Moving area 7 miles away. Change or stay at current school?

[User291997]

Just looking for opinions really. My DD is 4 and has attended primary school since September. She loves it there, has made friends and has settled in well. I’ve been offered a council property and it’s 7 miles away from her current school. I do drive and work part time. The primary school near the new house has an inadequate rating with Ofsted and I do worry about moving her and how she would cope with the change. What would you do?

I’d keep where she is if you and she are happy for now anyway. You’d want to keep her there until July anyway.

How long ago was the local school rated Inadequate? There is generally a lot of funding and work put into schools like this as the improvements must be made. When you’ve moved you can visit the school, ask when they expect their next inspection will be and have they made the improvements, also talk to other parents about their view of the school.

You can judge then whether to move DC for Yr1.

Is there a decent secondary school feeding from local school? Another thing to think about in future is will all her schoolmates at current school be going to a secondary school that she may not get into due to catchment? 7 miles is quite a distance in our area with the amount of secondaries we have (4 in a 5 mile radius) but as you said it’s rural so there may be only one secondary serving both primary schools?

I would definitely move closer to home if school is OK as distance could be an issue with out of school socialisation when they get into Yr4-6 and I’d prefer DC to have friends in local area for school holidays.

This ^^

Normally id say move her, but i wouldnt deliberately move my child to an inadequate school.

I'd go and look round the nearest school, and, if there is one, 2nd nearest.

I don't put much value on OFSTED one word judgements.

You've got 6 years of doing this (not counting those times when you might have to go back for concerts / parents evenings / trips and so forth.
She will be growing up miles away from her school friends. That is important not only for her friendships, but also for you for lift shares etc. or for helping each other out should you ever need support.
What will you do when the car is in the garage ? Even just for it's MOT. Or (lets hope it doesn't happen) but if it is stolen, or written off ? Or when it is icy or snowy ?

Then what about at secondary transfer ?

I think living close to your Primary school is a massive plus, and would give it weighting above lots of other factors.
At 4 she will integrate into the new class easily - it would be different if she were in Yr 6.

Leave her where she is. I live 9 miles from my kids primary as we moved last year but moving schools would be unnecessary

@NewName24 all very valid points. What I would say in mitigation, having done all the school years from the get go, is that when you live rurally, you plan, none of those things are an issue.

So often on MN I read all about café culture and 'the corner shop' as though that's the norm. For a lot of people who live rurally, like me, the nearest shop is a five mile drive away and there's no public transport, so we deal with all these kind of things all the time.

Will she be able to go to the same high school as the friends she has made if she is 7 miles away? If not, move her now. It so, keep her there.

DD just moved to high school this year and her friends made the transition easier. Others didn't have friends and it made a big change much worse.

Fair points @martinisforeveryone , but, as the OP said she might be moving 7 miles and that 'the Primary school near the new house .....' so I am assuming that she isn't in a rural situation where one school covers every child in a 10, 15, 0r 30 mile radius in her particular case.

Yes @NewName24 that’s my understanding too.

Just to be clear, in our case, existing school more or less six miles away in a village with multiple facilities. New house over a mile from different school, but say five from the nearest shop. The nearest school in mileage was actually more or a problem journey wise as it wasn’t enroute to anything else, or with anything else close, except a church. That was without comparing the schools’ suitability or provisions, or breaking up established friendships, routines and so on.

I don’t think that’s necessarily such an unusual situation in more rural areas where the houses can be very spread out and village shops, post offices, pubs etc have disappeared, so you’re travelling anyway and planning carefully if you see what I mean.

DB lives in the countryside, 6 miles from the catchment primary school. Driving 7 miles to school is nothing in a rural area.