Re-locating with a 10 month old - what should we think about re education etc?

[Holymoly321]

Hello, we're re-locating so as to have a bigger house with a garden rather than a pokey flat in London. Our DS is only 10 months but we plan to stay wherever we move to for at least five years. Problem is, do we look for a smaller less attractive house to be a near a good primary school or should we go for a house we love which is nearer to not so good schools? How important is primary school education? And how do kids handle moving schools half-way through if,say, we decided to move when DS was about 6 years old to a new area and thus new school? Any advice / experiences much appreciated.

Well we moved from a pokey flat in a really pretty London suburb to a house-with-garden in an OK but comparatively drab and boring suburb, in order to be near a good choice of primary AND secondary schools smiling. And we made that choice when our ds was the same age as yours
To be perfectly honest if you are staying in London for the duration of your ds' education IMO you need to think about your possible secondary choices now and work around those.
My personal opinion is that early years education is critically important - if they learn to love learning and enjoy the social aspect of school at an early age, this will stand them in good stead.
Having said that, London has lots of very good primary schools in terms of SATs but also value-added. It is in the state secondary provision in a lot of LEAs that the nightmare starts, frankly.
Children are resilient, I think, and if a school move is carefully planned and discussed/explained to the child at that age it should be fine! Lots of children have to do this for all sorts of reasons.
However I would say that "real" friendships between children seem to evolve in Year 2, so if you have a choice I would not leave the move any later than that.
HTH

Hi Marina, We're actually moving out of London all together - possibly to Northampton. Also, what age is Year 2 (sorry - have no idea about schooling!)

Sorry, it's 6-7, so roughly the age you thought you might move again!
I think once you are out of London and into the county town environment the state secondary situation is much rosier
We might have done similar ourselves but I am a Londoner born and bred and loved growing up here despite all its grot!

It seems that most of the good primary schools are surrounding the 'new build estate' type areas and both DH and I prefer character Victorian type properties which have much bigger rooms etc ( this is also what we are both used to having never lived in a new build house) but seem to be in an area which doesn't have as many good schools. So basically we may have to forgo living in a house we like to give DS a better chance with his education. Anyone else done this or have any thoughts?

if you narrow down yr search you might find a great village with only 1 school (so don't need to worry about catchments). As long as it's good enough - check ofsted reports/talk to locals/visit school you cd then theoretically choose to buy the type of house you wish. It's a common dilemma though so you'll probably find property prices will be at a premium and/or you'll need to rent first in order to be able to move quickly on the "right" house. I think we all end up compromising one way or another post-kids though.

I know some people don't think of education as a criteria but personally, I think you'd be mad not to. Individual schools can change alot over the course of 5 years but I think it is worthwhile looking for a LEA that has reasonable results and a wide spread of decent schools especially if you haven't got an specific area in mind yet.

bumping for the evening crowd