Is it worth moving just for schools and peace?

[AguNwaanyi]

We currently live in a diverse area where there is a nice community vibe and activities but schools are hit and miss and pollution is increasing.

We are looking at new houses and our money will stretch further in places with better schools (on academic performance grounds), more garden space and a statistically safer area. It’s so hard to weigh up what’s best. Diversity in the places we are considering isn’t bad but nothing compared to what we have around us now. I don’t want my child to go through identity challenges from not having sufficient representation around her but I also don’t want her to face challenges by not having a school environment she can be challenged in.
How have you all gone about these challenges?

I have quite a big age gap between my children, and with my eldest we stuck around even though the schools weren’t great, just for the sense of community and worrying about them being the only black child in the school. Now my youngest is approaching that age, I am seriously considering moving further out despite this for all of the reasons you have mentioned. At least when my eldest was growing up, the underperforming school was the only issue we had to contend with. For my youngest, there is that plus the cost of living here, the subpar local facilities and the decrease in feeling safe in our area (despite having lived here for decades and never feeling this way before). I just hope the grass really is greener…

I feel you; it’s so hard to choose. How did your eldest do in the schools with a community feel?

Thank you for asking this AguNwaanyi! We have been agonising about this too. I grew up in a very homogenous area and it definitely affected me. I left for a big city asap.
Then again I went to a good school which made a huge difference in my life. It’s hard to know how to balance education/safety/comfort v secure sense of self…

It's really hard! Are you leaning towards one in particular?

We lived in a very diverse area (East London) till my eldest was nearing secondary. My kids are 3/4 Sri Lankan (they look Asian). We moved to a very very white area which had a significant BNP element a few years ago. I made friends who were mainly East European as the 'locals' were very cliquey. The area has changed a lot since we moved 10 years ago, though still mostly white, it's a bit more diverse now than it was. There are a few non white people in my DC secondary school (out of 180, around 10 black kids, 10 Asian kids, 30+ or so white kids but with English as a second language - Turkish, East European). The school is very hot on racism/ xenophobia and my kids have never ever encountered any. I think it's really down to the school how all it all works. My friend's daughter who is black went to a predominantly Asian - all girls - grammar school and the racism was horrific. They weren't expecting that. It's so hard to predict really, but a good school should be dealing with that. My son's friends are very mixed - only one is white English! My DD's friends are all white English. It's just about the people they get on with rather than the skin or even culture.

Sorry that should be 180 in their school year (they are twins), not on the whole school.

At the moment we’re leaning towards moving as I’m getting more concerned about safety as the children get older. It would be nice to live somewhere where they had more freedom to roam as teenagers. Where we are now I’d be quite concerned about safety… but it’s a tough decision and I’ll probably feel different tomorrow 😅

Update: we opted to move to a new area in the end but also opted for one not too far form where we are so diversity is okay. We have some decent school options with okay diversity as well. There was one area we had considered that has one of the top schools in the country but I struggled to find more than one Black and one mixed Black kid in their primary school from their content so decided to give it a miss. Their secondary school is more representative and as the rates of families in London are changing we might have a chance she gets in, but if not there is a good school we can get into that is super diverse so I'm okay with that.
We are also keeping our baby in hobby clubs in our old area so that she stays connected there and we will go to more events and activities run by orgs that preserve my culture. I am also hoping to initiate things at my house as well to bring people together.

Thanks for the update OP! Sounds like you’ve got a solid plan.
we’re still unsure. We’ll be checking out the local secondaries and the ones in the area we may move to and then decide.
would love to hear how you get on.