to consider moving to a town (Saffron Walden) so that my DCs can be state educated (good schools)?

[thedolly]

ATM we live in a semi rural area and the DCs are at a Prep School. We are very happy with the school but the money to pay for it will run out eventually and I will end up working to pay for school fees.

Should we just stay put (in our very nice house) and brave the local state schools or move to a place where house prices are very expensive but the schools have a good reputation?

OK, so I've read all your posts now,

So you don't want to move to a 4-bed semi which is on one of the most expensive roads in a lovely little town, and you don't want your kids mixing with mine (or my neighbours who in the main are very high earning professions with aspirations for their children)..in case our aspirations are not as high as yours are for your kids.
Fair enough...stay where you are then. Doesn't sound the right kind of area/school/community for you anyway.

TBH I think it's madness to make plans which centre on you securing a teaching job at the specific time you decide you want one (ie 3 years from now!) at one particular school in your particular subject!!

If the school is that good, there will be loads of applicants (that's assuming a job comes up at that time). And being quite honest, you'll be competing against people with current teaching experience, whereas you are aren't working. Things move very quickly in education, and I think it's being unrealistic to make major plans which revolve around something so specific.You're over-thinking this by a mile.

Why not look to get back into teaching anywhere? Then at least you'll have the income to pay school fees if you feel you need to, and all the better if you don't feel the need, as you'll then be able to spend it on other things!

millarkie

2009 outcomes for the local comprehensive:

"Students at Saffron Walden County High School are celebrating another set of "excellent" results, according to headteacher John Hartley.
This year the school achieved a 100 per cent A-E pass rate, with 92 per cent of grades being at C or better.
Mr Hartley said: "I am thrilled with these excellent results. As always they have arisen from a very determined and hard working approach from our students, coupled with some outstanding teaching.
"In addition a team of specially-trained sixth form tutors provide intensive support, challenge and guidance to our students."

OP is obviously right to be concerned for her DCs!

Totally wrong Millarkie, all of what you mention would be reasons to move to SW rather than stay put and use the state sector here (or keep our fingers crossed that private works out).

I am sure the aspirations of the beautiful people of SW are at least as high as mine (it would appear so from the neighbourhood profile) but you have to admit that said school looks 'dire' from the outside.

violethill - there are a number of schools near to us (state/independent/grammar) that I would consider working in. There is also the scholarship/bursary option. It may be feasible for DC to stay in the private sector but is there any point?

And that is the question?

Along with the 'to move or not to move' question in order of avail of the very best that the state has to offer.

OMG - You mean the portacabin by the entrance at our school - it's not used as a classroom!! Have you not even been inside the school???? There is a big playing field surrounded by mature trees and a swimming pool at the back (wasn't used this season but still..we aren't talking inner-city concrete maze)...Oh it's so funny that you haven't even looked round it and you've decided it's grubby.
Again...I don't think it's the right place for you, even if they had a space for any of your children.
If you have read the Walden thread you will know that there are a number of mumsnetters with children at that school. All horrors from what I've heard. It's atrocious.
I have to go and give the children their tuition in 'Estuary English' so they can lose their middle-class accents before next week..less likely to get stabbed that way.
See ya' Guv'nor

saffron walden? Where's that?

Millarkie - have you visited any Prep schools? I've been to loook around Dame B's, does that make me more or less acceptable in your sight?

All that I have decided is that it looks grubby and uninspiring from the outside and it does .

Saffron Walden is in north west Essex.

any fule kno it's the inside that matters

oh essex

My dc were at a private school before we moved them to their current grubby one. It had lovely grounds, tennis court, pool etc but a very small number of children and some of them were overly spoilt and just plain nasty. Even if we had a lottery win I wouldn't move them back now to that or any other private school.
So far we know 3 others who have moved from private to the so-called grubby one. I don't much rate Dame B's. We have friends who have had children there but moved them due to perceived holding the children of higher ability back in the first few years to stop them being moved to the Perse (talking of which I also know people who have used Grubby as a starter school before moving their children to the Perse at 7).
If you hadn't come across as negatively judging my children on the basis of the look of a school you have merely driven past I would have offered to meet you and show you round the area/the school etc, but not now...

Millarkie you are coming across as just plain nasty and I'm not sure what I have done to provoke you.

I have not judged you or your children in any way.

Our reasons for considering moving to Saffron Walden is that there may be more 'aspirational' types there than here in our semi-rural/agricultural abode.

The school in question looks grubby compared to the exterior of the school that my children currently attend - as I have said before, that is a fact.

Dolly - I think you are going to tie yourself up in knots the way you're agonising over this without having set foot in the state schools (and presumably gone through the private sector as a pupil yourself?

I think people have tried to be very reasonable with you, and given you good advice, but tbh you seem to be becoming more entrenched.

