Relocation relocation relocation,(smile)

[bubbleandsqueak]

Hi all, I am thinking about moving to the Dorset area and am looking to buy and live there with DP,DD, and DS. Does anyone have any opinions on where is best for kids, ie schools, health-DS is an asthmatic and we want to be not to far from the sea. I like the idea of Bournemouth, Poole or maybe Christchurch,I appreciate any help or advice you may have. Cheers

I am now thinking of moving to Dorchester now, as everyone seems to be raving about it, it was also voted as the number 1 place to live on the location location programme on Channel 4 with Kirsty and Phil. We are coming over to the UK at the begining of November, does anyone have any good hotels they can recomend? Cheers

best western (kings arms) is a very central hotel. Most of my wedding guests stayed there and were very happy with it. Don't book with the hotel though, better to go through the website to get a good deal. It was about £69 a night per room.

Dorset is lovely. Not sure how you can describe any English county as 'bland' as they all differ so much from one area to another. Dorchester is a wonderful town. I'm in Somerset but if we weren't that is probably the sort of area we'd want to go to.

DramaQueen - I grew up in Dorchester and attended Primary, Middle and Secondary schools there (and may be the person whom Chocolateteapot is referring )and the local schools are very good to excellent. Dorchester Thomas Hardye School is outstanding. Both the Middle Schools -Dorchester Middle (where I attended)and St Osmunds are also excellent. As for Primary the ones I used to know, Damers and St Marys were both highly regarded. Basically, IMO you can't go far wrong with Dorchester schools and this is the reason I have wanted to move back to Dorchester as I feel I don;t have to worry about what side of town I live on as all the schools catchments are so good.

The problem is that so many people from surrounding out of cathment areas are trying to get their children into the middle and secondary schools in Dorchester, that some people who move to the Dorchester catchment too late in the applications process are not getting in to the Dorchester schools and are having to go to Weymouth schools for at least a year until the following intake! So my advice would be to make sure you move before the shut off day for new school applications.

As for areas to move to in Dorchester, I personally favour the villages - Puddletown, Tolpuddle, West Stafford, Briantspuddle, The Piddle Valley, Broadmayne, Tincleton, Winterbourne Stepleton...so many lovely villages, of which Puddletown has it's own middle school (Well it used to) and was also a very good school as I recall. If you prefer to livecloser to town, the 'new' Poundbury is very popular as is Manor Park.

Hope that helps

Dorset, bland?

You must never have been there

bridport is lovely and worth exploring i dont know anything about the schools there though

Bubbleandsqueck - I live in Poole atm but would much rather live in Dorchester. Poole is great as close to beach (I take ds's to beach (Sandbanks is closest for us) after school in the summer etc which I know is very lucky for us) but tbh I prefer the more remote beaches as poole and bournmouth beaches can get very over crowded in the height of summer. We are fortunate to have a boat so can get the the quieter beaches easily avoiding traffic, but otherwise I prefer Man O War Bay and Durdle door etc and for that reason would rather live in Dorchester or a close village for the better schools etc and spend a bit longer driving to more remote/less popular beaches. That's just my personal opinion of course I just prefer Dorchester, maybe becasue I grew up there, but it's ironic that I spent my teenage years dying to leave the town, have lived in numerous places all over the world and now I have children, I actually would LOVE to move back to that very town I so longed to leave!