Secondary schools in Norwich and areas to live!

[Fischka3]

We are planning to move to Norwich from the U.S. sometime in September.

1. Which secondary schools do you recommend? The kids ages are 16 and 13.
2. Areas to live: safe, clean, close to shops, under £900 for a good size 3 bedroom with a garden, easy commute to the hospital ?
3. Any good real estate agents someone can recommend? How is living in Norwich like? Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated? Thank you!

Hello Fischka3 - thank you for posting on Mumsnet. We're going to put a call out to our Twitter followers to see if anyone has any recommendations for you. Good luck in Norfolk - it is a wonderful place to live!

I'm also a Yank if that's of interest.

Norwich is a very nice city but has not so nice areas like any city could.

It's a huge huge question so you need to narrow down a bit about what you need from your place to live. What do you define as easy commute; some people think anything under an hour's travel time is easy. Do you plan to drive to the hospital? Do you want to be in Norwich itself or a bit closer to rest of the country? Coming from the USA are you happy with a duplex or townhouse to live in? Do things like culture (cinema & shopping) matter a lot to you? How long are you staying (makes a difference to what qualifications your kids go for)? What months are your children's birthdays in?

Hey...another fellow Yank here.

I can recommend the Golden Triangle area---which is near the city and several decent secondaries. City of Norwich and Notre Dame High being the best nearest the city (although very oversubscribed)
If you're moving in Sept you'll sadly have slim pickings for school places. You may not get to be too picky about.
I can recommend WH brown for properties but remember they operate a bit differently than real estate agents in the US. You have to do a lot more of your own legwork to find a place. Good rentals go fast!