So here's a bit about the schools from a parent's point of view - any teachers pls correct me if I'm wrong!
State schools are free. Some have before or after school club/ care for a small fee which might be useful if you and your husband are working as the child can be looked after 8am-6/6.30pm.
You may see that state schools can be "Church of England" or "Catholic" which means they often use criteria of church attendance to admit pupils if they are oversubscribed. If they are "voluntary aided" (VA) it means the church has an interest and some say in the running of the school but in my experience, not much of a say! If the school is voluntary controlled (VC) it means the church is more involved in the governance of the school. Obvs as a church school there will be some worship but it really depends on the school ie my son attends a CofE school. They don't use religion as an entrence criteria at all and seem to do minimal religious stuff e.g. 1 religious assembly per week on a theme that is pertinent to non Christians e.g. "difference". You have the right to withdraw your child from religious studies/ assemblies if you like.
You may also see a state school that is an "Academy" - this means that the school has opted out of some of the controls that local govenment has traditionally had on schools e.g recruitment of teachers, spending.
If it is a "Free school", this is a school that has been set up by a group of e.g parents or a business rather than the state but they do still follow the national curriculum that all schools are supposed to follow. All the free schools round here are free to attend.
Public/ independant/ fee paying schools you must pay for. You tend to get smaller class sizes and good facilities. The most popular in Chester are Kings, Queens, the Firs, Abbey Gate.
High schools are for 11-16 year olds. In Chester the most popular ones (with good results) are Christleton, Upton and Bishops Bluecoat.
Grammar schools are high schools (11-16) for which your child must pass the 11 plus exam towards the end of primary school and achieve a certain grade before being considered for entry but even once you have passed, the school will only take the X nearest children to the school if they are oversubscribed so there is no guarantee of entry. The nearest Grammer schools to Broughton are on the Wirral e.g Calday Grange. You need to factor in whether an hour each way on the school bus if you live in Chester/ Wales will be a good use of your child's time!
Schools are regularly inspected so check out OFSTED website (english schools) and ESTYN (welsh schools) for reports.
Also bear in mind that schools are often "full" in some years. We had to wait 6 weeks for my son to be offered a place at any of our six choices of primary school as his year group was full.
All school application/ allocation is done by the local council not the individual schools. You can contact the council via the Cheshire West and Chester Council website (schools section) to ask them which schools have places, though this may change by the time you get there.
As far as where to live? It really depends what you are looking for. We moved to Chester because I was used to living in a city and wanted to be somewhere with a bit of life and things to do! But there are beautiful small towns and villages e.g. Hawarden, Christleton, Mollington. Areas we liked in Chester are Hoole, Handbridge, Newton, Upton, all quite near to the city centre.
Please PM me if you want any more info or want to chat!