Hi there. I’m really interested in your comments. We live in an area of SE London, which has a fantastic community feel and we are friends with lots of the parents our kids hang around with. In addition, as we’ve been in London for 20 yrs we have lots of friends who have become our family. Our DS (8&10) are in an excellent school and I can walk to work. Our life is pretty nice but we are very busy and broke all the time. We have no savings for the future. We do own a house and would hopefully make £130000 profit from the sale. We are seriously considering a move back to Belfast to be close to family and for a slower pace of life. Our DC are not used to exam based academia and had many years of learning through play. They don’t really do any homework. We’ll take them to a museum or gallery based on their current topic.
I think our eldest might struggle with arriving back and being thrown straight into exam prep. Can I ask your advice about primary and secondary schools? Do our kids need to get into a Gramnar? They are both very bright but if there are good secondary schools I think we’d boycott the exam process. We are considering Ballyhackamore, Newtonbreda Finaghy. Is there any info. on catchment areas or feeder schools? Thanks in advance.