Nationwide school search

[backfromseoul]

Returning to the UK this summer after many years away, bringing back our 4 year-old DS ("I'm going to turn into an English person!"). Since we both work online we can live pretty much anywhere. As late arrivals we're not going to get good a choice of state school, so we're looking at fee-paying schools.

Our criteria are:

• Within 2 hours of London by train.
• Co-ed school with secondary.
• Able to live day-to-day without being car-dependent, i.e. home, school and supermarket within walking or easy biking distance. So probably a school in the centre of a nice city.
• Big plus for towns with a Korean supermarket(!)

York is top of the list with Bootham and St Peters. Bootham especially seems a good match for our Guardian-reading sensibilities.

But we're looking to compare York with some options down south before committing to a decade of York weather.

Brighton seemed good but Brighton College has no places and I'm not sure it'd be the right choice for us. Bristol sounds nice but I know nothing about it. Bristol High School perhaps? London? We lived there before but not sure about it with a small child.

Would really appreciate some suggestions, as we'd hate to miss a good option and it's hard touring round the country with a little one.

Cheers,

Max

Come to New Malden if you want Korean supermarkets.
and hairdressers, restaurants, letting agents...........

don't know if any korean supermarkets in york, otherwise it ticks all the boxes, though i hope your house buying pockets are deep .
People speak very highly of bootham, only possible downside is that sport is not strong there, so would depend on whether you see your ds as a rugby player/very sporty boy.
York weather is fine - it is dry on this side of the country.

A couple of suggestions - 1 Shrewbury: numerous good prep schools feeding Shrewsbury School at 13. Lovely town.

1. Hereford: Hereford Cathedral school, from 4 to 18 and in beautiful position next to the Cathedral Close. Housing comparatively cheap - you get a lot for your money. Even lovelier town, and countryside nearby.

Both have good train connections to London. Can't speak for Korean supermarket but Hereford has a fair number of Polish ones (irrelevant, I know)

Personally I wouldn't fault York or either of the schools you've mentioned. As for the weather it did reach 20 degrees a couple of weeks ago not that that was deeply unusual! Agree with your description of Bootham (and Loshad's) in that it doesn't have a traditional public school type atmosphere like St Peter's and by being small (half the size of St P's IIRC) pastoral care is great.
The other thing I would say is that as York isn't lacking in good primary schools you probably don't need to discount state schools at this stage. It is worth considering that property is very expensive near the private schools though so biking is doable but not necessarily walking.
Sorry I can't comment on anywhere else, although we do have family in Bath and it's lovely there!

Oh and there is an oriental supermarket in York!

Don't know about Korean but there is a Vietnamese Supermarket on Gloucester Road in Bristol.

York is lovely and yes we had some 20 degree plus days a couple of weeks ago so weather is not always bad you're also not too far from the coast/north york moors etc for weekends/holiday days out.

Romsey
Winchester
Romsey
Winchester
Alton
Petersfield
Salisbury
Romsey
Winchester

why faff with counties that have selective when there are mega good comps ?

New Forest
Bournemouth
Purbeck
Dorset
Devon

OK I'm biased I'd never move far from this area even if I had shed loads of money

Lincoln, very cheap housing, excellent indie school, beautiful small city, hour and half to London via Newark but no Korean supermarket only Chinese.

or Norwich? Don't know the schools but city is beautiful and again much cheaper than all the southern places mentioned. Or Cambridge?

Lincoln - tripartite system - cool if your kids get into the right part for them
shite if they dont

but he wants indie so that's irrelevant.

why tripartite?

Warwick hits all your criteria with the exception of the Korean supermarket. I guess Birmingham might have one, and easily accessible by train.

Surely your location is more important than availability of a particular school place at 4 . York for example is pushing it to be a 2 hour commute. If you like Brighton as a place to live take the school place the LA offer, or wait until he is turning 5 as legally he doesn't need to be in formal education until then, and go on waiting list for BC et al - or similar. tbh you'll struggle as much to find a vacancy at a good private school now as much as state. Many areas will be issuing their allocations for primary schools places about now so there will be some movement in the next week or two as parents opt either way and can still decline private places for September without financial penalty.

Oxford? Huge choice of schools, easy commute.

anybody who thinks that there are no catchment places in excellent state schools at the latter part of the summer term has not looked more than 40 miles from london

I'm not sure about that TalkinPeace2. In more rural areas/smaller towns like the ones you mentioned that might be the case but certainly in more urban areas you aren't guaranteed a place at a good school. The only reason you would be likely to get into a good school in York is because there aren't many poor ones.

Even within 40 miles of London it is quite possible to get a place at a good State school (maybe not the most popular infant school, but a good one).

Wow, great response and lots to think about. @LIZS, that may be a fair criticism. He's been in formal schooling for 2.5 years already and his "centre of gravity" is outside the home, if you know what I mean, so leaving friends/cultures/languages behind does affect him a bit. So it would be nice if his next school was his last.

When we looked at Cambridge, there were waiting lists at all the state schools we liked, and no immediate way for us to get on the list. Apparently York is worse in that there's some kind of requirement to have lived at the address for a year (haven't really looked into it).

There weren't any places at Cambridge independent schools either, but we've not had a problem finding places in York. And they even have a Korean supermarket! :o

Bath sounds interesting and 1:25 to London, wow. Compact and walkable is exactly what we're looking for.

Lincoln/Norwich/Warwick/Cheltenham to consider too; it's going to be a busy summer. Hereford/Shrewsbury a bit far from London unfortunately. Studied in Oxford some years ago and still have flashbacks so couldn't live there!

Thanks again,

Max

Dean Close in Cheltenham is well-thought of and is close to the lovely town centre

Kingston or Richmond in SW London.. Lots of good options there such as Ibstock (off top of head) plus as Mrsrobertduvall said close to New Malden which has a vibrant Korean community

That requirement to have lived there for a year is illegal, I would try to contact the education gurus about it. All LAs have to find you a school place of you move into the area, even if all schools are full. Although some do try to put this off or wriggle out.

Also 5-18 is a very very long time. He will change massively over that time. The best school at 5 may not be the best at 11 or 16. (As speaks a mother of 3.)

I would also suggest Bath. It's a beautiful city with a wide choice of schools. It's great for families, with lots of parks, museums, lovely theatre, close to amazing countryside. It also has a strong international feel to it.