To ask is there a better version of Brighton

[Wondergirl100]

Sorry a bit cheeky to put on AIBU - but - it's an important question!!

Brighton - great vibes, creativity, open mindedness good schools - but overpriced and the countryside isn't amazing and there are no gardens.

So what is the alternative! Where else is open minded and fun and has sea air and countryside but is not ruined by hen dos and property prices. And needs to have good schools.

Sadly, I have to write off the whole of Kent as I don't approve of grammar system. Unless there is somewhere in Kent with good secondary moderns.

Come and live in Hampshire, Winchester is lovely and we have great schools none of which are grammars, easy access to the New Forest and the coast, fast train to London

@BlackInk

Not seaside but how about Stroud in Gloucestershire? Beautiful countryside, strong hippy/alternative vibe, great music and arts scene, lovely independent shops and cafes... Or Totnes in Devon – much the same but with the sea nearby!

I agree with this about Stroud. The surrounding countryside is amazingly beautiful. It has grammar schools but not an exclusively grammar system so there are comprehensives also.

I agree about Brighton council being an absolute disgrace. They've let Madiera Terrace go to absolute ruin - take a walk from the Pier along to the Marina and see the shitshow for yourself.

Totnes is more alternative than ‘open minded’. However neighbouring areas in the South Hams are neither. I think Exeter in Devon would fit the brief better. A university city, next to the M5, ten minutes from the sea and about 15 from Dartmoor. Exeter, unlike a lot of Devon, doesn’t have a grammar school and does have some good secondaries, though a minority of parents choose to send their DCs to grammars further away like Torquay and Colyton.

It used to be said that grammar schools took the "top 25%" and the rest of the kids went to the comprehensive (and schools with other labels).
This isn't the case in Kent because not everyone takes the 11+, it's optional. A lot of parents decide not to put their children in for the 11+ because they know that there are some excellent secondary schools in the area.
Just saying...

[quote Wondergirl100]@MrsSprogett you are indeed automatically affected by the grammar system if you live in a grammar area as it directly impacts the nature of non-grammar schools.[/quote]
You say this but unless you are in East London you will be in a borough with between 20-50% in private schooling.

Which is comparable to the proportion in grammar schools in Kent (28%).

No-one says that London comprehensives aren’t fully comprehensive.

@MaxNormal

I agree about Brighton council being an absolute disgrace. They've let Madiera Terrace go to absolute ruin - take a walk from the Pier along to the Marina and see the shitshow for yourself.

There s a,restoration project under way www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/madeira-terrace-restoration

And for Blackrock new pool
www.theargus.co.uk/news/18511967.black-rock-plan-brighton-seafront-approved/

@AnyFucker

Morecambe

😂😂😂

Which is good but way overdue, there would have been much less damage to restore if they'd not just sat back and let it crumble for years.

I have grown up in Brighton and spent most of my adult life here (well, 10 years in London and six years in Lewes but have felt close to Bton as folks remain here). I think you take the good with the bad - if there was an alternative that gives you everything you ask for it would also be crowded and expensive! I am thinking about a move towards Rottingdean or Saltdean but think the secondary school situation wouldn't be any better.
I suppose local alternatives include Worthing and Eastbourne. Further flung alternatives include Exeter, Falmouth, Cambridge (no sea but river and great cycling), Edinburgh... maybe Cardiff? (Probably others I don't know to recommend.)

Hastings is the new Brighton for those in the know ....

Hastings is an utter shithole.

Bollocks. Cromer is the new Brighton.

@Lapun

I wish people who hated Grammar schools knew anything about them. They were the one chance that clever working class children could get the best education without being seen as odd. I am 86 and sat the scholarship exam and entered Liverpool School For Girls in the first intake of Scholarship girls in 1945. Many years later I gained an MSc at LSE. I am proud of my grammar school education and some of those politicians who criticised them managed to achieve a good education purely by going to one themselves! Roy Hattersley for one.

Maybe the OP should be more open minded as she seems rather poor at geography. I knew that Tunbridge Wells is in Kent. But she didn’t!
Maybe her children could benefit from grammar school education!

Things are very different now though and grammars are no longer about social mobility; it's generally not bright working class children who get into grammars, but mainly middle-class children, whose parents can afford to have pretty average children tutored to pass the exam, so it is no longer the route out of poverty that it was seventy years ago. It's not bright kids that those who object to the grammar system are concerned about, and many of them will have children who probably would get into them. It's the kids who 'fail' at 11 who are consigned to inferior schools, with fewer opportunities that are the losers in that system, and those that insist on calling those schools comprehensives are wrong, because when all the most able have been creamed off, you do not have a comprehensive intake. It is perfectly possible to educate our most able within the same school as less able children, and for them to achieve excellent results and go to top universities, because this happens all of the time in good, true comprehensives. This system also allows for children who are late-bloomers, rather than writing them off at 11.

Grammars are decisive and a middle class sop, allowing the slightly less rich to purchase privilege at the cost of the majority. The problem is not necessarily with those fortunate enough to achieve a coveted place; it’s about the disadvantage of those not offered a place. They limit social mobility and create a two class education system.
They offer, in general, worse results than fully comprehensive areas.

Winchester is very nice

OP I don't think anyone has suggested Hurstpierpoint north of Brighton. Has an arty vibe and close to countryside and to Brighton for the beach.

A bit of leftfield but what about Cheltenham. No beach but lovely countryside, good size to have nice amenities but still a villagey feel, right in the Cotswolds but close to Bristol for city life, good schools, gorgeous georgian architecture and regularly listed as a top place to live in the UK. Trains are 2 hours to London so not insane - a lot of people live there and do London 3 days/week.

I do find it depressing that so many people seem to want to live in cool places with a relaxed arty feel and yet so many UK places feel quite boring and conservative. Why is that and why are those people dominating the feel of our towns/where we live?

Most urban seaside places have tiny outside spaces. I'm not sure what you're asking for exists in England.

@LemonRoses

Grammars are decisive and a middle class sop, allowing the slightly less rich to purchase privilege at the cost of the majority. The problem is not necessarily with those fortunate enough to achieve a coveted place; it’s about the disadvantage of those not offered a place. They limit social mobility and create a two class education system. They offer, in general, worse results than fully comprehensive areas.

That’s hilarious, the students at my school are in no way ‘slightly less rich’. Parents are in £2-3m houses.

lewes is perfect, in parts,

I considered the move to Brighton and realised it was a s-hole after a friend moved there for work. Now looking at Dorking area, Worthing and also Kent. Would love to move to Yorkshire (or Devon) but current work situation won't allow that for many years yet.

London is London. If you want to leave the city, you'll have to get used to a different pace of life and a different community.

Frome has wacky 'out-there' vibes. It seems like everyone smokes cannabis though, old and young.

I don't like Brighton either but I would take you to task on the countryside. South Downs are beautiful!!

Brighton is the most disappointing place I've ever visited.