Moving to Belfast

[Vvvzzzxxx]

My husband has had a job offer in Belfast and we have two children aged 9 and 12 educated in England. I am looking for advice for nice family areas to live in with good schools. One parent is Catholic and one parent is Church of England - will that be a problem? The children are just brought up Christian. I understand my 12 year old may need to take a test for Year 8 of a grammar school. My 9 year old seems more tricky as DD is currently in year 5 with a July 4th birthday but I understand the cut of date in NI is July 1st so she would go into the year below. Does anyone have any experience in asking for a child to be put in the year above if that is how they have been educated in England? Thank you.

Yeo, come on in Vvvzzzxxx.
We have lots of lovely parts of Belfast and most of our schools are great. Where you live will depend on your budget. Avoid anywhere with murals and you'll be grand.

Do you know anything at all about the city? Have your DH's employers given you any info?

Hillsborough is nice. Might well get the kid to stay in their correct year rather than drop back. Catholic is an ethnic concept in Northern Ireland rather than a theological one.

Hi,
Mixed religion families aren't that unusual now, though you'd be best avoiding areas with lots of flags and the like.

Holywood is a nice commuter town outside Belfast with lots of mixed families.

You'd probably be best ringing the education authority for information on the questions you've asked above. Here's their website www.eani.org.uk/

The transfer test results have just come out for the 11+ so I think you'd have to apply to schools a different way. The education authority would be able to tell you what schools have spaces and you might be best picking an area from that. Don't dismiss the secondary schools though, there's some very good ones. All the reports and results should be on the EA site.

Catholic grammars fall under the maintained sector, here's some info on the different types of schools www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/types-school

Four winds is a lovely area
Safe
Non sectarian
We got a house there around 16 years ago
Good transport links to get in city centre

Best of luck

I'm not a fan of belfast but it has changed so much over the years and my friends who live there now are very happy

Hillsborough is very nice . Parts of East and South Belfast are lovely as well.

Very few people day-to-day give a monkeys about other people’s religion. We’re a mixed marriage with DH being from the republic and we’ve never had any hassle.

Schools are fantastic- we don’t have private schools, just grammar and secondary. Preps are extremely cheap as well. The 2 local to us are about £3.4k a year, and they offer sibling discounts on top.

The reason we would be asking for my DH to go into the year above the same as in UK as my husband's contract is only for 9 months and then we would have to return to the UK. Luckily the company will pay for us to have really nice accommodation so we can move into the nicest area that works for the family. Thank you for all your advice.

My husband has lived in Belfast before but we stayed in the UK. He lived in the Titanic Quarter which we really liked but I don't know if there are any schools around there. I used to like visiting the Malone Road area and Holywood and Helensbay and Crawfordsburn but don't know schools around there either.

There's a private school called Rockport you could pay to get into on the road between Holywood and Crawfordsburn. No idea what the quality of education is like, I wouldn't be keen tbh, but if it's only for 9 months it night be worth a look.

The primaries in Hollywood are good and would probably have spaces. I think you might struggle to get a grammar school place for 9 months.

I've just moved out of Belfast. I'd look at areas like Ballyhackamore and Belmont in E Belfast or Malone/Lisburn Rd and Finaghy in S Belfast. I'd avoid N Belfast (it's still a bit Beruit like in areas) and the housing stock in W Belfast is a bit meh. Hillsborough and Hollywood both like to think of themselves as "aspirational" but I'd not be arsed with either area because the commute is dire and they're places I've always found a bit snotty.
You'll get more house for your money in East Belfast and the schools are good.

PS you do know that Belfast IS in the UK? Still.

I live in East Belfast, but the only snottiness I've found in Holywood has come from children with colds

Tbf, if your commute is by bike, East Belfast is much easier. Commutes by car are hellish anywhere in Belfast.

TerribleCustomerCervix - please could you tell me the names of the two preps you like. Also my husband has lived before in the Titanic Quarter and we liked it there, I see it's not too far to drive from there to Acquinas Grammar or Lagan College which both come up as good secondary schools, but does anyone know if there are any good state free schools for primary in that area? Thank you

Preps here are attached to grammar secondary schools. They aren’t for everyone, and not always good value for money as some are in the same locations as excellent state primaries. But definitely worth having a look at their websites etc.

