Moving to the isle of wight?

[Pajamadrama]

hi! am posting here for traffic.... We live in Leighton Buzzard and are thinking or relocating to the isle of wight - have 2 children ages 9 and 3 and we are both in our early 40's. Hubby has a job 99% lined up we just need to actually be living there. Has anyone on here done this? would we be crazy moving from somewhere that has everything on our doorstep and leaving behind friends and family etc.
Would love to hear any stories/opinions good or bad? Thanks!

Watching this thread with interest. Lots of stuff about bad schools but isn’t there a very good independent school in Ryde?

To balance. We are here at moment - so off season.
Some places are closed but we’ve eaten plenty in really nice places. Had a fabulous meal in the Royal (possibly the best puddings and seafood in the U.K.), had a double G&T and a double brandy for £6, eaten fresh local crab baguettes looking at the sea in Shanklin and had a half price Italian using a Price is Wight voucher. We also had bacon sandwiches whilst watching a morning of folk and Morris dancing on the esplanade before buying fish directly off the boat for supper. Some places are closed but definitely not all.
Schools are mixed. Not all are rubbish. Cowes sends children to Oxbridge, to medicine and to other RG. As does Christ the King. They do serve a very mixed intake but results are improving year on year for Cowes. A third of A levels were A*/B. Plus very good links with UKSA, if your children want to sail.
Public transport is very good. Buses are regular and reasonably priced.
Ferries aren’t cheap for cars but there are foot passenger rates and the fastcats for both Wightlink and Red Funnel connect to London bound trains. My husband and I have both commuted to London from here for the odd meeting. Ryde to London Waterloo is easy. The fastcat takes you almost into Gunwharf if you want more shops. The hovercraft takes you into Southsea.
Supermarkets are fine. I usually do an online Tesco order before I get here. There is a big Tesco at Ryde. Newport has a large Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s. I think there’s a big Morrison’s near Shanklin too.
Newport also has an M&S foodhall and West Cowes has a stand alone M&Sfood store. East Cowes has a Waitrose. There are also Aldi and Lidl’s and plenty of sizeable co-ops. There isn’t a supermarket on every corner but then who would want that?

I absolutely love the Island, my gran lived there and now my DPs do, but everything PP have said - no jobs, bad schools. My DPs moved there after they retired. And it does cost a fortune to get there and back on the ferry. You do get residents discounts but it’s still a lot even with that. From our perspective, going to visit them is a mission. We live about an hour and a half from Lymington, but by the time you’ve added the waiting around for the ferry and sailing time it’s usually a good 3-3.5 hour journey.

Ryde school is OK. Not the best but not the worst. It does cream off some of the more affluent and this is reflected in the school results making them appear worse than they are. Given a selective intake, it’s surprising that Ryde A levels are so comparable to Cowes.
A fair few travel off island at sixth form to board or go to PGS in Portsmouth or KEVll in Southampton.

I’d suggest living somewhere on the mainland eg Southampton/Portsmouth. Everything is so limited on the island. Mental health services are rock bottom, you’d have to go to Southampton general for most physical health issues too.

Re: schools - Christ The King had a terrible Ofsted report last June: reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/135552 not sure how it's doing now.

I live in Hampshire and would happily move to the Isle of Wight if they built a tunnel to the mainland!

@CherryPavlova I’ve just checked and Ryde School has excellent results in 2018. Not just good. 90% of their Alevel results were grades A-C and they’ve got kids going off to Oxford and studying medicine. Their GCSEs had a 79% A-C pass rate too. Looks better than OK?

The Hospital is an issue. The trust is complicated because it provides many services on the island. There are some aspects of hospital care that are poor - but not much worse than many coastal hospitals (East Kent and Medway have worse services) .
Some services are not commissioned on the island. There is general paediatrics but no specialist children’s services (same as most general hospitals). I would insist on my child going to the mainland if they ever needed surgery; the general adult surgeons don’t operate on sufficient numbers to properly maintain their skills. Critical care, however, is quite good. Maternity is OK. It’s a mixed picture.

