Help!!

[mudandstuff]

My eldest will be starting school this year. What would you choose:

• move to where there are good state primaries and secondaries, but the commute for me and husband is 30-40 mins each way. The town is nice, safe, considered good for children and pretty homogenous in its population (whether you see that as good or bad!). The house we could afford is smaller (still good enough, though)
• stay in the city we are in, which has a great park but more social issues (nothing huge, but more diverse). Have a walk/cycle commute. Primaries look good, secondaries very patchy and up and down (so impossible to know what they'll be like when it's relevant to us). The house we could afford is bigger.

Feels like I'm either choosing to prioritise the adults or the kids in the family! I'm making myself ill with this decision! HELP!

Stay in the city you are in.

Tired adults would surely impact family life more.

Schools change quickly!

I would stay based on what you say op. But if they start this year surely you have a school space already?

Not easy to get an infant age space in a good primary after the deadline thh.

Do you mean 2024?

If you are thinking about schools for 2023 start then that horse has bolted...

Move. 30-40 mins is nothing,

Thanks for your replies 😊
We have recently been allocated a space at our local school for 2023 start. I'm less worried about the early years as I think most schools we would get access to would be ok. The one we have had a good reputation for infants, a decent one for junior school but feeds into what is currently not my favourite secondary! If we move we would get allocated a place in a school somewhere in the new town (where there is space) and we would put my eldest on the waitlist for the local school. I'm confident that he'd eventually get a place (it's an all through school and we'd be in catchment). Second child should get a place from the start if we move now.