Do your dcs attend a happy and decent mixed comp? Can you buy a 4 bed house for £300,000 within walking distance?

[SusieP40]

Hi, name changer here so I dont out myself and fuel local (smallminded here!) gossip.

We have decided to move away and after months of discussion we know exactly what we want but are not sure where we can find it.

We would like dcs to attend a decent HAPPY properly comprehensive school - so preferably a grammar-free area. DS12, is so unhappy at his current school :(. We are really disappointed with the lack of provision (mild SEN) and lack of care (that's a whole different thread).

We want to move from the snooty area we currently live where the neighbours are so up their own arses noone speaks to anyone else! We run an internet-based business and dh works 16 hour days and more to meet mortgage payments on our house. I want us to be mortgage free so we can actually spend some money enjoying life. We can move ANYWHERE but would like to be in a friendly neighbourhood with a sense of community. Maybe in a market town? Our budget would be around £300,000.

Ideally I would like dcs to be in walking distance of school - its healthy , sociable and good for independence.

Any ideas?

I recommend Cumbria, Northumberland or Tyne and Wear. I've been to/worked in happy comprehensives in all three counties and people up here are generally amazed that you could have problems buying a 4 bed house for £300000.

In Cumbria Trinity school in Carlisle, Nelson Thomlinson school in Wigton and Cockermouth school in Cockermouth all have excellent reputations.

Northumberland has a different system with First schools (up to year 4), middle schools (year 5-8) and high schools (year 9-13). Every one I attended or worked in was happy and truly comprehensive, although obviously some are better than others.

anywhere in the upper north west avoiding the lake district national park. Cumbria has a mainly comprehensive system, Lancashire's comprehensive schools are generally okay. The Kendal - Lancaster - Settle - Barrow area (approx 50 sq miles) has quite a few techy businesses.

oooh coconuts I went to school in a S lincs market town with two grammar schools and lots of cheap big housing... wonder if it's where you live!

Is the lovely town with the comp famous for starring in a TV adaptation as it has such beautiful stone buildings???

clary sounds very similar!

and as Schooldidi says £300k makes you a mansion owner up the west Cumbria coast, Carlisle and through to the North East.

I live in the East of Scotland, in Fife. My kids go to a reasonable comp and you would get a very decent house for £300k. St Andrews has a very well-regarded High School, but housing is more expensive and Edinburgh/East Lothian have some good schools and you budget would buy you an adequate home.

The very best comps are in the West of Scotland, in East Renfrewshire. The housing in pricey, and it rains, but Glasgow and surrounds is definitely an area of opportunity! I would also rate Gryffe High in Bridge of Weir. A really good school in a lovely small town with access to stunning countryside and coast.

What a lovely opportunity for any family :-)

Don't rule out Essex!

You'd be struggling to get a 4 bed house in catchment for a decent high school in Edinburgh with that budget. Edinburgh is horribly expensive. Some friends of mine just sold their 2 bed flat (one bedroom is a box room) for more than we paid for our 4 bed house (in a different city). And the flat was in the catchment for a school you'd definitely want to avoid.

DS goes to a fabulous mixed comp in NW England. You'd get a pretty decent house for £300,000 too. It's in a small city surrounded by market towns and villages.

Lovely market town here, 2 secondarys, 1 Ofsted outstanding and 1 Good with outstanding sixth form.
4 bed house for £300k disolves into hysterical laughter

yes, in my area, although we do have a grammar school too. Colchester. If you moved to Lexden or Prettygate areas you'd be in the catchment for philip morant which is the local one that people move to get in catchment for, although they do have an entrance exam for non catchment people, and they have an alpha stream for people that passed 11+ but didnt get into the grammar or girls high.
Also have the very good st benedicts if youre of the religious persuasion, pref catholic, but they will take other faiths

Oh and WRT to SEN, my ds has SN and thats why i chose the school. Excellent SEN department because they also have a hearing impaired unit. The senco is amazing

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Lexden.html?sortByPriceDescending=false&maxPrice=325000&minBedrooms=4

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E18461&insId=1&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=houses&minBedrooms=4&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=325000&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false
on the basis that most sellers will take a 10% haircut

Oh bugger.
While searching that list for you I've found that one of my wish list houses is back on the market but I still cannot afford it.

north east sheffield is even cheaper than south west, lovely area's good schools, very close to peak district, very close to city centre, 4 bed probably about 250, 000. you can get a lovely 3 bed for 150,000.

coconutter has suggested a great area in Kenilworth, and leamington - not rural but very close to the countryside, two large cities and plenty for teens to do at the weekend

cinema
youth clubs
5 decent secondary schools - nearest grammer 12 miles away and other grammer 15 miles away
atheltics clubs
running clubs things like park run and cross country
dancing clubs taps etc
dramas clubs with motion house dance and dramas for teens
football clubs
four rugby clubs in area with decent social clubs adjoining the clubs
three large swimming pools and a 50 m pool 10 miles away
decent cycling clubs - three in the area
trains to london take 1.20hrs and trains every half hour to b/ham
decent shopping in both solihull and b/ham
god theatres in cov, brum, stratford of course has two, then small local theatres int he smaller towns
good business links
NEC
good restaurants kept going by the influx of business
two castles
houses decent rice in towns this type it is walking and bus distance from town for teens at weekends

To add to CocoNutter's suggestion of Leamington Spa or Kenilworth - also Warwick. Myton School is very popular - currently expanding. Warwick small market town.

myton school is really awful for anything SEN related. Whereas there are other schools in Leamington and Warwick that are good with SEN

Shripshire- shrews bury
Good state comps
Excellent sixth form
Houses at 300k a plenty
Pretty countryside on doorstep
Hr to Brum
Train links all over
Hr to bhx airport or 1.3hr to Manchester

You are all absolutely brilliant and I have had a fascinating tour of the UK sitting here in front of my pc ignoring my rapidly expanding work pile!

I have spoken to quite a few of the schools recommended and they tend to be oversubsribed with waiting lists. This is tricky as we have to give a term's notice at ds' current school and wont necessarily have a place guaranteed in a new school. I have started new thread here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/1659967-Can-you-please-recommend-a-mainstream-secondary-school-that-deals-well-with-SEN-ANYWHERE-in-UK-and-UNDERSUBSCRIBED asking more speicifically about schools that are good for SEN and undersubscribed!
Hoping for a miracle!

Gloucestershire has lots of nice places and good schools. Wotton Under Edge and Dursley are both small market towns. Dursley has Rednock Comp, leisure centre, in the midst of beautiful counryside. Wotton is even better, arts centre, excellent GPs, NHS dentists and nice individual shops. Katherine Lady Berkley school is a former grammer than has been comp for generations now, founded in 1300 ish (I think) You can walk everywhere and again, lovely countryside. I moved to this part of Gloucestershire fron London when I got married and have been very happy here. There are grammar schools in Stroud/Cheltenham/Gloucester but they are well away from the two towns I've just mentioned and don't afect the intake. Very easy journey to Bristol/Cheltenham and trains from Stroud and Stonehouse to London, or Cam&Dursley station to Bristol and points beyond. You would get a nice detached house with a garden well within your budget here.

My parents live in the North Cotswolds. The two local secondary schools near to them both seem brilliant - Chipping Campden School (okay, I'm biased about this school, because I went there), and The Cotswold School. They are both genuinely comprehensive. They have great facilities. And frankly, I wish my children could go to them.

You should be able to afford a four bedroomed house in catchment as long as you don't expect a picture postcard cotswold cottage. My parents live in a 1960s four bedroomed number that would sell for less than £300K - and it has good sized gardens.