I have fallen in love.....

[TwinSetAndPearls]

We have been through the mill a bit lately so my mum treated dp and I to a weekend in Bristol, and I have fallen in love, not with dp ( well don't mean I don't love him but...) with Bristol. I can't remember i felt so at home anywhere, we just spent the weekend lazing about in the city centre, lounging in Clifton and drove wandering in Portishead.

Dp has been looking for a new job as we need a critical income boost ATM and he has had a call out of the blue inviting him to Bristol to speak to a recruitment agency. So we are going back and once we have done a few little jobs on our house it is going on the market!

Even though my AD are making me feel permanently exhausted and my house is a tip as I am too tired to do anything I feel like I am floating on cloud nine.

I would want to keep dd at a Catholic school, can any Bristolians recommend a good friendly catholic school with an active church in an affordable area - we have up to £165K to spend and would like a house with a garden,

i like bristol, too. Sorry i don't know much about it, though.

How old is your DD TSAPs?

St Patricks in St George is thought of very highly by the Catholic Community and St George/Hanham/Kingswood/St Annes are affordable areas. There are some parts of St George/Kingswood/St Annes that are not so desirable but other parts that are really nice. We just moved from St George to a village near Portishead but where we lives was nice, near the park.

For secondary schools there is St Bedes and St Bernadettes, both of which have a good reputation. There is also St Brendans Sixth Form College. These schools are not however near St Patricks, or each other for that matter, typical eh?

Friend sof mine that send their kids to these schools do not live in the immediate areas but take their kids to the primary school and the older ones go to secondary school on the school bus.

HTH, good luck!

Forgot about St Bonaventures primary school in Bishopston which is a nice area and might be more your cup of tea if you liked Clifton (in comparison to St George et al).

Typical examples of what is available in those areas within your budget:

www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8903942.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8708060.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8714726.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-4406590.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-9095471.rsp?pa_n=3&tr_t=buy

The estate agent said St Bonaventures, although she seemed a bit dizzy and seemed to ahve plucked it from thin air.

A friend at church who used to live in Bristol mentioned St Patricks, and my research has backed this up. ]

We are a very religious family so it is very important that the school is actively catholic with a strong community to help me settle in a new area. Dd is a strong charctar whom I know will do well in just about any school so its faith stance matters more to me than league tables - if that makes sense.

I will check out your links.

They are good finds WEstCountryLass we drove towards Kingswood but it started to look a bit grim so turned back. But I will give it another look when we get back, as I really liked the last house.

Friends have recommended Bishopston as they said it was very me, but we are struggling to find what we want on our budget. If possible we would like to keep our two reception rooms so we can use one as a playroom.

Dd will be four in a few weeks, so will be starting school next year.

I wish term time had started and I could phone the schools to see if I could look around friday while I am in town. Will do it on a later visit.

Fqueenzebra Bristol is lovely, a while back Bristolian Mumsnetters were saying I would love it and they were right!

Good luck!

Bristol is a funny old palce, I would try not to be put off by individual areas as there are nice parts to most of them.

Thanks dp has been for the interview today and been told about two jobs he could walk into but neither in Bristol. One Gloucester and the other Taunton, so not a million miles away. But he has been told that there will be work in Bristol if he hangs on although we are tempted by Taunton as I would like to continue my psychology and Exeter uni has an excellent reputaion for psychology/education which are my interests. This is sooooo exciting!