Hoping to move to Fordingbridge - some questions

[chicaguapa]

Hello. We're currently living in north Manchester/ East Lancs but hoping to move to Fordingbridge in the summer hols. We moved to where we are now from Cockermouth, which is pretty famous now and we loved it there, though it was too remote, which is why we moved towards Manchester. I get the feeling that Fordingbridge is a similar kind of place to Cockermouth; old market town, similar sized population, by a river... but closer to some larger towns/ cities.

I was wondering a few things really... are the Fordingbridge infant/ junior schools as good as Ofsted say? DD (8) has a few needs (SEN and A&T) so finding a school that is good in those areas is a priority. I don't like to ring up and ask those kinds of questions, though I will if I go and have a look around.

Also DH will be teaching in a secondary school so a heads up on which schools to look for/ be wary of would be really helpful during the job hunting season. He'll be teaching science/ chemistry as an NQT so I'm not sure how much choice there will be though.

I have been looking at properties in the area to get an idea of what we'll be able to get and we'll be renting intially so we are not held up by selling our house here. But it's hard to tell what are the nice places to live. How far away is Alderholt from Fordingbridge and are there any other places to consider in the area?

Sorry, loads and loads of questions but we don't know anyone down there so I'm hoping there'll be some people on here from there who can help out please.

Thanks.

Can't answer any of your questions but am VV jealous! I used to live in salisbury and would love to move back down that way again. Fordingbridge is lovely. Ringwood ditto, some of the little villages between Ringwood and Salisbury may be a bit on the small side.

Good luck

I went to school in Fordingbridge a very long time ago and have some lovely memories of the New Forest. I just hope the rest of the family like it as much. DH is a true northerner and doesn't really like the materialistic attitude that he sees when we visit my family in Surrey, when they are all comparing iPhone apps and their new cars. Hopefully Fordingbridge is far enough away from London for house prices not to dominate conversations.

I grew up in Ferndown and my family still live there. Great place but houses re expensive as near beach and new forest. Schools are all wonderful, and yes has a market town feel but not country like. I prefer salisbury and you get so much more for our money there.

Salisbury schools are really super too

Can you recommend some areas/ schools in Salibury then? I'll have a look at rightmove. I might be working in Salisbury (if I decide to transfer internally with work) so it's do-able.

THanks.

We're in Southampton but seriously considered Fordingbridge for our recent move. My family live about 5 miles away towards Salisbury, it's a lovely area on the edge of the New Forest and only about 20 mins from Bournemouth beaches. Moors Valley Country Park is also fab for families, at Ringwood.

We looked at buying a house in Alderholt, which has a lovely village feel to it (but couldn't find the right property for us). Make sure you look at the development plan though as when we were looking, work was underway to build a significant new housing estate. Also, IIRC Alderholt isn't in automatic catchment for the Fordingbridge schools (certainly not for secondary), so check out the school catchment areas/boundaries when you do your research. The Fordingbridge infant and junior schools are apparently very good, but there is also a village school in Alderholt.

Burgate School (secondary with sixth form) in Fordingbridge has an excellent reputation and would be well worth your DH considering. If he's thinking of working in Salisbury schools, it still supports of the very few remaining state grammar systems: Bishop Wordsworth's for boys, and South Wilts for girls. There are several other secondary schools, such as Salisbury High School, several independent schools, and there are tentative plans afoot to merge three existing secondary schools in the Laverstock area of the city into an academy (St Joseph's, St Edmunds and Wyvern College).

Hope this is useful; you've made a great choice of area !

It is useful - thanks. DD is in a small school at the moment and I'm quite keen to move her to a bigger one with two year groups as I think it will help her socially so that's why I like Fordingbridge Junior over the smaller village schools.

DH is quite interested in Burgate for the reason that it's got a 6th Form and he wants to teach A Level. He's also got his eye on Hounsdown in Totton as it's specialist science but there's no 6th form. Hopefully he'll actually have a choice rather than just taking what he can find!

Hi we live in Ringwood . Ringwood School is great and has 6th form ,Dd is in yr 13 there. I have also heard good things about Burgate.
Moyles Court and Forres Sandle Manor schools near Fordingbridge are also good independent schools if your dh is interested.

Verwood primary schools also good

I would avoid schools that feed into Ferndown Upper as that does not have such a good reputation.

Thank you ggirl. I went to Moyles Court when I was younger and would love DD to go there but DH is not 'into' paying for education. I don't know if he can do his NQT there as not all independent schools meet the requirements. Ringwood is a specialist language school which interests me. I guess I need DH to teach at the school I don't want DC to go to.