Moving out of catchment area

[Jasv1nder]

First time poster here desperate for a parents perspective on school catchments when moving house. I currently have a 4 and 6 year old in a good secondary school. They are very settled and we would never really want to move them from this school. We have recently put our house on the market and found one we really like the look of. It would allow them to stay in their current school as drop off and pick up times would drastically change, however it takes us out of the secondary school catchment. I’ve checked the priority area school for which we are looking at moving into and it’s ofsted rating is good. There is another school closer to the house for which we don’t fall into the priority area that has an outstanding ofsted rating. My question is this, would you move out of an area which has an okish secondary school to an area that could possibly get your kid into an outstanding school but if not would again be in an okish school which you currently know nothing about.

Secondary school is still 5 years away for my eldest and I’m wondering how much I should consider secondary schools at this point.

Also because we both really do love this house and I can really see us growing old in it (it’s in a lovely village) am I being selfish in thinking it’s only a secondary school, it’s not the be all and end all of their life!

We moved for a secondary school and edged our bets as our children were similar ages to yours. So the primary school fed into a "good" secondary, but our closest school was "outstanding." We needed a much bigger house and could not afford one in the area we were in. We kept the children in their original primary school.

5 years is a long time in the life of a school, but they are home more than they are in school so we looked at it from a family point of view. My children got into the outstanding secondary, but even those children who went into the feeder secondary did very well.

School isn't just about teachers, but pastoral care, discipline, standards and a supportive home life.

I would move wherever you want to now, because who knows what could happen. You only have the information that you have now, hindsight is an incredible thing but you are looking at a period of what, 7 years of both your children going through a secondary and yet you have the rest of the primary years, plus all the years that come after that. So in terms of how old you are and if you will stay in the property after retirement, 7 years is nothing.

We are in a large 4 bed house which we will downsize within 12 years as Ds2 is 14.

Juniper this is my husbands point of view and my dads in fact. There are just so many families around me moving now with young children to areas where the school is outstanding that I feel so much pressure and anxiety about making the right decision for the kids future. Who knows, I may win the lottery (but have to start doing it first) and be able to afford to send them to private school

you can't possibly make sensible decisions about schools this far in advance. they do change over time. also a school that is excellent for one child is not a good fit for another, and you need to get to know a lot more about your child's learning style over the next few years.

you need to start going to open days even your eldest is in y4 - that will give you time to move areas if you need to (need to be in the right area by autumn of y6). initial round in y4. go again in y5 to see if things are getting better or worse. get moving on sorting out house move then. the y6 open days only happen a couple of weeks before the application deadline so you can't wait till then!

the schools ratings tell you nothing. we have a catchment comp that is "good with outstanding features" but I wouldn't send a child there. yes it is doing an amazing job tackling the endemic crime and drug use among the intake and is making amazing progress getting a fair proportion of kids who arrive barely literate or numerate to improve their skills better than expected. that doesn't make it an actually acceptable school. we went to the open day and the head teacher spent most of the time talking about how effective their new behaviour management policy is. most pupils only take foundation maths or functional skills rather than full GCSE. Local families who care about education do not send their kids there - the majority are divided between faith schools, academies with a city-wide intake for special subjects, and undersubscribed schools in the neighbouring LA area where there are direct bus routes.

No, I would never move to a house where i didnt know anything about the catchment school. Thats insane - sorry. As a poster before, OFSTED is one (minor) piece of the jigsaw.

We moved specifically for school (before primary) but i had visited all the possible secondary schools before we moved as well as the primaries and picked a house that would pretty much guarantee entry for Plan A or Plan B. I actually dont think secondary schools change that much - the biggest factor in my view is the demographic mix of the catchment area and that is very unlikely to change over a handful of years.

If you like the house so much, visit the schools (the outstanding one and the OK ish one). Look at the results. Visit the area, maybe get your children involved in a sports club at the weekend there so you get to meet other parents who may have children at the schools and you can get first hand feedback.

I think it depends on your attitude to 'risk'
I am a control freak and moved to catchment area of best school before my DC went to primary
They all did brilliantly on to RG Unis etc
Might have worked out another school but I didn't want to take the risk
Wanted to feel I had done everything I could
Parents out of catchment were always worried about not getting them in if more houses were built etc and in later years quite a lot from primary did not get in

I’ve been doing A lot of research over last couple of days and it seems moving would actually put us in a better position. The house is on the border of 2 counties and when speaking to people in a local forum all went to very good schools across the county I would prefer my kids to go to. Yes they had to travel a bit but I only work school hours and from home so this wouldn’t be a problem

I too am a control freak and I guess this is why it has bothered me so much. The unknown tends to give me anxiety but even living where we are we are not guaranteed the school we would want in 5 years time as 100 more houses are being built up the road (part of the reason we are moving). The main reason we are moving is that our house is so overlooked by a new build estate but the house we want would mean our children could play out without everybody who walks past able to see them (paths on new build are 2ft higher than our house which is a 1930 semi)

We’ve got a second viewing tomorrow and I think if we like it we’ll go for it as there are plenty of secondary school options.