Moving to England - Which area to live in..?? Which School To Choose...?

[NewBee2011]

Hi Everyone, We are planning to move to England from Thailand in 3/4 mths, but very confused as to where to live, as we want to live in a good and safe place, not too much fond of city live but not too rural as well and not going too far away from london..But we dont want the place to be too expensive either...Prefer newly built estate...My kids have to join in Son (Yr6) n Daughter(Yr8), they will join private school but which one to choose as I want a good school with good results over the past years n with good reputation. Every suggestion will be of gr8 help.

[Xenia]

About £10 - £12k a year are the good London day schools I am mentioning although I accept a few of those in the top 20 on the FT list I link to above are boarding schools. I think it is very important to have the list of best schools otherwise you can be conned into thinking XYZ is good because the grounds are nice or some other mother says so and then realise it isn't good in the sense of getting good exam results at all.

[meditrina]

Which London schools are in that price bracket?

[Xenia]

I think she didn't want to live in Central London so I suggested Herts. The ones some of mine went to Habs - girls schol 9500 juniors which I think is usually in the tiop 10 - 15 schools in the country, seniors. Seniors 11 490.

North London collegiate often no 1 in the UK, usually top 5 of all schools of all kinds I think about £11k juniors and £13k seniors. YOu can pay a lot more and not get a school in the top 10.

[lljkk]

She can't afford those fees and the housing costs in the areas near them. She can't afford to live in the SE or Shire counties at all, I reckon.

[NewBee2011]

Hi IIjkk, its not just the matter of affordability, but the money cannot just be spent on school fees and housing only, there are other aspects of life which have a vital role in life and have to be considered as well, plus I beleive if we invest in education plus extra activities for kids in a balanced way then its better for the kids as well. Also I beleive that if my child will be attending a school which has a fee of 6k per term then the children with whom my kids will be studying will also be coming from rich families and most of those kids are high headed(not all), but I prefer my kids to grow up in a middle-class atmosphere where most of the kids have a thrive to study hard to become something in life and they have an ambition of life to become.X or Y or Z.....So that the main reason/bottomline of me setting up a budget for school fees. Affordability comes the last.

[lljkk]

So... does that mean you have more money for the housing, if needed?
What do you mean by "middle class"? Do you mean "not Aristocracy"/filthy rich, or... what?
I presume that you realise that "middle class" in Britain may mean things that it doesn't mean elsewhere in the world.
"Middle class" American is very different from "Middle Class" British, for instance.

[NewBee2011]

By middle class of soceity I mean for the families which have more of professional lifes- where parents have a working atmosphere and they have enough to have a comfortable life but not necessarily luxurious life like a person from rich/business class will have, so the kids from middle class family understand that they cannot expect anything to be bought by parents on demand, everything goes within budgets etc. and most of the kids from such families have an ambition and they have that to focus on....
Its no offence to anyone and nothing more than my beleives, and I think this is more or less the same all over the world..And I will be happy for my kids to grow up in such atmosphere...
Pardon me as I am not commenting to anyone here in particular, its just my thinking..

[magicmummy1]

OP, I think you're mistaken to assume that your kids will mix with a better class of people at a private school - this isn't necessarily the case. One of my best friends attended one of the most famous private schools in the country, and there were loads of problems with drugs etc. Each school is different.

For what it's worth, I agree that you should look at the midlands as a place to live, over and above the south east - and I have lived in both!

[NewBee2011]

Thanks Xenia, your link is quite helpful, I will be going through it keeping in mind the suggestions posted here by other mums, I highly appreciate all of yours support here and heartly thank you all for being so considerate and kind. I very strongly beleive now that with all these suggestions I should be able to find a right school and right place to live.
But keep posting...as every bit will be of gr8 help to me...
Thanks Everyone on mumsnet..

[NewBee2011]

Ohh magicmummy, You have scared me now.....I never thought that can be the case as well.....
Please all mums - can you please please advice me on the schools that I must keep away from and the areas that must not go n live....You guys know that place far far more than I can see on internet...
Please.......Thanks

[Insert1x50p]

NewBee- it's impossible to do that because all parents have different opinions on schools and most towns have good and bad areas.

I would buy "The Good Schools Guide 2011" available on Amazon and have a good read as that is as objective as you're going to get. It also gives up to date information on fees and curriculum.

[Insert1x50p]

Also, look on www.rightmove.co.uk to get an idea of rental prices in different towns

[magicmummy1]

I don't want to mention the school name, newbee, not least because I don't think the problem is confined to one particular school. Suffice to say that it is one if the schools in xenia's list. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

I was at university with a disproportionate number of people who had been privately educated. I didn't find them to be any more or less motivated than my state school peers, but I did find that many were more "troubled" than the kids at my comprehensive school. Coincidence, perhaps, but I certainly don't believe that a private school offers any guarantees about the social environment to which children may be exposed.

