Manchester - diverse, safe areas

[Peanutbuttermouth]

I know Manchester has been done before on here but I'm looking for a diverse area to bring my kids up in. We live in a very homogeneous town at the moment and will be moving to Manchester in the next year. Can I please have opinions on the nicest, safest, most affordable areas? Need a 3 bed house on budget of 220k max.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/seven-men-arrested-part-major-17565265.amp

Recent news article.

That article makes it clear that the gangs are certain families which have historically been involved. Surprisingly reassuring, thanks for that!

The high schools in my part of Manchester are absolutely huge and take kids from all over. My kids go to a massive one. There's no doubt there's kids from gangs in it and kids as young as year 7 get excluded for having knives. It's never bothered or interested my children or their peers. I can'y say for sure about all the high schools. Deep down I think, if you instil good values and child is part of a close, loving family the child will be ok anywhere. I don't have any empirical evidence to support that though, it's just my gut instinct. My boys are on the nerdy side and are much nerdier than I ever was. If your kids are in primary, it's quite worrying until they have changed school and you all get used to it. If you moved to Levy the school are MEA, poss Parrswood and Burnage High School for boys. I think all of those are supposed to be decent.

Withington
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75095521.html

Levenshulme you definitely get more for your money here:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68367588.html

Burnage
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68342070.html

The house looks like it needs a bit of work but I would feel safe on this road as busy road but not a bus route/crazy busywww.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83615840.htmlwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63219765.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63219765.html

I haven't so much picked the houses out for their interiors as locations within the budget.

"The communities feel intimidated by the criminality that is taking place. Some key individuals have an overbearing influence on what people do, especially young people.
"They drag young people into crime and into taking huge risks. Historically, we have seen very young people become victims of gun violence.
"We are there to try and protect our community and vulnerable individuals who are getting dragged into crime, and being targeted for drug running or doing criminal errands."

You're reassured by the news article I posted??!! Really? I wouldn't want my family anywhere near there! But then apparently I'm a snob, according to some 🤷🏼‍♀️

@bercowsflamingoflownthenest do you not agree with what quitegood said, that if you instil certain values into your child and have a loving family surrounding them, they're somewhat protected from that kind of thing? Do you think your child could get dragged into gang trouble?

This isn't quite the discussion I'd hoped for but it's an interesting one and definitely helpful! Because I genuinely am considering moving to those very areas!

I think peer pressure and obviously criminal pressure would be very hard to resist no matter how good a child's family and personal morals and beliefs.
I'm a leafy suburbs person though and everyone likes different things about different areas. For me, we are on the edge of the Peak District with beautiful views, good train links to Manchester and Sheffield, good bus service, good schools, close to the countryside but close to the culture of Manchester, small friendly town where people know and care for their neighbours, good sense of community. You might love being much closer to the centre and these things are not particular to my town. And of course there's good and bad to all areas. You have to do what's right for your family. I hope you find home

@quitegood I am fascinated by that last house!! What is on the living room wall?! Is it like pins that go in your back?!

Hulme would be a good bet, I think. Also pretty sure it's secondary school would be Trinity, which is a good school (I would prefer to send my children to Hulme than to Burnage Boys or Levenshulme Girls)

Are the secondary schools oversubscribed or so huge that it doesn't matter? What's william hulme grammar like?

William Hulme is massively oversubscribed and has a complicated admissions policy! Well, not that complicated, but they reserve a certain number of places for kids who score highly in an optional MFL aptitude test, some places are allocated by distance from school and some are allocated at random (but ensuring there are an equal number of kids in each ability band).

MCC info on school allocations might be of interest to you.

All the secondary schools are oversubscribed, or were until very recently, which is why 2 of them are building extra branches nearby. It will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain their current good reputations once spread across more sites, let's hope so.

William Hulme does have a weird and hard (long winded) to describe admissions process but it is a decent school, it's just that it doesn't go off catchment, so living nearby won't help. If you lived in that neck of the woods, you'd be looking at Chorlton Park or Trinity, if you couldn't get them in WH. I think Trinity would be smallest & possibly safest it's c of e, so think you need to evidence of going to church. I think all schools in South Manchester will be very similar. There's not much between them results wise. There's a new high school called Didsbury High School which has recently opened and it's expected to do well, as it is a partner school with a very successful high school in Cheadle Hulme. If you could get near there, that would be an excellent move.

If you were open to living in a flat, it might widen your search a little more. If you stick to any of the boroughs under Manchester council, there is nowhere that isn't diverse culturally, I wouldn't have thought.

I was born in Whalley Range 30+ years ago and my parents moved because it was a dump. We still have friends there now and when we go to visit it looks lovely.. I love what they've done to Alexandra park.

I would consider renting so you can take your time to choose a house- Moss Side, Hulme,Old Trafford would all fit your criteria but all have good and bad bits. If you get to know the areas properly you can see which roads would suit you. Whereabouts will you be working? There is no tram from Moss Side or Hulme but there is in Old Trafford.

So @BercowsFlamingoFlownTheNest, what you are saying is, you live nowhere near the areas the OP is interested in, but you are absolutely certain that they are to be steered clear of?

You've also missed the OPs point. Sometimes it is more important for a child's wellbeing and mental health to grow up in an area where they are not reduced to "the black/asian/brown one" than it is for them to have clean streets and nice views.

I grew up in the areas you dismiss and have managed not to join a gang / be shot, along with my childhood friends and family. We must all be very special to have resisted the peer pressure.

You’re right saynotocarrots

My earlier comments about hulme/moss side etc. are based solely on their reputation and things I’ve heard (I live not too far away though)
I personally haven’t lived there and wouldn’t want to live there but I’m white English so i was probably wrong to comment negatively. Apologies if I offended the pp who lives there.
I would echo pp though who said it’s probably a good idea to rent wherever you decide upon first just in case.

No, I don't live near there but I used to work in Rusholme and a large percentage of patients were from Moss Side and Hulme. They are deprived areas and no, I wouldn't want to live there and they are not areas that I personally would choose to raise a family. But that's my opinion. OP might find she loves various things about the areas and that they outweigh the negatives. It's a personal choice and OP asked for opinions.

I've heard great things about Trinity School. My friend moved to Northenden to enable her dd to go there.

I definitely think you need to rent first, such a mixture of 'good' roads and 'bad' roads right next to each other, you need to be there to work it out.
I lived in Manchester for a couple of years....wonderful city with really lovely people....really miss it (although not the rain!) and would move back in a heart beat if I could.

I think pp are referring to Trinity High School. It's in Moss Side, so it would be odd to move to Northenden to go there.

I grew up in south Manchester with parents who had friends living in Rusholme (left wing middle class professionals - midwife, doctors, laywer, artist, academic etc, mostly white actually) so my experience of it is that there is a group of educated professionals who have chosen to live in that area for various reasons - cheaper house prices, diversity, proximity to the workplace etc. My dad now actually lives there too. He enjoys the shops along Wilmslow Road, the community, and the proximity to Platt Fields. I moved away from Manchester but lived very happily in Stretford for some years, and had friends in Moss Side and Hulme.

She was originally in Heald Green so it made sense to her to move to northenden as was nearer to both her work and the school.

Old Trafford and firswood have some really nice leafy roads. Good transport links and very diverse. Great primary schools and option for Grammar schools for secondary (we have a child at the local grammar) as well as some good non grammars. Walking distance (10 mins) to chorlton. Not sure you would get anything for your budget but definitely worth looking. We have lived in the area for some time now and never experienced any problems. There are lots of families, young professionals and a real community feel.

I just googled it and it's less of a trek than I imagined.