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?

It has server issues tonight-I will try tomorrow.
I have now read the whole thread. I think that you need to visit the schools, our primary and secondary schools regularly have authors visiting, theatre groups, workshops etc.
I am not sure why people in an agricultural area are singled out for low aspirations.
I would certainly move to an area with good schools-but not before you have visited the local ones.

The school I teach in has quite a few famiies who work in agriculture they do not seem on balance to be less aspirational than anyone else, what an odd thing to think. Infact I teach a superbright very aspirational young man who is also one of the harest working young men i have ever taught, his family have a farm.

I googled it as well, am still mystified, it does not seem to be the centre of knowledge for the western world.

You seem to be better off in Chelmsford or Colchester.
Some of my relatives have farms and they have produced a teacher, a vet and 2 engineers.

Ah, you are from the province! I also am a grammar school girl, and my previous Latin teacher sends me emails on propping them up. I am in Republic of Ireland, my kids go to the local community school (think comprehensive)...the difference is they love going to school (mostly) and have many friends from many backgrounds. Some who will struggle to 'achieve' whatever that means, but all of whom will be aided by great staff. Saffron Walden has great schools, as do many places nearby in Cambridge. I'd say you would be lucky to live there and have access to the schools. Especially if you like decorative exterior plasterwork.

I think it is the social status that OP is interested in rather than results so have posted the upmystreet profile.

Often, many of the people who live in this sort of postcode will be older families living in prosperous suburbs. These are known as type 9 in the ACORN classification and 2.11% of the UK's population live in this type.

Neighbourhoods fitting this profile may be found more frequently in Outer London suburbs such as Bromley, Harrow, Kingston-upon-Thames, Sutton and Croydon, as well as towns like St Albans.

These are established suburbs, housing larger professional families, with some empty nesters and retired. Children tend to be older, including some home-based students. Homes are typically semi-detached and family incomes are high.

People are well educated, to A-Level or degree level. They usually have managerial and professional jobs. They are PC-literate, finding a variety of uses for the Internet. In addition to the usual purchasing of books or CDs they may well book holidays, research purchases and plan their careers online. It might not only be the children playing games online.

These families are financially secure. They may have a mix of savings plans, unit trusts or ISAs. Some will also have investments in stocks and shares. Those who are charitably minded extend this financial awareness to their giving, using tax-efficient covenants.

Food shopping is done at stores such as Waitrose, Sainsburys and M&S. Mens clothing is often bought in department stores, whilst women may visit Next or French Connection.

Holiday locations are varied, covering Europe, America and further afield. Skiing is popular and people take the occasional weekend break. Leisure activity is varied. Many enjoy evenings at the theatre. Some play golf or exercise at the gym. Others have an interest in antiques, wine, eating out or in current affairs.

These communities are the heartland of the broadsheet newspapers. They read magazines such as Ideal Homes, Good Housekeeping and OK! or Hello!

This is a description of the type of neighbourhood to which this postcode has been matched, it is not a description of the postcode. The overview describes characteristics frequently found in these neighbourhoods. Since most postcodes include a mix of people we don't expect everyone there will fit the description perfectly.

You should not base important decision-making on the ACORN classification alone. ACORN © CACI Limited 2009 All rights reserved; no right to publish is granted.

Note it does say that you should not base decisions on this information.

(They never read OK in Saffron Walden - do they? It has very good charity shops which is what I base my assessment on)

You are wrong - the area in which I live now has a type 2 classification. If you look it up you will see that the social status is pretty much the same.

I am a very analytical person and I will use what ever information I can get my hands on to help me reach a well informed decision.

I plan to visit the local state schools and those further afield.

Upmystreet is up and running again and I discover that my area is higher up the scale than Saffron Walden!
I dare say that Saffron Walden is quite a pleasant area-I am just not sure why it is singled out as being better than a pretty little village.Farming communities are at 06 on the Acorn classification.

That site is bollocks, I searched our postcode - there are only a few houses on our postcode as we live in the middle of nowhere. I am sure the OP would write us off as 2 of my 4 postcode sharers are farmers but we do not match our profile at all.

Apparantly we are all very poor - not looking at their cars, public school uniforms, houses and acres of land they are not! Apparantly 1/3 of us earn less than 10K though. Apparantly we all live in semi detached council housing, nope we live in a detached lodge house, there is the manor house, 2 farm houses and another cottage.

Holidays are to caravan or campsites - well they have me there

Apparantly we have no money for leisure activities - we are the only one of our neighbours that do not have a field of horses. Maybe we are single handedly dragging down the neigbourhood.

At least we dont read OK magazine though.

I'm laughing as DH has just told me (after reading the whole of both threads) that the correct expression is not 'toddler in toe' but in tow (further up the thread or maybe even on the other one)- of course he is right but I prefer mine .

This is my favourite quote
"The lottery, football pools and bingo may offer hope"

Gosh if you are living in a type 2 area and have to brave schools what hope is there for me in a type 44! I may as well offer dd up for adoption poor mite.

The agricultural thing may be another one of my stupid prejudices. I just get the impression that people in our area tend not to move very far away from home, thereby narrowing their life experiences.

My brother lives in a little hamlet-apparently they are nearly all single pensioners who are comfortable using credit cards and are keen golfers. I do think it rubbish!

This is my neighbour's house God knows how she manages it on 10K a year

At least he gets golf apparantly I watch TV, go the bingo and buy from catalogues.

Up My Street has just told me that I live in an area with predominantly young families but very few children.

My farming relatives DCs are currently in Canada, New Zealand and USA as well as far flung around UK. I really think you ought to get out in the community-talk to your neighbours and visit the schools dolly-people are very often not what they seem!

nice house

SW is not supposed to be the centre of the universe, it is just where DH works .

I agree that the Acorn thing needs to be taken with a pinch of salt but having visited SW the other day I could see that there were people there who on the surface of things seemed similar to DH and I.

Maybe she supplements her meagre 10k by opening it to the public? If it's good enough for Her Maj...

Or perhaps she has as a lucrative sideline renting it out as a set to Merchant Ivory.

You could be right piscesmoon - we do keep ourselves to ourselves a bit.

You do hear about people living in those huge houses having no money, maybe I will send down a food parcel.

Apparently we are 'type 29' which is probably tantamount to saying we should be forced to carry a clapper and call out 'Unclean! Unclean!' when venturing out in public.

"These people watch a lot of TV but also enjoy an occasional meal out in a restaurant"

Ooh, a restaurant what a lovely treat! I've been so busy watching all that TV I'd forgotten I could leave the house