Regrettably, my friend got into the wrong crowd at school, and wasted a lot of her potential. I feel fortunate that I didn't have the same distractions.

[LIZS]

It would be naive to assume any senior school(private or state) in any area is immune from the likes of bullying, drugs, alcohol abuse, disruptive behaviour etc. What matters is how such behaviour is handled. tbh that is why you should employ someone to do the homework for you to eliminate those schools and areas you could not tolerate or that are incompatible with your hopes and ethos. Coming from such a different region and education system wherever you choose in UK could be a culture shock.

[Onky]

How old are the children - is your Yr 6 and and Yr 8 the UK equivalent or the AMerican system? If it's the UK, your Yr 8 child is too late to sit common entrance as that's all been decided for entrance into Yr 9 months ago and you might find it extremely difficult to get your child into one of the better schools as an irregular year entrant -- schools normally take pupils at 11, 13 and 16 for sixth form. Similarly, your other child in Yr 6 is too late to start another school this September unless they happen to have a place.

Habs, St Albans and Merchant Taylors run waiting lists but they have to have sat the entrance exam and passed with an acceptable mark.

[beanlet]

My DH (ex Oxbridge Senior Tutor) jokes about avoiding private schools that begin with S... Apparently all of his worst behaved undergraduates over the years came from three such schools. His state school students generally behaved angelically. One of the old posh colleges too.

[Xenia]

Midlands? No. It's awful parts of it and in terms of future job opportunities the SE is better. As for "better class of person" depends how you define those things. In very academic day fee paying schools I don't think they particularly are very posh although most are not made up of those on bursaries so the parents obviously avhe a spare £12k a year or whatever for fees.

Nor do I agree private pupils are more social problems, often the converse. However I am not a great fan of boarding schools because you lose influence over the child and that can lead to more peer influence than perhaps you want.

[beanlet]

There are awful bits of the SE too, Xenia, and some very nice bits of the Midlands. The point, surely, is that the OP would actually be better off employing a relocation consultant because the variables are just too many for us on here to help with.

Besides, with 700 per month for rent, the SE isn't an option, really, unless she lives in a truly awful bit.

[magicmummy1]

It wasn't my intention to suggest that private school pupils have more social problems, merely that they don't necessarily have fewer.

And honestly speaking, some parts of the southeast are truly awful too - I have lived in some of them! Parts of the midlands might well be rubbish too, but parts are beautiful. And the cost of living is definitely less!

[Xenia]

Yes, that's less than I think one of my children pays for a room in the middle of London. I hadn't read that bit. I do think she needs to take some expert advice.

[Clary]

Xenia I have to say that I have lived in London and I have lived in th eEast Mids and I know which one I would rather live in (and bring up children in).

Frankly, I wouldn't live in London again for a gold pig! but that's just me, obviously it works well for lots of people. I think to suggest to the OP that anywhere but South East is no good is misleading, frankly.

Also the money is a big issue. I think OP you need to follow some of the reading suggestions on here before you go much further.

[Xenia]

Wages can b e much higher in the SE. I thougth she'd said she wanted to be near London anyway or nearish.

[LIZS]

I think op's husband is planning to be self employed and home-based so this is perhaps financially less sensitive to area than fulltime employment but presumably would take some time to establish. The dc would apparently join year 6/8 in September.

Average cost of a private school has topped 10k pa day (higher for secondary), that is the best part of 35k gross income minimum plus extras such as uniform , music, trips, sometimes lunch, books .... Add to that cost of rent, say 15k net and the household income needs to be around 60k before other basic living expenses and luxuries. Inflation is currently around 4-5% and school fees often rise above this. op, you really need to check whether you can fund this move, perhaps using savings to tied you over while the business builds, then brief someone to do a search for you specifically.

[ChateauRouge]

As a self-employed person, will he get a visa to come to the UK? Or is he British? (sorry, not clear what citizenship any of the OP's family hold)

I am laughing at your comment Xenia about the awful midlands... but everywhere has it's terrible bits.

NewBee- I really think the best strategy is to make a shortlist of areas you fancy, approach some schools, and come over for a week- do a quick tour of each, and have your children assessed by the schools concerned- all the suggestions upthread are academic if your children are not of an academic standard to gain a place in any of them. Timing will make things awfully difficult, as I cannot imagine any decent school having vacancies for September fee-paying or state.

Is it possible to do the groundwork now, with a view to moving them a year later?

[NewBee2011]

Hi, Can you please advice how is this place called- Bolton, Theres a school - Bolton School- Is it a nice school and is Bolton a good place to live and is it a safe place...? Please advice...Thanks.