PP have mentioned South and East Belfast so there’s-

Victoria Prep (south Belfast, girls only, attached to Victoria College)
Inchmarlo (south Belfast, attached to RBAI, boys only)
Fullerton (South Belfast, attached to Methodist College, mixed)
Downey House (East Belfast, attached to Methody as well, mixed)
Cabin Hill (East, attached to Campbell College, boys only)
Penryn (East, attached to Strathearn, girls)

In Lisburn there’s Friends School Prep and Wallace Prep- we’re looking at Wallace for DD but tbh our village school is fantastic so it might not pay off for us!

They’re all much of a muchness fee wise- none about 4.5k per year last time I looked.

From what I know you cannot enter a grammar school in Y8 without taking AQE/GL, so your best bet would be to chose a secondary school and live near there. I would avoid Malone and try for Lagan College (which is one of a few of the truly comprehensive schools in NI) You could live in Four Winds area and there are several primaries to choose from - Cairnshill, St Ita's, Newtownbreda PS. Five minutes in the car would take you to Rosetta and Forge. I will say from experience that the better primary schools usually are full, so do phone ahead to make sure something is available and name drop your husband's company (sadly I know some schools do their own informal selection and will bump a doctor or QUB lecturer's dc up the waiting list.

Is Lagan College not the most oversubscribed school in N Ireland? I'm sure I read that when the stats were published. I don't want to be all doom and gloom but I think you'd be hard pushed to get a place there.

I'm not sure I would uproot children from existing schools on Mainland UK for 9 months. Is your husband going alone and coming home at weekends a possibility?

We have travelled all over the world due to my husband's job and the children have gone to school in a number of countries and are very flexible so going to Northern Ireland for 9 months will be nothing unusual for us as we have travelled to other countries and schooled them for similar periods of time. We are now homing in on the area of Holywood - would you recommend Lagan if there was a place if we lived in Hollywood and where would any suggest for primary? Thank you

It depends, are you planning to drive your DC to school? It wouldn't be too bad if you went the Old Holywood Road rather than the A2. Sullivan would be worth checking for places if you're going to look at Holywood. Much easier and also a good grammar school.

Primary wise, either Sullivan Prep, Holywood Primary or St Patrick's are all good in Holywood.

I am happy to drive but if there are nearer primaries that is great - I will look at the three you have mentioned - are they particularly catholic or protestant or mixed?

Lagan is an amazing school and there is a bus from Holywood but it is massively oversubscribed so not sure if you would get a place.

Glencraig IPS is a good primary but, again, very popular but worth ringing to see if there are places.

Glencraig is integrated which is officially mixed though when I check the majority of the children were protestant. St Patrick's is Catholic though it does have children of other faiths and Holywood Primary is mostly protestant though not officially protestant if that makes sense. No idea about the make-up of Sullivan prep, I don't think it's published as it's private.

You'd really need to ring the schools and education board to find out where has spaces.

I'm in NI and have a child with an early July birthday in the year above - he had already started school with the English cut off date and they respected that even at p2 so I can't imagine they'd put your son back for a 9 month stint. Also at age 12 your child would be going into Y9 wouldn't he? There are different admission rules for y9-12 which you can find if you google post-primary admissions ni. Each school has different rules. Having said that, I've moved around the world as an adult and a child and for 9 months I'd be staying where I was - it will take a long time t be accepted in NI and you won't even be close to it before you have to go back.

Flip, that's a bit harsh drama
Holywood is a good choice though for that. Lots of sports clubs and kids activities you can get involved in if you'd want to, nice cafes and restaurants. Plus there's lots of kids in the local schools from the army base so it's not like OP's will stick out as 'outsiders'.

drama I couldn't disagree more. The more MC areas can be quite transient, but even then no one cares. Quite a few refugee families have moved into Holywood in the last few years, their children not speaking a word of english upon entering school. They were very much accepted and the children all made an effort for the newcomers to be welcomed. If anything I would say that the population of NI can be overbearingly nice!

That's all really helpful thank you.