Somebody suggested Norfolk instead but isn’t it actually easier/quicker to get to the mainland from the island than it is trying to get to London from Norfolk? I’ve been to Norfolk lots. It’s very flat and it seemed to take hours to get out of there!

AceOfSpades123 . Ryde is independent and it would be a bit of a worry if they didn’t send pupils from a selective intake off to Oxbridge and RG.
I don’t think 79% achieving 5A*-Cs is impressive at all. My children’s comprehensive beat that year on year. I’d be very, very disappointed if I’d paid school fees all the way through from point of selection for them to come out with fewer than 5GCSE passes.

I’d be expecting about 98 % with 5GCSE passes.

My parents live there. Healthcare has been poor, my dad has been having to travel to Southampton for treatment. People rarely visit them as the ferry is expensive, and takes lots of time - have to be there 30 mins before. Boat is always packed in peak times. I think they regret it, house prices are cheap (for a reason). It's nice for a holiday, but in bad weather in winter there is little to do.

We moved over here a few years ago, but we moved from a very rural area so it wasn’t a massive change.
It took us a while to get used to the feeling of needing a ferry to get off the island and having to fit in with their timetables. My dh still feels very claustrophobic at times.
I think we have all the major supermarkets here now: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s, Asda, Waitrose, M&S food hall, Aldi, Lidl.
Schools worried us before our move. The independent school in Ryde is very good. In the state sector Ryde academy has an excellent Head teacher and has improved a lot, a lot of people I know are very happy with it. Also in Ventnor the island free school is very highly regarded.
From where we were living before I actually find it a lot easier to go and do things, I can be up in Waterloo on the fastcat and train by 9ish if I need to be. Plus Southampton and Portsmouth both have a lot going on.
The hospital is serving a small population so can’t offer a full range of specialist services. It’s worth bearing in mind that for a lot of specialist services you’d have to travel.
There are a number of Facebook groups set up to support new / prospective islanders. Two which I found helpful were Isle of Wight newbies and Isle of Wight overners.
People said to us that if we got through the first winter we’d be fine, and it does shut down a lot in winter and feel quite different to the sunny beach summer time.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

dh and me are moving to the island in early 2021 having visited for holidays through various seasons of the year, so we think we have a good idea of what's what. we don't drive but travel is quite straight forward for us so i don't get the fuss about travel, i would have thought car would have be easily more simple although more expensive.
there is more than enough supermarkets and choice of shops, and as for pubs closing in the winter,wouldn't they go out of business ?
we are retiring early and dh only wants to work a few hours a week so it suits us. we love the island life style and would move tomorrow if we could,
we are lucky as we are mortgage free so anyone on here selling up a two bed wanting to buy a three bed in the south east get in touch !

tombero, 'get through the first winter we'd be fine sorry but i had to laugh at that with dh, he said it sounds like you are living in a log cabin, 200 miles from the nearest hardware store / supply shop, will need many bear traps and huge pile of logs to get through the harsh isle of wight winter.

We've been pretty much every month of the year and although, yes the atmosphere is different off season, there's still plenty to do and the island is still lovely. As a PP said, all the supermarkets are there now that the big Asda has opened. Proper shopping you'd have to go to the mainland but with online shopping so big these days it's not the issue it once was. My dds are settled in excellent schools here so that's the only reason we're not moving to the island now. We're based in Ventnor over there and the schools are ok but not good enough for us to move yet.

We're heading back over next week and we can't wait!

Positives:

House prices are quite cheap, that's definitely a plus if you are selling a house in a more expensive area. If you have a decent budget you can get a massive house, probably with amazing views

Winter is a great time in that it's quiet, not as many things are shut as people are saying, you can still go to the pub!

The scenery is beautiful, a good variety as well in that there are countryside bits as well as coastal. If you love walking its absolutely perfect, there are some countryside walks on the downs with breathtaking views across the island, that are almost never busy. The beaches are great too!

