Moving to the uk with teenagers. Durham or Poole?

[Tkamb]

Hi all!
I've been offered a job either in Poole or in Durham. We are moving from Spain with 2 teenagers.

We have been to both places. Found Poole- Bournemouth too spread out, is it good for the kids to move independently? Or do you find yourself giving them lifts everywhere?

Durham is lovely, but not many choices to rent good houses and the job offer not as good. Is it a good place for teenagers to be?

Which one would you choose? We have never lived in the uk before so we feel a bit lost and would like to choose well!

Poole and Bournemouth both have good grammar schools if your dc are expecting good gcse results. It is expensive to live here and the traffic is truly dreadful. But it is lovely!!

We lived in a Durham pit village when doing postgraduate studies. It was wonderful to be part of the community and we had the choice of city or countryside by easy public transport.

Thank you so much for all your advice! You truly are angels! It is so useful to have all this information when coming from overseas without a clue about the area!
Eternally grateful!

Train from Newcastle to Durham take 15mins so nothing stopping you living in Newcastle and commuting to Durham.

Plus side with north east is that accomadation and living is much cheaper

The problem with living in Newcastle and commuting to Durham is you'll still possibly have to fall within the catchment areas for 6th form? And frankly although Newcastle has some very lovely areas it also has some pretty shit ones too. As does Durham tbh, but frankly I'd rather catch a train in to Newcastle from Durham, than live in a deprived area and catch a train to Durham iyswim. If you choose to say live in Gosforth it's a prime nice area in Newcastle, but I'd frankly then be looking at school catchment there rather than the kids schlepping to Durham. And you'd still need to look at catchment criteria. If 2.5k is your funds for rental (based on normally rental is short term, and looking to offset costs whilst waiting for property to sell/looking to buy). Where would you finically stand to make private schooling a viable option for the duration of 6th form for twins? It's not a long term event, and you could realistically cut your projected rental costs by a 1/3, and still live in a nice area. Just a thought?

It's cold up north and Bournemouth is very sunny. Tough choice tho' found Durham peeps much friendlier. Good luck.

I loved living in Newcastle as an older teen / early 20s. So much to do, great city centre, hop on a train to the coast.

More for a teen to do, than in Durham, which is v small.

Poole for the weather, especially coming from Spain! There are some naice areas: lower parkstone; broadstone; canford cliffs... the local grammar schools are good but most are single sex before 6th form. There are good private schools and colleges too. If your kids are arty then Bournemouth uni has great access programmes. The beaches are lovely in summer, both for water sports and sunbathing and Bournemouth town centre has a nice aspect and shops, and is next to the winter gardens and pier.

Durham is a big student town... so you’re more likely to have noisy student neighbours!

Tbh if you're relocating to work to either hospital I believe they'll have designated forums to ask questions on? Durham hospital is definately a multicultural/overseas employer. Although outside the actual catchment area of the 'city' (its basically a town with a cathedral), the overall predominate cultural mix is possibly 97% white British. Newcastle on the other hand is much more multicultural and that's reflected in just daily living/ afro Caribbean hairdressers, better provision of Asian/Chinese/Caribbean shopping. Durham hospital has had a high level of Philippine staff for many years who have made the emigration jump. Durham definately isn't a general cultural melting pot outside the city base though. However Durham hospital does offer designated family accommodation to staff that might be a viable living option for say 2-3mth to scope out where you actually want to live long term?

I'd personally ask you to volunteer more information tbh OP (although you may choose to decline). Are you moving as a nurse (what band?), are your surgical staff, are you a surgeon? Is you're overall income based on your own or do you have a DP with an income too? It's easier to say what would possibly be a better fit when you estimate an annual income/longevity of being in the UK, vs well I have ?, and I'm looking for requiremts that fill ? criteria. There's a massive difference between a projected say 30-300k annual income.

There's a massive difference between a projected say 30-300k annual income.

Even the bottom of that range makes you well off in NE terms. Top of that range look at Durham High School for Girls for the twins.

Durham is a big student town... so you’re more likely to have noisy student neighbours!

Not with her budget, I doubt she'll be renting a terraced house in the centre of Durham .