To even consider buying a beautiful house on the same road as a school?

[GinDaddy]

Just that, really -

Have seen a gorgeous house become available; period, driveway (with marked “no parking” white lines from council) , right amount of bedrooms, short walking distance to town which is important to my other half.

The only snag? It’s four doors down from a local primary school, on the other side of the road.

We’ve been looking for this kind of house in the catchment for over two years now. Both of us keep wondering, “will my driveway be parked over (or even on?!), will I be blocked in constantly, will unreasonable behaviour be a daily occurence”?

But the past few years there are daily meetings of some sort or another in the evenings, so the parking chaos is no longer restricted to school times...

Very good point. We do get tons of noise around 9pm when there are evening meetings or whatever it is that they do (it's always grown ups yelling good night to each other).

I would because you remove the school run pain and should more or less guarantee getting in! We live about 50 yards from a primary school. Not having to drive is fab. If dropping off there before going on to work you miss the worst times for traffic anyway. Close is also good with primary age child - 3 minutes at a dawdle does limit stress a lot!

I have lived opposite a primary school for years on a dead end road with no problems, i do know the owner directly next to the school had problems with people parking across her drive, waiting for their child to come out. But that was quickly resolved when the school sent out a letter to parents and placed signs around not to park.

Can be abit manic at 9am and 3.10, but settles within 20 minutes so i would not let it put me off, like PP have said, i would go down and have a nosey first.

Check at lunchtime too to get a sense of how noisy it is and whether or not the children sit on your wall

I lived next door to the main entrance of a primary school for two years. The house was set back from the (main) road, with space for 2-3 cars. People would park either between the grass verges on the bit of pavement approaching our drive, park across our drive or (in a couple of instances) actually park right outside the house.

It used to piss me off quite a bit (depending on my mood!), but the house was great, in a perfect location for our requirements and so the downside outweighed the bad. I work from home and didn't mind hearing the children in the playground during the day, and there was the bonus that 13 weeks a year it was really quiet!

Depends on your lifestyle - if you need to be able to get on and off your drive between 8.45 and 9.15, and 3.00 and 3.30 every week day, then it's probably not for you. If you're more flexible, then well worth pursuing!

My friends moved from a house due to the parking issue around a private school. Several houses were bought and over the years turned into a school. They used to have different break times and there was double parking, evening events etc. My friends used on street parking

So I think I would explore the activities of the school, the parking restrictions, if there were evening classes etc.

I'd invest in some traffic cones to place on the end of my drive!

Or put garden chairs out there, that's what people around here do. It's v. classy.

Seriously, though, if you don't mind a bit of noise, go for it.

Does the school have wrap around care? Ours does (large primary with 3 form entry, that is 700+ children when you add in nursery) so it starts at 7.30am with cars arriving for the before school club.

The wrap around care becomes full time day care in the holidays so there is always noise from balls, children screaming etc.

Sports day/summer fete etc are loud with a mic and speaker on the field. The noise carries.

Parking for staff overflows onto the road because the car park isn't big enough so people struggle to reverse off their drives if there are cars opposite their driveways, or have limited visibility too if the cars are parked either side of the dropped kerb.

I wouldn't do it.

I would if I didn't have to use my driveway between the morning drop offs and afternoon pick ups. You could always just park on the road across your own driveway lol that would stop anyone blocking you in. If it was my dream house I don't think it would put me off.

We’re the first house on the road up from a primary school (though the school itself is set back from the road behind a small block of flats which has its own parking) - it gets a little busy in the morning around 0800-0830, lunch at about 12-1230 and again at pick up after 1500. Honestly, even at these times it’s really not a disaster. We have a drive and we’re careful to back on to it so we don’t have to reverse off, but apart from that there’s not been any major inconvenience. Have had the odd occasion when the dropped kerb has been partially blocked, but parents very reasonable after a polite word, and no one who parks there for the whole day (teachers etc) goes anywhere near. Have never been blocked in or out.

The upside is that outside of school time we have ABSOLUTELY nothing parked outside the house - and there are so many holidays.

Don’t really give it much thought now.

I lived opposite a school for a short while.
I was leaving earlier than drop off and arriving after pick-up so it wasn't too much of an issue.
The issue came when the school has something on in the evening.
As long as you are prepared for it then you should be fine.
Even if I was there during drop off etc.. they respected the resident bays and didn't park in our car park.

I'd definitely visit during school hours to check, as others say.

