Near the station or schools?

[beggingforsleep]

Our house purchase has fallen through due to Covid so now we're back on Rightmove searching. We can't decide on location though and hoping someone with primary school children can help. Are we better off being a five minute walk to station but this would be at least a 20 minute walk to school or a 5 minute walk to school which would be a half hour walk to the station?

My DH would be commuting four days a week and WFH one day a week and I'd be commuting two days a week and WFH two days a week. Although it's likely I'll lose my job if a recession hits and it would take me a while to find another one I think.

We can afford a bigger garden near the station and probably a bigger house too. Plus we'll be doing six commutes between us a week and the journey is long. Around an hour door to door for DH but at least 90mins for me.

But then I have two DC, the oldest will be starting primary in 2021 and the second in 2023 so that's a lot of walking to school coming up. And if I'm out of work will I resent my DH for being so close to the station when I'm doing two hour round trips a day with whinging kids?

The houses nearer the schools are much more expensive though. Garden would be tiny, more like a yard, and we were leaving London to get more space. Lots of nice countryside around though.

Any advice? We've got bikes for getting to the station if we're further away.

We just moved 1.4 mile away from the nearest school and my child has not been offered a place in any school to start in September because we are too far away!!! My advice would be to move as close to a good school as you can

I'd recommend considering the catchment of primary and possible secondary school options in case you are not in a position to move again soon. See if you can attend an open day or speak to people with children at the schools your interested in via Mumsnet or local links to get a feel for what's best for your area. We lived 10 minutes walk from the primary and a 20 minutes walk (5 minute bus) from the secondary. So pretty close without the disadvantages of living directly opposite a school. We were able to give the children a little independence as they got older e.g. walking to and from school with groups of local children in Year 6 when I was working from home and older secondary school siblings. It really helped us settle and the children develop solid friendships in the community.

Really check catchment areas. They change each year depending on siblings etc. A house may be comfortably " in" one year and then out the next. As we learnt from experience.

Thanks everyone for your help. I was expecting everyone to tell me to be near the schools so has been great to see a balance.

We will hunt on with an open mind!

And I'll probably curse the walk when it's raining however long it is!

We just moved into a house with a garden about about four times the size of the one of our previous house, I am so glad we did!!! Our last garden was little more than postage stamp sized, slightly unlevelled. All those years I was hankering after a garden where we could have a trampoline, a veggie patch, table tennis and just nice garden space. Having a nice garden and shorter commute is so much more quality of life! I would try and find ways to make the school run easier like scooters, bikes etc.

With kids I'd be thinking -
1 top priority is not near a main road. Traffic noise is grim and it feels less safe.
2 big garden will get lots of use
3 close to school. A 5 min walk can be 15mins with kids. A 15min walk can be 30mins+. Whereas the 15min walk with no kids will be just that.