Relocating for good schools and better properties which areas of England best?

[katekat]

Hello, I'm looking for some ideas on best areas to live in UK school wise and quality of life. We live in Surrey, 2 children - 6 and 2 in a good primary school but not so good area (children/parents - poor and rough background). Working full time as a manager in utilities company, DH as meintanance technician, total earnings £65k per year. All we can afford in our area is a 2 bed flat or house, approx £275k property max.
I have been looking at property prices around UK and couldnt believe what a beautiful 4 bed properties you could get for less than our budget. Big gardens, lovely areas... I was looking only at one area but i know there is much more there.
My question is, because the properties are so much cheaper than london/surrey area, does it mean that earnings are much less or really hard to find a job? Or are those places poor with educational standard? Is it worth relocating? Which areas do you think are best for schools, not only primary but secondary, and meeting our criteria of cheap properties and likelyness of getting a job easily with a reasonable enough pay to afford paying £1200 per month morgage? And of course children friendly areas!

Am I asking for an 'ideal world' or is it quite reasonable to achieve?

Many thanks,
Kate

Villages North of Aylesbury or around Buckingham in Buckinghamshire. Lots of good primary schools and grammar schools too. Be careful as secondary moderns not so hot, except Waddesdon C of E Secondary school. Best to live there if u want that school. Nice places to live and not horrendously expensive housing. Cannot comment on jobs I'm afraid as not in jobs market. However Milton Keynes and Oxford are not far away.

Afraid you hit the nail on the head- jobs are scarce, wages generally much, much lower outside of the south east/ home counties / London area.

To give an example: in my (public sector) job I had to take a pay cut of around 1/3 when moving from a job in the Home Counties to an identical job in the south west. When I worked 'oop north, pay difference was a bit less extreme, but similar.

And it's extremely difficult to find professional jobs in more rural areas, so would be realistic to assume only one of you will get a reasonably paid job. Minimum wage jobs are the norm.

That's not to say you couldn't find somewhere nicer/ more affordable than Surrey - but it's very unlikely you'd take your 65k income with you.

That's what i was worried about - jobs and wages... What about Worcester area, like Redditch, Solihull etc. I know there are few utilities companies there, will be easier to find jobs, but is the schooling good?

sadly the salaries are likely to be lower than Surrey. We are in Dorset - the average salary where we are is something like 19k and I think the national average is higher than that. To buy a 3 bed detached house here in a not great area (think drug dealing etc) can be anywhere from £240-350 depending if detached or not, on the nice estates it would be about £230 for a terraced 3 bed with small garden. So whilst you would get a 3bed house in your budget rather than a 2 bed you would probably end up with a combined income about £40k rather than 65. 2 beds (VERY small 2 beds) on a nice estate are about £190k.

Schools are mostly good though, some are excellent but some are awful. Like everywhere the schools are a mixed bag, it depends so much on the particular staff in the school at the time IMO.

If you go further north then (my family are north) then you will find salaries are the same as somewhere like Dorset but house prices are a lot less.

I would probably say to get cheaper property you will have to go north or Wales (not south or south west as they are very expensive and in the south west jobs are scarce) but I am not sure Wales has an abundance of jobs either.

I'd second Worcester/Hereford as a lovely area (mostly - everywhere has its bad bits) with reasonable house prices. Don't know about salaries in your line but someone I know moved from Kent to Worcester and seems happy with the change.

Trafford has excellent schools and reasonable house prices and some very nice affluent areas. It does have pockets of deprivation too, but on the whole you can get a nice property near excellent schools for a good price whilst avoiding the areas that are not so desirable.
Wages are less up North though and that is one of the reasons for the lower property prices

Hi Kate, I think other people have answered this better than I can

I suppose I am wondering do you WANT to move? Are your children happy in their school which you say is good? If so then the poor area should not have a huge impact.

On the other hand if you want a prettier area and a complete change then obviously it is worth doing.

I live in an area which is poor and where schools have been less than brilliant in the pat. However, big changes have happened and the numbers of children achieving the five A* - C passes has risen significantly in the past five years. I think these changes in schools have been good and as far as I know they are national changes. Therefore in even poor areas children are doing much better.

