Move to Lincoln or Nottingham, advice please

[MonsterBookOfTysons]

Hi I am looking at moving from Northampton to Lincoln or Nottingham next year.
What area's of Lincoln or Nottingham should I be looking at moving to or should definately avoid?
I have 2 young dc so good schools are a must :)
Sorry if in wrong section, I do not usually come out of chat :o

What's taking you to the area? They're an hour apart.

Well, if Nottingham the obvious area for good state schools at all levels is West Bridgford, where there are two good secondaries and good and outstanding primaries. There are other good ones but there are some very low-scoring secondaries in the city too. If you look up school results you'll see the variation.

If Catholic, Beckett School is good and covers a wide catchment. If private, I think the High School is ok, most central anyway, there are others.

Type of house required and budget will be a major determining factor. WB has good family homes but is expensive partly because of the schools.

To be closer to my mum in Sleaford by train as in cheaper fares but near a University :)
WB I will search around there then, At the moment ds has got into the best state primary in Northampton imo and that is the only thing holding me back, so if I can get him into another good school I won't feel like I have let him down.
We need a 2/3 bed house with a garden. Budget is about £550-£600
Thanks for the replies

Oh meant to say we are just looking at state schools.

Is that £550-600 a month rent? Or £550-600k to buy? If the latter you have no barrier to finding a nice family home in any part of Nottingham (expect maybe The Park - v nice central area, though not near good state schools).

Beeston worth a look though wrong side for Lincs, Southwell village is west of N'ham and has a very good secondary.

Oh rent, I wish I could buy, it is my plan after university :)
I have just looked on right move and there is two properties under budget in that area. :o

Yes, you should be ok renting at that amount, for 2-3 beds.

WB is also not far from the train station and buses into the centre pass it and are very frequent.

Just looked at southwell and fell in love with a house :o
I like the WB area best I think, seems to have what I am after.

Does anyone know which university is the best out of University of Nottingham and Nottingham trent university? They both do my courses

Thank you so much, I am really grateful for the help, I don't want to end up in Nottingham's equivalent of Northampton's eastern district :o

I live in Stapleford. It's OK, the shops are basic though (couple of small supermarkets, butchers, greengrocers etc). People are friendly, transport links are good into Nottingham and my next door neighbour says the state schools are OK. It's very close to the Uni and the house prices are cheap. It isn't as posh as West Bridgeford though but it depends on what you're looking for.

Of course when I said west I meant east!!

To generalise grossly, Nottingham is more prestigous than Trent but it will depend on the course.

LadySybil I am not worried about posh houses so to speak, just nice area and neighbours where I can feel at home. So will look at Stapleford to thanks :)

Lottiegb my course is History and Criminolgy, I aim to do a PGCE afterwards, I suppose it depends on entry requirements then. :)

It's not bad. I moved here 7 weeks ago. It does remind me of a small seaside town for some reason, just without the sea and without the rock. There's a fair amount of charity shops, a few pubs, a couple of parks, a health centre (has a dentist and physio inside so it's very useful), even a library.

Lady it sounds perfect, dh works as a chef in a pub so the pubs are useful :o
I have looked on Right Move at Stapleford and there is quite a bit of choice for our budget, nice gardens!
I live in a 2 bed flat with a 1 and 4 year old if that helps explain the garden obsession :o

Oh, that would drive me nuts! There's a brand new Wetherspoons, tis lurvely.

Wetherspoons is good! Always a job going there :o
Can't wait till I show dh all the positives!
Is the Ikea easy to public transport too? I will have a car again by then but dh can't drive and would like to have more things to do without waiting for me to be available :)
He loves Ikea :o

Adverse :o at the flatness! I think I have discounted Lincoln due to the high admission criteria for the Uni, I am not smart enough :o
History is more important tbh, I am happy to change from Criminology to something else. I love History!

I haven't tried going to Ikea. I did order online and it took a week to turn up though, it would have been quicker to walk. I know that there's a bus from Nottingham which goes there, but it's not too far from here so there's possibly other routes.

If it were me, I'd stay close to Derbyshire. There's quite a lot there, Chatsworth House is lovely. There's a few buses which go to Derby from here, so I'm happy. I do miss Nero's though.

Yes, there's some great people in there, Adversecamber! How are you, dear?

History and Criminology isn't a great combination to be honest. I can see the attraction, if you're hoping to teach would it be better to stick to one? Derby uni do mixed degrees. I went there though and it's not the greatest of Universities. There's a lot of investment into how it looks, the teaching is hit and miss though.

I have just seen how cheap the train is to Matlock Bath! £8 return, I want to move now :o
Ooh I want to be in the mn pub :o

Oh I thought it was better to do two degrees, I would much prefer to do the one then the PGCE. :)

If schools are an important factor, I'd start with those - especially if you think you might be there long enough for secondaries to be relevant, as their larger catchments will help determine which areas you could live in. There is a real mixed bag in N'ham.

I've looked on 'up your street' (or is it 'my street'?) anyway, you can look up the scores for at all schools in a town, or wider area, to get an idea. I know there's more to it than numbers but you will get a sense of where is good and where to steer well clear.

lottie good plan, i will have a good look. Schools are the number one importance. :)

It's really easy to get to the train station from here. A combined degree isn't really 2 degrees, it's more like 2 halfs of a degree. I know not too much about the schools. The woman next door works at the local primary school though, and she's lovely. I see the older children from the local secondary on the bus, they are always well behaved.

Just be aware that west bridgford schools have a good reputation and so because of that are often over subscribed. With other areas of Nottingham you run the risk of good primaries but not so good secondaries. Avoid the park or mapperly park unless you can afford private schools. Lovely areas to live, no schools.
I'd think carefully about moving if you have a good school place in Northampton. Nottingham is mainly horrible. Sleaford is also a fair way from Nottingham.