Moving house...

[LeedsDad]

I'm in a bit of a quandry so I thought I'd just throw this one out to see if anyone has had a similar experience.

Long story but I need to move house and at some point (3-12 months) my 2 children will be joining me. In an ideal world every parent sends their children to their closest local school and everyone gets a good eductaion. Hands up who lives in an ideal world? No, didn't think so.

Obviously schooling is not my only consideration on choosing where to live but I have total flexibilty so long as I'm not too far away from work, so anywhere in a 20 mile radius really, but for lots of reasons the closer the better.

So, all other things being equal (which they aren't ) I have a choice:

1. Move to a suburban area close to work where all the good schools are either fully subscribed or at least very nearly fully subscribed on the chance that in 3-12 months there will be two places...

OR

2. Move to a rural area much further away from work where I know there are currently paces at a good school. This would be the clear option if I could guarantee that BOTH these places will still be available in 3-12 months time.

So... your thoughts please, what would you do? Go easy on me this is my first post!

Have you visited the schools? Do and talk to the head teacher about possibility of places, etc. Find out how oversubscribed, if your children are past year 2 then schools can go over their admission number. My DCs primary frequently has 32 or 33 in a class, and yes parents are desperate to get their kids in. Another school close to us has gone up from an intake of 60 to 90.

You also can appeal when you move into an area. You do also need to check what the entry criteria are.

Good luck!

Option 2: if you get one child in, the school are more likely to fit both children in if they ever could. And it's a good school and that has to be the main thing.

Though, it does have to be balanced with how drained you are going to be if you have to travel very long distances every day to get to and from work and the impact that will have on your children/ family life.

That's not so much an answer as another way of stating your dilemma, which might help you make up your own mind. Which is the only way it's going to be a happy outcome

Thanks for the comments.

I'm going to go with the area and school that's closest to my work and see how things pan out. Might as well aim for my preffered option.

Maybe the school we eventually get offer will be goode enough and if worst comes to the worst I can always move... again.

Cheers!