To kiss out dream of country living goodbye because of lack of schools?

[mmmflakycrust81]

I grew up in an idyllic village, very 'Darling Buds of May'. I have lived in London pretty much since my 20s, and always dreamed of moving back to raise my own family there.

I had started looking up properties in one of the larger villages in the area I grew up in (still has a train connection to London) and joined a local FB group to get an idea of what was going on. I saw a post today that stated the local primary school had 120 applicants for two 30 form classes from the village alone, let alone the neighbouring smaller villages which had no school. Children were therefore being placed at larger schools 15 or so miles away.

I can't see how we would be able to make that work, especially as I am unable to drive. I always imagined that we would be able to walk to school during the work day.

Is this going to be the case for most areas now? Complete lack of infrastructure development, especially while they build new and much-needed housing on the outskirts of these areas?

I feel like we are going to have to stay in London for that reason - there are at least 6 schools local to where we are, but I really wanted to get DD out of the city.

Is there a solution here that I am missing? Or is it a case of tough luck?

I think you will have to think about a town instead of a village. I think the reasons are ones that always would have been there, and factors such as others moving into the area because of the choice of hybrid working or wfh are not the main ones difficult for you.

I also remember the limitations for those at school when I was growing up who lived rurally, and I'd expect they are even more now.

Take driving lessons.I passed 2 yrs ago age 41 and its amazing

Can you look at other areas? We live in a village and our small village school has places. We are commutable to London as well.

Just wait for a property to come up right next to the school

OP has visual problems.

I need to rename the thread 'Kiss goodbye to the rural dream because I cannot drive.....'

Not necessarily, but you need to do your research very well. Investigate both school transport (we have a primary school bus that all the village kids use from reception age) and public transport. Regular buses into town do still exist in some places - when we moved rurally we only looked at villages on a popular, 'main' bus route that ran between the two main towns in the area. They stop at 8pm, but they are mostly hourly during the day and because it's a main route it's less likely to be cut. Some councils have implemented 'ring and ride' type arrangements that everyone can use. Some villages have train lines. It's a lot of 'finding stuff out' but it could help you narrow down options to ones that are actually viable. We chose the last village before the town, so it's easy for the driver to nip to the nearest corner shop and be back home in 15-20 mins if needed, even though we are totally surrounded by countryside and sheep!

I'll caveat all that by saying that at secondary age it can become restricting for the kids and exhausting for the driver. We have just had a few years of ferrying 3 teens around; extra curricular activities were 1-3 hours driving, seven days a week (school journeys were extra). But it was me and DH who wanted to live rurally, not the DCs and we knew what we were signing up for. The payoff of living somewhere lovely was worth that few years, and 2 out of 3 DCs actually preferred being rural anyway. The one that wanted to be more central was motivated to pass his driving test asap. So I would say don't necessarily give up on your dream, but just think very carefully about the location you choose and investigate everything (e.g. online shopping, takeaways that deliver, village clubs/societies that meet), as well as transport.

We are in a small village in NE England. There doesn't seem to be an issue with school places - some village schools are undersubscribed. Perhaps it depends on the area.

I moved from London to a tiny rural village in the South East. You will definitely need a car.
We love where we live but it took me ages to settle. Born, grew up and worked in London. Very different from city life but a good life. Have very good schools around us and local primary isn't over subscribed. Not yet anyway but we have had more housing built on the edge of our village so it will be in the future.
My DC were babies when we moved and now teenagers. My DS's love it here but my DD is bored. She is 16 and I have a feeling when she gets the first chance she will move somewhere with a bit of life. Maybe uni, work. We do plenty with her and she has a little job which she loves but she reminds me of me where my DS's are very much like my DH. You will need a car for after school club, getting around from A to B. Maybe a small town will suit you better. Good luck with it all.

In my beautiful village (also with a station to London) the school is actively trying to get more foundation level kids on the roll, and the one in the next village is the same. It could be that of those applications many people lived quite far away, so all of the kids within the village would have been accepted. Plus if you lived close enough (depending on the admissions criteria) you’d get a place over those further away anyway. Worst case scenario, if you were placed far away you’d be likely to get a bus if the walk is over a mile.

I do think that one of you probably needs to be able to drive though.

I agree with this. It would be very difficult living where we do if we couldn't drive. The shops and school are within walking distance (3 miles away) but there's no footpath so it would either mean walking along the edge of a busy road or making a detour along bridleways through the woods (which are impassably muddy throughout the winter.

The problem is usually the opposite. Lots of village schools are closing because the villages are populated by old people and there aren't enough kids to justify a school.