Because it's touristy, there's lots of things to do in the summer, events and fetes and festivals etc.

Generally crime and such seems lower than parts of the mainland, although there are the usual issues that everywhere has

Negatives:

It's a real pain getting back across to the mainland, and expensive. Having to sit an hour on the car ferry and sometimes pay hundreds of pounds for a return ticket is annoying.

The roads can be awful, lots of potholes. In summer they get clogged up and it can take hours to get from one side to the other even though it is a short journey in miles. All drivers seem to either be old and going about 30mph, or young and speeding/dangerously overtaking said old people.

Everyone knows everyone. They will have all grown up together, as did their parents, as did their grandparents.

In summer certain touristy bits will be filled with people, making it a bit of a nightmare trying to go about your daily lives

If you need certain serious medical procedures you will have to go across to Southampton. The main hospital on the island is not performing well, by all accounts

OP, I moved to IoW September last year. My two DS had left home and I moved here not knowing a soul or the county very well.

I can categorically say that it is the BEST thing I have ever, ever done! It's a beautiful place to live, everyone is so very friendly, I've never had such a fulfilling social life, I've made some wonderful friends. Yes, there is that bit of water in the way, but you soon forget about that when you're here.

It's a wonderful way of life, my heart sinks everytime I get off the ferry in Portsmouth to visit family, I love it here.

DO IT! As the advert says!!

Forgot to add:

Positive:

The local food, either farm shop/organic or seafood. There are so many Isle of Wight products and foods (organic etc), and some are really nice. You could just shop at farm shops if you had the money, and it would be great. Some great restaurants on the back of this, especially seafood.

Negative:

If you live in the deep rural bits you really need a car. Buses can be irregular and expensive, depending on where you are. The train line is really good and cheap but doesn't go across the whole island any more (sadly)

We went on holiday there once. It was the most boring place we have ever been.

A quick PS...I live in Newport and my local surgery is fantastic. I'm also using MH services who are also fantastic.

It was the most boring place we have ever been.

I wouldn’t say it was the most boring places I’ve been, but it just seemed like a giant retirement village to me. The parts I saw just seemed like a general touristy place for Very British People. They actually sold gollywog memorabilia in one shop near Ryde pier, it was all a bit embarrassing and set 50 years ago. A bit like Rhyl before the place was forgotten and left to disaster. I only visited as a tourist though, and that was a couple of years ago. From what I saw, it was all a bit boring, the beaches were nothing to write home about and I personally wouldn’t want to be so close yet so far removed from anywhere I needed to go. I would have hated growing up there I’m sure, and that’s coming from someone who grew up in a ‘seasonal’ part of the UK.

We went on holiday there once. It was the most boring place we have ever been.

With all due respect, what were you expecting? The IOW has never been known as party capital of the UK with loads going on?

I love it there – going again next week. But I go there to rest and chill out more than anything – and it’s perfect for that. Not sure I could live there unless I was about to retire though

loobyloo1234, I know you were replying to another poster but

With all due respect, what were you expecting? The IOW has never been known as party capital of the UK with loads going on?

I like quieter places, somewhere like Blackpool or a city break wouldn’t appeal to me so much. The IoW is not as nice as other places in the UK that can offer similar though, it’s just lacking in something. Even the quietest of places can have vibrancy, the IoW just seems boring and old. Again, that’s speaking as a visitor though, obviously some have found something special to it otherwise it wouldn’t be so popular! I’ll be keep to Cornwall and the south west though.

We live on the Island very happily. Much prefer it to our Island homes. Admittedly dh works on the mainland, as his field is quite niche. So if he needs to commute then consider that when looking at parts of the island to live on. We genuinely don't find it much quieter, or backward or however else people describe it. Yes, there aren't as many shops etc but hey ho. We have only had positive experiences with the local hospital, and our kids go to a brilliant primary. At secondary the choices are more limited, but our local high school is on the up and if we don't like it when the time comes we'll consider private. 🤷