusn]

Charlie I don't know any of those places, but I did find Inverness and the surrounds stunning too

We fell in love with it. Now I've had more time back in hot but grimy London, I'm just worried about the upheaval, and is it really worth it. I think things are okay now, but I am really worried about secondary schools. It's a really hard decision to make.

[Rattusn]

I know neighbours who plan to send their children to the local secondary and hope for the best. I worry not just about the gangs and violence, but also about poor academic progress.

[YouMakeMyDreams]

What is it that worries you about second day schools up here? In Edinburgh school spaces are at a premium and there just brant enough to go around the situation is becoming more like England with everyone vying for good schools and the differences between some schools is becoming more pronounced between the great ones and the not so good.
Traditionally though in Scotland because children generally fonts their catchment school you don't tend to have such a pronounced difference between good schools and bad school . There isn't the same vying for places that happens where you are now so schools tend to be much of a muchness with a large mixture of backgrounds. Our local secondary has 5 feeder primary schools covers 3 villages and has a roll of 400. There are only 3 children in our town that go the secondary next town over 4 miles away. Everyone else goes locally.q

[Charlieismydarlin]

ratt to my mind, it would be about my own job prospects.

I would move to the highlands myself tomorrow but my own job isn't very transferable.

What sector are you in?

The poster above is right about coach ends and some secondary schools up here, in the "wrong" area are not good. Although i think even our mediocre secondaries would be absolutely fine, tbh.

If I was you, I would spend a week over Christmas up here. Find a holiday home in a small town near one of your areas you are thinking about.

I actually live north Scotland in December and the winters are fine but I grew up here!

Alternatively, book a week's holiday to stay somewhere more central and get a "feel" for the place.

If I wanted a safe bet with access to all major cities for work, good road links and fantastic schools, I would say somewhere like Dunblane. You are on the edge of the highlands. Kids can get themselves to cinemas and pools etc so won't hate you when you are older!

[Rattusn]

Sorry if that post wasn't clear. I'm worried about the secondaries in our very rough area of London. I think the children would do much better in Scotland.

Our jobs are fortunately very transferable (public sector). I have been doing some research and I would do better financially working in the highlands that London, owing to a shortage of those in my profession who are willing to work in the highlands. It seems like a win in (nearly) all ways.

[OrlandaFuriosa]

Rattus,
I know something about London schools. If you want to PM me, I might be able to comment.

But ultimately, as long as you understand you will probably never be able to come back to London in terms of the property market, go for your instinct.

[expatinscotland]

And the drugs thing in these places, it's not understated. I can get whatever I want faster than I could get into town.

I'd homeschool in London before I moved to the Highlands.

[Rattusn]

I'll send you a pm Orlando. We are fortunate that we would be able to return to London as we won't be selling up.

expat I think you are perhaps underestimating the drugs in London. In our area drug use and dealing is rife (ie it's rare to go out and not see it). I didn't see any of that in Inverness.

[Rattusn]

Also financially, I couldn't get afford to home school. Most importantly, I don't think I would be any good at it. My oldest dd is very social and extroverted and would miss formal schooling.

[expatinscotland]

And so you think running off to Scotland will solve your problems? Everywhere you go, you always take the weather. If my spouse announced a move like this a fait accompli, he'd be doing it alone with a divorce decree in his bags. I wouldn't pull a social and extroverted pre-teen out and move them hundreds of miles away to a place like this (I live in the Western Highlands, FWIW).

Sounds like a case of the grass is greener but hey, it's your life.

[expatinscotland]

'I didn't see any of that in Inverness.'

LOL! Of course you didn't. You were there on holiday. I didn't see rife drug-dealing and use when I was on holiday in London, either, all the multiple times I have been there. And the thing is, the areas where it's rife in any place don't have fences round them. The users are free to travel at will and behave in a criminal fashion wherever they are.

Nah, we don't have a problem with drugs, no way

[Rattusn]

expat do you like it where you live?

The difference between London and Inverness would be that we could afford to live in a nice part of Inverness, whereas we live in a very not nice part of London, and will never be able to afford otherwise. I've compared the crime statistics and there is no comparison: there is far far more crime and drug related crime in London than Inverness.

I don't imagine Inverness would be drug free, but I do envision that my dd would not have to walk past a drug den every day on her way to school, not have to frequently cross the road on the school run because it is cordoned off because of yet another stabbing/shooting, and not have to see regular drug/drink related violence on our doorstep. It really is the pits here, I could go on. The police have no control whatsoever.

Inverness wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a lot better.

If I won the lottery, and had the millions it would cost for a family house in a nice area, and private school I wouldn't be contemplating this move, but as a lowly paid public sector worker it will never happen.