I can understand the desire to make a future in an area where you might all have a better quality of life though.

Solihull has a thriving economy (Jaguar landrover anyone ?) and has some excellent schools and some dodgy parts too.

There are a lot of selective grammar schools around too.

I know E.ON UK and Severn Trent based around Solihull/West Warwicks border. Think they have been making staff cuts recently however.

Fantastic primary and comprehensive schools in these areas as well as good grammars in Stratford. Problem is house prices also very expensive particularly in areas with good comps. Not going to get much for £275k.

Redditch is cheaper and still in commuting distance for companies above. Schools more mixed unless you can get into Alcester Grammar or travel to Birmingham grammar schools.

I think all of you answered my questions perfectly which leaves me with the decision of trying to find a job first and then to decide what and where we can move and if it's all worth it or not. My job is really the only thing which keeps me in surrey, being lucky enough to have a pay rise at least once a year or a promotion. It is mostly the desire of having a bigger house and some space, big garden etc, which up north, especiallly around Birmingham seemes amazing.

With regards to primary school my daughter is in, how much influence class mates might have on the behaviour and how does it usually affect the performance? I alteady had questions from DD on why is it rude to show a middle finger :) a killer question, i dont even know the answer haha. But someone in her class keeps on doing it and the teacher said you are not allowed. It's just a small thing, but who knows what comes next. The staff and teachers are great, worked so hard to get from satisfactory ofsted to good this year. DD is so hapy there... Really in a dilemma on what to do... I don't really want to move and leave everything behind, friends especially, as no familyaround. But sometimes you need to make hard choices in life...

I'm in the same situation as you and am also based in Surrey. I have lived in other parts of the UK and while the wages are lower in other parts I find the gap between Surrey wages and house prices enormous and we have no hope of buying (unless its a tiny flat) if we stay here. Thankfully my DH works in the emergency services so he can transfer and only take a small paycut, while I will have to get what I can really.

I think we are spolt in Surrey with Schools as my Son goes to one that is currently classed as 'Good' but thats considered one of the worst in the area we live in!

I know the Worcester-ish area a little. On the schooling front, it may be useful to know that some parts of the county have the 3-tier structure (First, Middle and Upper schools) while others have a more conventional 2 tier structure. Even within the 3-tier structure there is local variation - in some areas transfer is after Year 4 [and i think Year 7], in others after Year 5 and after Year 8.

In many ways the 3 tier structure is good - often small nurtuting first schools, larger middle schools but without older teens, and 'grown up' high / upper schools. But if you are anyway moving from one area of the country to another, it can add to the number of school moves for each child.

Schools are highly variable. Much of the county is, of course, rural - and that means a lack of effective school choice, with virtually everyone tied to a single local school because distances between are too far. Obviously not such an issue in the bigger towns further North towards Birmingham, but a consideration in many other areas. You therefore need to make certain that your first move is to the 'right place' - in terms of ALL tiers of schooling - as there is then relatively little flexibility.

As others have said - look at jobs first.
We spent a year looking into a move but looked at jobs last (having taken that a bit for granted) and needless to say we will not be moving!! Good luck. I enjoyed reading Andrew Penman's School Daze in relation to picking schools even though my research ended up being irrelevant.

Move to south Belfast, loads of excellent schools, primary and secondary, lovely houses, great area to raise children. Slightly different education system than you're used to but NI has consistently out-performed the rest of the UK at GCSE and A level (with virtually no private school system).

are you really thinking of leaving your job, home and good primary because a child showed yours a rude gesture?

Have a look at the detailed statistics for your school. A good school is one which enables students of all abilities to fulfil or exceed their target levels. That is all you need to be sure of.

IME the wages are lower but not disproportionately, ie, when you consider how much more you have to pay for property in Surrey, you will be better off in the Midlands, as long as you can secure a job. 2 of DH's brothers live in the Midlands but commute to London, as despite the long commute and travel costs, they can afford a much better quality of life up here. I'm from Surrey, and much as though I'd love to live closer to my friends and family, even with a wage increase, buying a property which is halfway decent is impossible.

Plenty of excellent schools up in the Midlands, just do your research very carefully first (unless you plan to rent for 6 months- a year first to get a feel for different places).