To just say F it and move to Cornwall and homeschool my Dc

[Typingonkeyboard]

Or find a lovely little village school and spend our days living a slow, traditional life

It’s my dream

Has anyone got this, am I being realistic?

I live in Cornwall and regularly go both those places in summer. It can be hard to get parked yes but you get to know the easier spots to park, also the quieter beaches as there are so many to choose from.

I prefer Newquay to St Ives in summer, the narrow streets there with everyone crammed in does get a bit much.

Love, love, love Cornwall, but I like it as an escape. I don't know if I'd want it to become everyday to me, and therefore not so special.

I also don't know if I would love the reality of living so dar from major towns and cities. I think, as,with any major lifestyle change, there's a gap between the dream and the reality.

@Bulbsbulbsbulbs when did you last go to Truro? Lakeland went ages ago! As gas Phase 8.

It is still where I’d go shopping though.

How about Scotland?

This sounds like an issue with your school rather than your location.

My DC1 goes to a school with 90 per year and they have been excellent so far and have a very large outside play area.

I would agree with PPs about financial and job issues living on the coast. There is a lack of jobs. My friends live on the coast but one of them has a 2 hour commute to work and the other works from home but is required in the office once a month which is also over 2 hours away.

My DC went to a rural school, the class sizes were still huge but mixed. So only 3 classes for the primary school. Y4,5,6 all together in one class. Poor Teacher was trying to teach three different years all in one room, massive differences in ability and maturity. Y6 were ready for secondary school and the younger ones were still middle of primary school.

Hard to retain good teaching staff, the crap ones stayed forever though. Generally some pretty poor teaching standards and poor funding. Community is tight knit but not to outsiders, they are viewed with suspicion. We weren’t from the village and it felt very unfriendly.

Dont even bother moving to Cornwall unless you have a secure job and Housing.

The whole country is in a housing crisis but Cornwall specifically does not have enough homes for the families that are already here and people coming down and renting out houses at a premium are not helping the situation..

Can you reverse down a lane for half a mile or so? That’s a useful skill.

Wind was so cold one winter you couldn’t go out? Seriously. I seldom wear a coat. Rarely cold down here - just wet so dodge showers.

Yes there is a good home ed community here. However, you need to be prepared to finance that as it is costly to participate in sessions and excursions. Even if you just look at car parking it all adds up.

Obviously, I’m very blessed to live in Cornwall, but there are lots of rural places that are similar you could look at.

I live in a non-coastal town and traffic is a nightmare in the summer. The six weeks summer we don’t really enjoy going out. Certainly hate the supermarkets too then- especially when the tourists congregate in the middle of the aisles deciding what to buy for self catering. Click and collect slots are full. Delivery slots go fast so if I’m disorganised I have to do the shop!

Our hospital is a breaking point and it is a big worry in the summer. GPs advertise to contact your own home GP where possible and chemists have long waits.

There is also huge poverty here which the tourist don’t see. Seasonal work and also lower wages in general. Many food banks and community initiatives do support that and it’s not just the unwaged accessing that.

The huge cost of Housing and the rurality of our county means you need to run a car. Public transport isn’t fantastic.

Many people come to Cornwall and as they start to age find the distance away from family very isolating.

That said I wouldn’t live anywhere else we have fantastic friends of many generations here and Cornwall is my Home.

I live in Cornwall.

The issue is OP you are seeing it from a holiday perspective - everywhere you go on holiday is lovely because you’re there to have fun.

But living there is very different.

Its like the Caribbean or anywhere touristy.
Holiday makers feel it’s the dream lifestyle but for those that actually live there it can be very challenging.

It’s beautiful and safe.
But it’s a hard life.

Lack of jobs, low pay, lack of public transport, having to drive everywhere, winter it’s dead, summer it’s rammed, lack of diversity/culture, lack of things to do (especially for young people), lack of opportunities for young people.

I would have moved a long time ago if I didn’t have caring responsibilities and will move as soon as I get the chance but I will always continue to visit as it’s my home.

How are you going to work and homeschool?

And then when your kids grow up they move away because there aren't enough opportunities for them. Good friend of mine, I met at uni is from Cornwall, she says of her primary class one about a quarter have stayed and they have very small lives, stayed in the same village, babies very young etc.

Your kid would move away asap. It’s crap for young people and opportunities.

Its also a place where people want to visit, it being a holiday destination and all

So everyone living in cornwall has a hard life?

I’m not sure that you’d get less kids per class as a given…more likely the whole of EYFS and KS1 in one class, the whole of KS2 in another. This has its own disadvantages!

Drug culture in cities too. Better not live there with teens either.

Why are you quoting me? I’ve only commented about how I find it strange that anyone would think the winter is better in Cornwall.

Not to do with anything about being isolated.

