Is it important to live near child's primary school?

[MumToBe1980]

Hi, my lb starts school in September and we are currently looking at moving home. The school is in a small village, and we chose the school based on its homely feeling. Ideally we would buy here but property doesn't come up very often and is expensive. We have been offered the opportunity to potentially buy a property a friend of a friend is selling, we think it is in budget but top end, just big enough and will probably need new kitchen, bathroom etc. We have also just seen a property in a small town about 10mins drive away, large house, area OK, massive lovely garden, a little work but about 30k less than village home. My question is how important is it to live close to school. Don't mind the travel but from the social making friends, play dates side of things? My son is very shy so do not want it even more difficult for him to make friends.

Sorry for long post, would really appreciate any thoughts x

A ten minute drive is nothing.

My daughters is ten mins away.

We have no issues with any of the things you have mentioned.

Good luck with the your house!

I like being able to walk to school but mainly because the parking is terrible and would be really stressful. What’s the parking like? Making friends will be fine either way.

Private school?

State schools have made their offers yet and I wouldn’t go anything expensive just before you find out

I love the fact that we can walk too school and don't have to deal with the parking nightmare.

My eldest went to school a 10 min drive away from where we lived. No issues with friends just a bit of a pain always having to drive especially the few times I was ill and not really up to it.

My youngest goes to school across the road which has been a godsend with pre covid school interaction. Hubby ended up going to school for 3 meetings in one day once! Schools get marked on their parent involvement these days and you get invited to lots of things thst we didn't with my eldest.

I would move close to the school. Or is there a school closer to the cheaper house?

My son went to school 10 minute drive from our house, it wasn't walkable. His did struggle socially and we found he was often left out of plans because I would have to drive. Local friends and school were a must have for us when we moved.

Parking is not too bad, my sister lives around the corner so can always use her drive!

It's a state school but quite undersubscribed and he was also offered a place at nursery there (couldn't take it due to work commitments) so confident he will get a place but that is a good point!

I wouldn't pay more for a smaller house because it was closer to a primary school.

There are lots of things you can do to help your son (and you!) integrate yourself into school life.

You could always park outside the village and walk into school with others - but in all honesty everyone will be rushing to get to school and work so there really won't be much chat going on.

You will make more friends at pick up, when parents tend to chat as they wait for children to come out. You could always park away from the school and walk with people as they come out.

Is there a park in the village? An after school 15 minutes in the park always used to be a thing with the kids at my DDs primary school, so you could easily join in with something like that.

You could also be a bigger part of school life and get to know people that way. Join the PTA, go and listen to children reading, help at school events, etc.

At weekends you could get involved with village life. Become a regular at the local pub, join in whatever activities are going on in the village.

Buying an unsuitable house will just make you miserable. Get the house that's right for your family and find other ways to be part of your DSs school.

If the drive doesn’t involve the likelihood of being stuck in peak hour traffic every morning it sounds very doable.

I thought you were going to say 30 minutes away or more, 10 minutes is nothing if you live rurally

I wouldn't base a house purchase in the situation you describe on how near it is to the school if you know you'll get in.

I’d also want the bigger garden. School is only 39 weeks. But you’ve still got weekends and hols and evenings. So the garden will be great for that.

My sons school is a 20 minute walk, 15 if he walks a bit quicker, but I say 20 so as not to rush. It's not a problem at all.

We had 3 options, 1 school that is about a 20 minute walk down residential side streets, some of which have a lot of trees on so there can be a lot of leaves and be slippery if it's raining or wet. 1 that is also about a 20 minute walk down a main road, and the other is literally on the next street and about 5-10 minutes away maximum.

We went to all 3 schools and chose the best school for him. It wed the 1st option listed above. It was by far the best, though you could say the most difficult to get to depending on the weather.

That sounds fine. We live rurally and our dc go to the catchment school and that's a 10 minute drive away. There aren't any closer, next closest would be 15 minutes in the other direction. It's absolutely fine.

I don’t think it’s a big deal. My daughter’s school is 3.5 miles from our house and her friends from there live all over the place. When it’s allowed we’ll just drive her/her friends for play dates.

10 minutes is actually nothing for a village school, I bet there will be lots of other children travelling in. It's not like a big city catchment where everyone lives within a couple of streets.

One thing I would say though is do the drive at school time and pick up time before you commit! And be prepared to be doing a lot of nipping in and out when activities and stuff start up again.