Moving to Belfast

[Vvvzzzxxx]

My husband has had a job offer in Belfast and we have two children aged 9 and 12 educated in England. I am looking for advice for nice family areas to live in with good schools. The company we will be working for will be paying our accommodation so we can afford somewhere in a nice area. One parent is Catholic and one parent is Church of England - will that be a problem? The children are just brought up Christian. I understand my 12 year old may need to take a test for Year 8 of a grammar school. My 9 year old seems more tricky as DD is currently in year 5 with a July 4th birthday but I understand the cut of date in NI is July 1st so she would go into the year below. Does anyone have any experience in asking for a child to be put in the year above if that is how they have been educated in England? Thank you.

Is your 12 year old in Year 7? Over here it's called year 8 so it gets a bit confusing! Primary is P1-P7 and then secondary is Y8 to Y12 (or Y14 if they've a sixth form).
Once you know where you want to live you could contact the local schools and see what their advice is. Schooling here is considered to be pretty good although there are budgeting issues.
The vast majority of people won't care about your religion although I'd say NI is still more religious than the rest of the UK. Primary school assemblies etc tend to be pretty focused on Christianity. However, you can live in most places without it being an issue. South or parts of East Belfast like Ballyhackamore would be worth a look, avoid anywhere with lots of flags!

Can't help with the school queries- may be worth contacting a few schools? However, in terms of areas, the streets around Cranmore Park are beautiful near lots of shops & a very good area. It's a very small window I know! Otherwise most of South Belfast is nice. If I hadn't moved away from Belfast, that's where I wanted to live.