If you are going to spend the whole time your children are in school agonising over whether they are 'aspirational enough' or mixing with the 'right types' etc then frankly I'm beginning to feel that you should remain with the status quo. It seems like you have a fundamental fear of the state sector. I hope you don't pass that on to your own children, as 93% of kids go to state schools,so it's likely your kids will come into contact with them at University and work!! And remember, your own children may well not be able to afford private school fees for their children, so hopefully they won't think it's their only passport to success.

It saddens me, because there are so many MNers on here who are state educated, often at schools which sound far inferior to the ones in SW (I know mine wasn't great) but we are literate, numerate, have successful careers, interests in politics, the arts,etc etc...... But to go back to what I said earlier, some people have a fundamental lack of confidence in themselves as parents to encourage aspiration in their children, or a fundamental lack of confidence in their children's innate ability, and if that's the case, maybe paying sets your mind at ease.

Very well put Violethill. Before we moved (within a few miles of SW) we looked at virtually every primary school within a 10 mile radius - and would have been very happy if we had ended up living within the catchment area of the much sought after (except by OP) "grubby" school.
If you send a child to a school that you aren't happy with you can make life for that child very difficult by negativity even though the child may like the school. I suspect that the OP may not be persuaded that state education can ever be good enough for her DCs and it would probably be better for her to go out and earn the money to keep her DCs in the private sector so that she is happy about their aspirations being met.

violethill I appreciate what you are saying but I don't think I lack confidence as a parent (other than over this particular issue) nor do I lack confidence in my children's innate ability. I am also not becoming more entrenched. I am however tying myself up in knots .

I will visit the local schools - it may make a difference to my ideas. I am a very analytical person (as you may have gathered)so I have done much research and I hear what you are saying about MN. But there are also people on here with huge chips on their shoulders.

Still, I have some good advice on this thread and the one running parallel - thank you for your contribution .

hmm my dc go to state school i went to state school , guess we have no aspirations , oh forgot to mention I did GCSEs and A levels and hell I even went to university ,And ds2 is taking Gcse1s now at 12 in a state school oh and not in posh area or a grade 1 school.

Your children will only do well if they want to no matter where they go

thedolly - reading this thread with some amazement...

I must give you credit for being honest and taking a fair bit of flak on the chin. Good for you.

Flak is well deserved tho. How can you think children can "catch" lack of aspiration from their scummy school-fellows?

In any case you seem to be making some serious assumptions about some "good" (says Ofsted) schools based on a drive past. I suggest as others have that you get off your high horse and have a look round. That's if you don't want to work and pay the fees for the luscious grounds - which, by the way, would not be a high priority for me - not compared to local school, good teaching, positive caring ethos etc.

You so are a snob. Sorry but you know it's true. Maybe that doesn't matter tho. But if I were you I would check out the local schools before I rushed into moving from a house I really loved.

'Our reasons for considering moving to Saffron Walden is that there may be more 'aspirational' types there than here in our semi-rural/agricultural abode.

What is this based on? How can you possibly test the aspirations of the population of Saffron Weldon? I must admit to only having read enough of the thread to get the general idea. My DCs go/have been to a comprehensive that takes all types. Some are as aspirational as they come, some are not (I very much expect the parents in Saffron Weldon are similar). My DCs have all done exceptionally well and wouldn't have made different choices if they had been to a top private school. I think you ought to visit schools first, before you judge. The local paper has all the high flyers from the state system named in today's edition-especially those going to Oxford/Cambridge/Imperial College etc. Some come from lowly backgrounds but they are not lacking in aspiration, nor are their parents and we are not in Saffron Weldon!

oh what gard choice, I eel for you..so currently kids are are private school/fees educated and you are comfortable....so...you either work to pay njust the fees...poor you...or you go some nie litte;le [posh townm with good schools and you can afford, presumably holidays thn...well...you go for it, its not like your kids are loosing out on anything

Of course, you could always apply for a job at whatever ghastly, grubby state school operates in your rural idyll.

& send your children there.

& if it's not perfect, then as a staff member, parent & quite possibly governor (if you put the energy all this fastidious & repellent angsting is consuming into doing something to make your local education a little more 'aspirational') you would be in a prime position to exert some leverage.

Stop looking at the bloody grounds for a start. If you want 'hello flowers, hello trees' go to a park.

& there's nowt wrong with portakabins. At the very successful & over-subscribed state school where I teach, we have them because it's a listed building - it's an interim measure before they build us a shiny new school.

You are an absolutely dreadful snob. All your concerns appear to be rooted in not wanting the school you send your dc to to look scruffy on a drive-by. Oh & not to contain any nasty common children.

Honestly. I'm sure you're actually very nice. But ffs, for a supposed teacher, you know rather less than sod all about what's actually important in a school.

I was so mystified by Saffron Walden being held up as an aspirational place that I looked up the results and I am still mystified!

piscesmoon if you are genuinely interested try the website upmystreet . I'd like to hear your comments after you've had a read of that.