Think very carefully about where you live and work for the traffic side of things, even in winter it can be bad depending on the route. The villages are not always so welcoming to 'outsiders' and it is generally quite deprived in the South West outside of the little pockets of wealth. Rural school - good and bad sides to that. Locally to us, some are so small that they collapse the classes so Reception and Year 1 together, then Y2 and 3 etc. This can be good and bad - bright Y2s get access to the higher level of Y3 teaching but also teaching a wider range of topics and abilities can dilute the quality of teaching. Attitudes are different too. Less tolerant. I know what you mean by the 'pace' but if you have to get the children to school, get to work, pick them up, get home and get dinner and bed time sorted, the pace is not going to be different because you are in a different part of the country. Proximity to work and school to reduce commuting time will have more of an impact.

I think perhaps you are pining for a situation that doesn’t exist rather than Cornwall as it really is. A lovely slow quiet life with no concerns and only a sprinkling of modern conveniences that take second stage to baking and climbing trees and dog walking on the beach isn’t real life in 2026 wherever you live unless you are incredibly rich. I don’t think that’s ever been real life for anyone unless they were rich tbh.

I live in Cornwall.

I don’t really recognise the bad weather/horrible winters/overrun with tourists schtick that gets trotted out. It’s a very lovely place to live. But it is noticeably poorer than much of the country, and it’s not going to get any better soon.

Primary schools are as badly funded as every other impoverished place in the country. And they are getting worse. Whatever you do, don’t rely on finding a secure rental.

Village communities, when the majority are on low incomes, are tough. Everyone needs a village but no one wants to be a villager.

Whatever problems or struggles you are having right now, you will probably bring them to Cornwall with you. Maybe you will be better able to deal with them when you can go for a walk on the beach every day, only you will know.

I love cornwall and I have a lot of family from there so I go and see them quite a lot. I usually go in the winter and I like it at that time of year. I have considered moving there but the housing is expensive for a place that doesn't have many work opportunities. The schools are better where I live and I would struggle to find work on cornwall. It is worth spending time there outside the tourist season to see if you like the atmosphere.

We are lucky enough to live in Cornwall OP. Jobs that pay well are in slim supply - DH and lots of others live away 2-3 days a week in Surrey / London and train up and back. Otherwise, you're looking at a well paid remote working role (v rare) or NHS / Civil role. We have the house prices of southern UK driven up by second home owners without the infrastructure and salary. Yes, it is busy June-August but that depends very much on location. We are tucked away in a lesser known spot in SE Cornwall which tourists tend to drive past. I can get to London in 3.5 hours and Exeter in 1.5, Truro 1hr for shops.
Both my DC thrived in a small local primary, went onto Grammar school 30 mins away. The eldest left for Uni and I expect the younger one will too. When young, the DC spent evenings sailing , surfing, teenage parties on the beach with guitars (cliche but true) but the sacrifice was DH working away during the week. Plan well but go into it with your eyes open.

I live rurally in the southwest and it’s a beautiful area with a lot of homeschooling families (I used to work with them).

There is a massive gulf between most of those families and others, because of the cost of living here (house prices and cafe prices aren’t dissimilar to London but no London salary weighting), and there are plenty of other issues including:

Poor transport links- buses where I am are few and far between and very unreliable, impractical for commuting to a job and difficult for my teen when buses disappear, are cancelled, or late. Living here is more expensive than living in a city because of needing to drive, and to drive further. And jobs are limited.

Traffic is HORRENDOUS. Both the commuter queues into the local market town, which can easily double the journey time, and the amount of people visiting my village and parking along the green, and in any spot they can every single weekend and lots of evenings. Not just in summer either, although it’s considerably worse in summer. Parking generally is very tricky as cars get bigger and households have more of them (often because late teen and adult children can’t afford to move out and can’t get to work or post-16 education by public transport). Roads are small and bottlenecks develop very quickly.

Village schools here are either oversubscribed- some children living nearby don’t get places and if children arrive by car from further away there is then feeling- or closing down due to low numbers. Small schools also often don’t have the resources (staffing numbers and expertise) to deal well with children who have additional needs (friends’ experiences).

Rural poverty is a massive issue. The boating population here has changed from people seeking an alternative lifestyle to people seeking a step up from a tent- rents here are incredibly difficult to get and horrifically expensive (think north of £1500 a month for a 2-bed in the private sector). Double pre-pandemic prices.

All that said, i like the peace and quiet, and I do wish I lived by the beach so I understand your longing! However, my dd now at 16 cannot wait to move away to a more cosmopolitan area. Our location was lovely for her as a child. As a teen, opportunities for clubs, friends, and socialising are limited by the transport situation and the distance she lives from her friends. So I would think about moving closer to family- but maybe an urban centre like Bournemouth or Exeter so you have lovely countryside and coast on your doorstep but keep the advantages of the city.

Do it! Make some tin foil hats and be prepared for your kids to piss off to the big city as soon as they can!

Does it have to be Cornwall? There are more affordable options for rural living. YouTube is full of new life narratives about folk moving to Scotland or the west of Ireland.

Cornwall is lovely.
Winter is not as cold as other places in the country and the beaches and coast is beautiful. Yes some parts can get crowded in the summer but so do other counties.
It may be wetter but no wetter than Cumbria and parts of Wales in my opinion. Wear a raincoat!! Rain doesn’t stop anyone doing stuff just dress for the weather you’ve got.
Get good at reversing on narrow lanes!