Would you move 40 minutes away if your child is settled?

[ThatLivelyCat]

Hi, would you move 40minutes away if your child was already very well settled in a brilliant school and properly going to continue there for secondary. House is bigger, offers rental income, bit bigger garden but some parts of new house would be compromise.

If the only reason to move is a bigger house, then no.

not unless it was still relatively simple for them to get to school.

No

If this is a state school, how are secondary school places allocated? Is the current primary a feeder school for the secondary in your current area, and you can be totally confident that all applicants under the 'feeder school' criterion will get places - that is, it won't get to the situation where PAN is reached within that criterion, distance is the ranking factor and an address 40 minutes away wouldn't get in? I can certainly think of one urban area where that has happened (with unsuccessful applicants living a lot closer than a 40 minute journey away) for at least the last two years.

I am confused. Is new house in same secondary catchment as old house? Seems unlikely if distance is a 40 minute drive? Do you intend to change primary school or not? What year is your child in? Any SEN?

If the only reason for moving is a bigger/"better" house (rather than, say, secondary catchment, or significant improvement to work commute) then it would need to tick all the boxes - not with some parts that are a compromise.

We moved DS when he was in Y3 but this was to get into catchment for a much better secondary school, and we thought it was better to move him to a feeder primary as well. Distance-wise it wasn't a massive move so we could (and did) still see friends from old school sometimes. He continues to attend the same Cubs with old friends etc. House is bigger and we are improving it.

What's this rental income you speak of?! Does the potential new house have an annexe or something that you can rent out? Seems a faff to me, personally.

I moved my kids (and DH) to a new location 2hrs away when the kids were half way through primary. But that is because I had a new and much better job in the new location. You need to consider the full picture- house and jobs and community and connections to family. And decide on a location. If you are going to move a child, younger is better

Disrupt them just to live in a bigger house? Only if the current house is overcrowded or some other major problem and this is the only way to overcome it