I live right next door to a school, and I love it. Yes, people park all alongside the house, but only for an absolute maximum of 30 minutes at drop-off and again at pick-up. I've occasionally had to ask someone to move when they blocked the drive, but TBF the house was standing empty for quite a while before we moved in, so I can see how people might have got into that habit. Nowadays most people leave us 'our' space by the front door free.

I think it would depend how big the school is. I grew up living opposite a primary school and we never had trouble with people blocking the drive. Yes it was busy at pick up and drop off but not gridlocked.

This was a village primary with only 180 pupils though (a lot of whom lived in the village).

I had the same concerns when we looked at renting the house we are currently in. There is 2 primary schools - one opposite the house & one just across the road.

We never hear any noise from either school, cars never cause an issue either. There's a small rush of walking parents twice a day but they all come & go within 5/10 mins.

I'd do what PP have suggested & visit at school times / lunch hour & judge for yourself.

My parents live near a primary school... The same primary school my sister and went to.

SO MANY more parents drive their fat lazy little shites to school from the local estates than they did then....

And park wherever they like ….. at all times of the day and early evening..... nightmare

Go look at drop off/pick up.

And then see if you can use the inconvenience of 2x15 minutes a day (in term time!) to negotiate on the selling price?

We live almost as close to my DD’s school - I’m always flying by the seat of my pants time-wise so short distance is lovely and it’s a popular school with a small catchment, so it means that all her classmates live relatively nearby too. Great for her social life, and my parent-to-parent support network.
I don’t mind the playground noise, but I can imagine it’s less charming to a non-parent or someone who works night shifts.

Does the drive have gates to stop CF parking on your drive?

There was a brilliant thread a while ago where some CF had parked on the OP drive, or they had blocked the drive so OP couldn't get in, so they blocked them in and hid in the house. Even the neighbour got involved by pretending that the OP had gone away for a few days.

The CF husband came round later that night to try and get the car.

I lived next to a school once in a very nice part of Surrey. Loud shrieks and screams during play times and after school clubs and a huge amount of rubbish was thrown over our hedge every day by the children.

I even found parents in my back garden looking to retrieve items of clothing that their little darlings had thrown over.

Never again.

I stay just down from a primary school. At drop off times the street is full of cars. I've never had my driveway blocked though. The parking chaos is literally 20 mins every day. I've never had any other issues either

I've lived close enough to hear all the playground noise and I loved it, it was joyful hearing all that fun.

"daily" = 190 days of the year... worth bearing in mind that even the worst behaviours aren't constant once you take into account weekends and holiday and in-service days!

we lived beside a primary school for 6 years and have lived beside the secondary for 10 years. primary was worse for inconsiderate parking/folk stopping in the street to drop off, etc; secondary worse for "youths" hanging about, dropping litter, etc. neither that bad and what you really need to consider is how frequently it could inconvenience you and the extent to which it really bothers you. I did let myself get a bit wound up at times and then realised that actually none of the stuff bothering me was that big a deal!

I live on a road with four schools (staggered start and end times.) The traffic is a nightmare but I have never had anyone park on or across my drive tbf. It depends when you are home/at work I think as to how much it would affect you.

I used to live close to a primary school, I really like being able to hear the kids playing outside... but would you like that too? They do tend to squeal at that age! Also if you do shift work that noise may keep you awake.

Be realistic about the fact that you are bound to have parking issues.. if you're fairly laid back and wouldn't be too fussed then yes, def go for it!

Reading the contrasting replies is hilarious!

People who’ve never lived near a school “Oh it’ll be fine, it’s only 15 mins twice a day, won’t be that bad” etc.

Anyone who has actually lived near a school “DON’T DO IT”.

As someone who lived on the same road as a small primary school a few years ago I can honestly say DON’T DO IT!!!

I had people parking ON my drive about once a month (honestly, I was agog). Daily I had people parking over my drive and blocking me in (despite it clearly being a drive and having a yellow line over it), and parents arguing with me about me needing my drive! The list goes on.

And it’s not 15 mins twice a day as many primary’s have staggered drop off/pick up between infants and junior school or their kids are at clubs/after school care so it is still hard for them to park.

It actually used to make me feel ill if I knew I had to leave the house within an hour of drop/collection time as I knew there was a chance I’d get blocked or have to confront someone and ask them to move. I was always polite, but some of the parents were just so awful.

I’ll never, ever, ever move near a school again, the same as anyone else who has actually lived near one!