moving to stroud tips needed

[craftycow1970]

we are a family of four ds 12 dd 8 looking to move to stroud area...would love some thoughts about the area...i currently work in a local (middx) steiner inspired pre-school but not looking to send my kids to wynstones but do like the look/toys etc...anyway my ds 12 bit ps3/minecraft obsessed..is there much to do for him? dd8 is tap/ballet/drama diva with a penchant for fantasy (currently obsessed with vampires!! def not steiner) my husband is self employed but very interested in peak oil/renewable energy/transition town etc...ps i'm also an obsessive crafter...so seems like stroud might be the answer to my prayers...can anyone tell me re primary schools/seniors schools and catchments.....thanks..sorry for long post...

Hi CraftyCow (Good name incidentally if you are mooo ving to the area round the Commons south of Stroud where the cows roam freely). Your family certainly sounds like it will fit right into the Stroud way of life with no trouble.

We also have a 12 YO DS3 - definitely PS4 obsessed but has yet to discover the joys of Minecraft, though his 16 YO brother loves it.

Re schools - might be worth having a look at Nailsworth primary school. They have had a fairly recent change of head and apparently he follows some sort of Steiner themes, without it being a Steiner school. Not going down all that well with a lot of those who already had children at the school, but it might be the kind of thing that suits your family. Otherwise, I think most Stroud primary schools are quite well thought of - there are a lot of quite small village ones in the surrounding area if you prefer somewhere a little more personal than large town centre ones.

Stroud has separate boys and girls Grammar schools. When we moved here 6 years ago, DS1 was 13 and managed to get a place at the grammar in year 9 - don't often have spaces, but we were lucky. Otherwise there are Comps in Stroud (Archway - catchment = most of Stroud), Stonehouse (Maidenhill) and Bussage (Thomas Keble - catchment covers a little of south Stroud/Minch common/Chalford sort of area). Some children also travel to Tetbury (Sir William Romney - catchment includes Nailsworth). If you want any more info on any of them (or anything else Stroudie), please feel free to PM me.

PS4 ?!? PS3 of course

thanks so much for your reply...we came up for a visit on sat...loved the buzz of the market and shops but dh was a bit shocked by the disparity of housing in stroud town..one road lovely but no parking/next road topless bbq in front garden..was originally hoping to be right in town but now considering being further out...funnily enough did pop into nailsworth and loved the look of it...streets were deserted though...is there enough for teenagers to do ...ds is not footballing type....don't think i can pm u yet...thanks

Nailsworth does have a youth club, but as with so many, funding is being cut so not sure what will happen long term.
Also has the usual Scouts/Guides sort of thing, but if they want to go to the cinema/bowling etc, it means a trip to Stroud.

As to housing, it depends what your priorities are. We didn't really want to live in the either and bought a place about 2 or 3 miles out which is really lovely - but does mean you end up ferrying children back and forward into town. There are quite a few nice places within walking distance - Rodborough for instance has some nice areas, or even somewhere like Woodchester which has an exellent bus service to either Stroud or Nailsworth.

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Hi Craftycow! Did you move in the end? Where to? We're moving in a couple of weeks. I'm a bit anxious about it! Hope to meet a few people.

How's it going?