I live in rural Wales without a car. Tiny town(smaller than many villages), school has plenty of spaces. Public transport not great but doable. Only has a population of just over 2,000 but has a lot of facilities for its size, because it really is the middle of nowhere.

This is a big issue in our village. The local school had 13 places and 19 children applied just from the village itself. The child who got the final place lives 0.25 miles from the school. We'd not have got a place despite being a 5 minute walk.

There aren't any other options that don't involve driving.

I live very rural lying. There is a primary school.in the village (105 children), another 3 miles away (22 children ... yes, really) and 2 others about 8 miles away in different directions. Secondary schools are 8 - 15 miles away and there are school buses.

It refuses to let me write the word rurally.

Ah ... it has relented!

I’m rural. Kids go to school 8 miles away. There is one technically closer but it’s not our catchment school. Council provides transport by minibus. It’s actually quite handy as it extends my wfh day from 8:15 -4pm. Make friends with parents of the other children on the bus route. I appreciate you don’t drive but You could get someone else’s kids off the bus and have them for a play date in exchange for them taking your child along to an after school activity once a week.

Our doctors is fab but is very firm about not letting anyone out of area register. There are places you can make it work but you’d really need to do your research.

It’s horrendous here in Devon. Mass development everywhere and no infrastructure to support it. If you think the primary school issue is bad, the secondary school issue is a while other world.
we had a leaflet the in may (before this got spell) telling us the reservoirs were only a third full. Telling us to save water etc.
But all these houses have been build on flood planes and no new reservoir. There is a new town that will eventually be the size of Milton Keynes. With a primary and a secondary school. No hospital.
And no one wants to use the new schools due to issues with problem behaviour, so now the original schools near us are are over populated and we’ve lost any choice of school. Just stuck with the awful one. I appreciate lots of people wants to move to Devon. But 100k extra people need more than one primary and one secondary school.

Just to give you a different perspective… I can’t speak from the POV of having kids and concerns re schooling as I don’t have kids, but I grew up in a midlands market town. It’s very picturesque, you can walk into the countryside, but it has walkable schools (and others accessible by regular buses), a direct, albeit expensive, train line to London, and enough of a bus service into the nearest city.

I HATED growing up there with a passion. I was born there, but my parents lived in London before I was born and I used to listen to their tales of exciting London life, and feel so jealous of their friends’ kids who’d grown up in London because their parents stayed there. I used to actually shout at my parents as a teenager that I wish they’d raised me in London.

It was so boring and homogenous. Everyone was straight and white and average and any kind of difference or creativity was looked upon with suspicion and mocked. There was nothing to do as a teenager beyond get drunk or stoned in fields and bus stops. Buses into the city stopped too early to go to the cinema or bowling there. There was a big drink and drug problem even among the most well heeled kids because there just wasn’t any other form of entertainment. Many kids learnt to drive as soon as they were 17 but I couldn’t pass my test no matter how many times I tried (turns out I have ADHD) and only one of my parents drove (and would refuse to give me lifts much of the time) which really limited my social life.

I moved to a city as soon as I turned 18 and I’m now 10 years into living in London and if I was going to have kids I’d raise them there without a doubt. I wouldn’t subject them to the boredom, small mindedness and homogeny I grew up with. You honestly couldn’t pay me to leave London and I still wish I’d grown up here.

Being a teen in a village with a non-driving parent is not going to be fun for your DD, or your partner.

How about the edge of a country town?

public transport in rural areas has got worse over the past 25 years. its just assumed that you have a car and that you can drive. we cant even get milk or bread without driving as the nearest shop is 20 minute walk down narrow country lanes with no footpaths or lighting of any sort. Being brutally honest, I really dont think you can live in the countryside without a car unless you have bags of money for taxis. instead choose a small town so that day to day living is catered for. then on your days off you have the time to seek out and use public transport when you dont have to be on time for anything. the govt promises constantly to rural proof all of its decisions and that it understands rural living. it doesnt. it thinks rural living is barnet or putney. drives me nuts.

Not all villages have no transport, where we live buses go through villages on their routes to bigger towns

@WhatNoRaisins I don't drive for all kinds of reasons but my H does- we don't choose ever to live rurally though for that very reason- I live in a very nice leafy area on edge of nice countryside but on university bus route (ie very frequent) - and6 minutes into town

@mmmflakycrust81 there are plenty of villages that need students and aren't oversubscribed! I know they can be hard to find, but they are there!

If you are more than a certai distance from a school and they allocate it to you then they will provide transport. So getting to school wouldn’t be an issue. I live in North Yorkshire and most village schools are undersubscribed. I think it’s quite unusual for rural schools to be full so definitely just a problem where you are looking