Longlevens or Bishops Cleeve?

[Ktjay]

Hi. I know this is a bit of a random question, but we are looking to move house and can't afford Cheltenham prices - ideally want a 4 bed within decent school catchment - looking at no more than 380K. So we thought of moving a little bit outside of town, but don't want to be rural. We've maybe narrowed it down to either of the above, we don't know a great deal about the schools in either but understand they are good - am aware of Ofstead results but feel there is more to the choice than the number. Would love other people's opinions please - don't want it to turn into a Chelt/Glos debate though! ;-) TIA

As someone who moved their child out of a school OFSTED rave about, but was horrendous on the ground, I would look at Parent View reports more than OFSTED ones. The one we moved him to has 100 for "would you recommend this school to other parents" while the nightmare one has only 75%. I have heard bad things about pastoral care at Gotherington, which is supposedly a beacon school by OFSTED's lights, but that was only one parent and obviously I don't know how justified it is. I do know that getting shiny OFSTED results often means a school stages like crazy and hires consultancy companies to ensure they tick all the checked boxes - anything not measured by OFSTED is not seen as in any way important.

I would also buy the Land Registry reports on any property before making an offer, checking out the flood risk for the specific property which is now on offer for all of them in the country. We did that for one that had a 1 in 35 year flood risk - not something you want to learn after getting solicitors involved when you can do it for a tenner yourself at the off! I also suspect that the way the climate is going can only increase the given risks. Extreme weather patterns are becoming almost normal.

Longlevens floods badly, as do parts of Cleeve. I think the prices aren't unrelated to that tbh.

Hucclecote is another nice area in your sort of price range, along with Churchdown, perhaps? And if you bought a nice, largeish Victorian three bed in any of those areas - the kind with the big bay window - you could afford to fill in the side return to create a huge kitchen, plus punch up into the attic to create another large bedroom there, and a small en suite. That way you have the kitchen you want and aren't paying for someone else's taste, get a big enough house to live in, put yourself on a separate floor (and bathroom) from teenagers, and increase your equity at the same time.