Moving From USA to Sheffield England need advice and help?

[merlgirl]

I'm trying to decide if I should stay in the USA or move to Sheffield England.
My daughter is 12 and she ice Skates, so I will need a good coach for her, great school and a place to rent. Any help?? Advice???

Thanks so much

If you ring the admissions team, ask about how you'll need to go about things as you'll probably be moving outside of the normal applications process. If a school is full, you can appeal under some circumstances but also be placed on waiting lists for as many schools as you like in case a places becomes available.

Good luck with your search.

So then children are placed in schools based on the area they live in?

Thanks.

Assuming there is space in the relevant age group. If local schools or those of your choice are full, you'd be offered nearest with a space. Main entry point to state secondary is year 7 , so your application would be deemed "In Year" as she would join an already established year group. There should be details of the process on the Local Authority website but you may not be able to apply until you have a UK address (signed lease for example).

I keep getting information that there are gangs in Sheffield and how this is a real problem over there, does anyone know about this?

Are there gangs there? Read a few police reports as well.

Thanks for being honest.

I've lived in Sheffield for over 40 years, there are no gang problems as far as I'm aware.

I was born in Sheffield, and have lived here for most of my life.

I know nothing about any gangs, absolutely nothing. There are just no gangs at all in Crosspool. It's an exceptionally safe city, but l guess it has its rough parts like any other city.Crosspool is very quiet with lots of trees and grass. Teenagers complain it's boring😀

But all the ' naice' areas are on one side of the city. There are no gangs round here! All little kids in bed by about 8. Older ones will be doing homework. There are community groups, but they do things like gardening or raising issues about parking.

Sheffield is a very safe city. I've said this before on anotherthread about living in Sheffield when there were the big riots in the UK, Sheffield was the only major UK city not to experience any.

It's a great place to live, I've happily walked home from town at midnight, I'll happily wait for a bus home at 1am, you might have to dodge a drunk student or two but I've had no issues.

Yes, it is exceptionally safe. My mum once went on holiday for a fortnight and forgot to lock the front door!

I think like any city there is crime. It happens, and it might include some small scale gang stuff round drugs but it really doesn't affect the vast majority of people in the city. I'd have no problem being out in the city centre by myself and generally I feel safe, and not just in my quiet little neighbourhood.

Katz, what area do you live in please?

Thanks everyone for your advice and great tips.

No gangs where I live at all. Very little crime at all when you look at the police crime website, in this area.

There are some small very localised issues in some areas but that is no different to any other city or bigger town - all will be fairly varied in their make up.

I've lived in Sheffield for over 20 years now and never seen or had any trouble from any gangs at all.

I live in S10

Sheffield has one of the highest retention rates of students in the country: ie they come here to study and then stay. I was one of them - came for a postgrad for 1 year and stayed for 21.

In a previous job I spent a lot of time in other cities and I can honestly say Sheffield has one of the nicest atmospheres. Every place has social problems but like most places they tend to be geographically concentrated (sadly for the people stuck in those ares). The south and south west of the city, as others have said, are leafy and as safe as you'll find anywhere. Also very middle class, which may or may not bother you (eg depending on whether you mind the subtle pressure to 'keep up with the Joneses' and have the cash to shell out for pricey school trips).

Millhouses, Ecclesall, Carterknowle, most of Nether Edge (bit more studenty) also lovely places to be with a mix of housing (Victorian terraces and semi-detached with small gardens; 1930s semi-detached with big gardens; 60s/70s estates with HUGE amounts of indoor space by UK standards) and also 'good/outstanding' schools (depending on what matters to you about a school): High Storrs, Silverdale, King Ecgberts, .

All on the other side of the city to Ice Sheffield though. But on the right side if you're likely to be going to Nottingham.

It doesn't feel like a big city, more like a series of very well connected small towns where you'll almost always find that you have a friend in common when you meet someone new. Great cultural life too. Lots of music, arts, theatre, and the kind of place where if people want something to happen, they just get on and do it themselves.

It does snow a lot in Sheffield though...

Really, didn't know it snowed a lot there, so thanks for that tip. Your descriptions of areas really helps, so thanks for that as well.

Not sure we Floridian would take to the cold year round though!! Lol! Well her education is of most importance to me and skating is 2nd, but I'm trying live where we can have good access to the best of both, if possible.

What make the school trips so pricey? Where do they go?

Thank you both.

merlgirl well pricey for us. eg £600 for a week in Europe in year 6 (think that's 5th grade equivalent) which is pretty much our entire family holiday budget for the year usually. The big expensive residential things aren't compulsory but if you go to school in a reasonably well-off area then school will ask parents for contributions to a load of things. Often small amounts but it adds up.

And the snow, well, it's a bit erratic. Hardly any this year but we had a good 6 or so consecutive years of a good fortnight of the whole place looking white. And I wouldn't call it loads by north american standards. My Canadian cousins think it's hilarious when I post photos of 18" of snow and call it loads .

Yes compare to Canada that would be funny, but it is cold just the same.

The schools are the same here though I have to say. Especially the Charter schools, which my daughter attends.

Thanks so much!

No , perhaps not loads😄. I was comparing it to when l lived in Manchester for 11 years where it snowed once!

But when the country overall is in a snowy period, Sheffield usually cops for some of it!

What is the cost of living like? Is house and car insurance expensive?

What kinds of benefits are there for UK citizens except for health care?

Sheffield has the great distinction of have some of the least and most socially deprived neighbourhoods on Europe within a few miles of each other.

Stick to S10 and S11 and avoid The Manor, Gleadless and Attercliffe and you'll be OK.

I love Sheffield (lived at Hunter's Bar and Ringinlow) and only moved because our landlord sold our house! Neither of us was working in S anymore, so it made sense to move. We live between Sheffield and Leeds now, and Sheffield is always my "go to" city of the 2.

Sheffield is home to the English Institute of Sport and is a very sporty city.

Hippyish means bohemian.

Snow, yes! When we got married at the end of April (many years ago) we had the number of the snowplough man to come and let us out. We did live in Ringinlow though, which is practically a mountain!

Ringinglow is lovely though. Have you read the Rocking horses of Ringinglow?

I think Ringinglow is a lovely name. I also liked the name of the bit of Sheffield called Hangingwater..until I found out that. it was where they hung people!

I haven'theses of that book Emoji, but will check it out. I believe Ringinlow was so named because they used to ring bells to warn the people of Sheffield when the fog was low.

I didn't know that about Ringinglow, very interesting.

In terms of house and car insurance, I guess they'll be roughly comparable to other parts of the country, taking into account house prices, crime rates and local variations such as flood risk.

House prices vary alot according to area of the city. We're in a nice enough area, in s8, it's within our budget and also reasonably safe with primary and secondary schools we like. One mile one way there are houses we could only dream of owning, a mile the other way, areas we'd probably choose not to live in but are probably fine. I'm sure some people in the naice parts of town may think that about our street though - originally leafy council housing but now about half privately owned. Works for us and is still close enough to the hills to easily pop out for a morning scrambling over the rocks.

Hello. Sheffield is lovely. There are lots of lovely bits to live in, as mentioned above. Also as you have mentioned God a few times thought you might like to know about churches? There are lots of lovely welcoming ones you just have to choose which style suits you. Hope city, St thoms crookes, the well and St thoms Philadelphia are quite upbeat, evangelical style churches or if you wanted something a bit more traditional I have heard lovely things about the cathedral. Whatever you fancy there are lots of vibrant churches around.

Benefits wise you get child benefit and tax credits if you are working and job seekers I f you aren't. Most of them are dependant on how much you earn I. E. Are there to stop people from living in poverty.