Moving to Chester and primary school places

[MovingtoChester]

Hello, Can anyone advise on nice areas to live around Chester and surrounding towns? We live in France and my husband has just started a new job in Bromborough. He is currently renting in Chester and living there Monday to Friday. We want to live in Chester to give me various options of commutable places for me to work. We have two DS of 5 (Year 1) and 3 who need school/childcare places. It's so complicated trying to figure out what places are nice to live in, where there are houses to rent and where the school and childcare places are. Any advice VERY gratefully received.

Christleton is probably your best bet as schools are very good there. Other good places are Mickle Trafford and Guilden Sutton. You could also do Mollington.

If you are working in Liverpool you could go to the Wirral. There is Willaston, Gayton, Barnston (v good primary school), Caldy, West Kirby and Thornton Hough. All great towns/villages with good schools.

Chester is lovely - most of it is nice and has good schools.

In Chester itself, Hoole is great. Close to the city centre and has really good local shops. Also very close to motorways for commuting.

Outside Chester, Frodsham and Helsby are popular, and have very good schools, but maybe not so convenient for DH's commute.

Any idea where you might want to work?

If your husband is working in Bromborough, would it be worth looking at the catchment areas for Wirral and West Kirby Grammar schools? I have a small regret that we aren't in catchment, but we do love living in Chester.

Agree the schools in Christleton are excellent, and I think the ones in Upton are supposed to be good too. For Bromborough, anywhere within easy access of the M53/A55 is fine - you might look at Pulford or Ecclestone?

Hello, Thank you all for your advice, which reassures me, as those were the lines I was looking on. Next week, I will be in Chester visiting houses and schools in Upton (Acresfield and Upton Heath), Hoole (Hoole CofE and Newton) Guilden Sutton and Mollington. There are apparently no school places left in year 1 for January in Christleton, Overleigh St Mary's, Boughton or Belgrave, which is unfortunate. I would have preferred to live closer to the centre of Chester, as it's always nice if you don't have to take the car every time you need something or if you want a bit to eat, so I'm a little disappointed with the school situation for year 1. Also, I have to get my skates on with applications for my youngest DS for 2011 reception entry. Arrrggghhhh! Any further words of wisdom still EXTREMELY welcome.

Also, Zhen, you are right about the grammar schools and we were initially looking at W Kirby (which I really liked), but since I don't yet have a job I'm worried about limiting my options if we live right over there. Plus, the boys are 5 and 3, so I was hoping it was a little early to worry about that???

One thing I have to say for Chester is it has an excellent bus service :) Not so much in the evenings but rest assured you won't necessarily have to be in the car every time you want to pop to a shop.
Mollington is lovely; Christleton has excellent primaries but I have heard increasingly bad reports of the (previously excellent) secondary in recent years. Guilden Sutton is really nice too - you can probably tell I like the villages. If I was going to live closer in I'd go for Hoole, but make sure you have offroad parking as otherwise it is horrific there!

There is always Saughall too , has bus service into Chester every ten minutes,has a good newly built modern school , a shop, post office (temporarily without a pub at the moment tho :o()..has the usual cricket team,beavers, brownies, saughall colts football team etc etc has a wood for walks with kids/dogs etc, fishing lake and okay ish park ...but I do agree Christleton is lovely

Wouldn't do Upton Heath or Upton Westlea, we had bad experiences there, we are now at Guilden Sutton and loving it have heard Molligton and Mickle Trafford are also great. The bus service is great into town so don't worry about not being in the centre.

Christleton secondary is on the up now, the children are motivated, pleasant and hardworking. The staff seem to know them well as individuals and are in good contact with parents as necessary.

I am moving to Chester next month and have been offered Hoole CofE Primary School. Please can anyone give me some advice as whether this is a good school or not. What's the parking like etc?

Hi, there are quite a few lovely little villages in the Chester area, what a lovely part of the world you are moving to! Kelsall, Tattenhall, Farndon, Malpas, Tarporley, Ashton Hayes are all gorgeous villages with great schools (a few have 'outstanding' ofsted reports and one or two of those achieving very highly on the league tables in recent years!) these beautiful cheshire villages all have bus services into town. I'm afraid I don't know the Wirral well though, so if you are thinking if moving closer to DH's work I'm not the person to advise....good luck in your search, I'm sure you will be very happy and kids will settle well!

Hoole CofE is a great school, definitely on the up. Friends kids go there and really rate it. Parking not great as is residential area but youd have the same problem in most chester schools TBH.