Moving to Manchester- where?

[riverbat]

Advice please? DH has accepted new job in central Manchester, we don't know where to start looking for a house. Have lived in Bristol for past 15 years and don't know Manchester at all.

Budget - £450k, poss £500k.
Min 4 bedrooms ideally.
DH needs to access central Manchester within 1 hour, can drive if needed.
Ideally in catchment of good/excellent state primary and secondary schools.

Ideas for where to start looking?

I think Marple might fit the bill. Semi-rural. Good schools and only 30mins on the train to Manchester.

@WillowSummerSloth

I think Marple might fit the bill. Semi-rural. Good schools and only 30mins on the train to Manchester.

Marple is lovely

Saddleworth and surrounding areas is lovely and quite rural. Depends what you really want... hills all around or more urban? Stalybridge has some nice areas as does Glossop

If you don't want to apply for the grammar schools, avoid the catchment areas for them, you get a lot less house for your money.

daft question - whats wrong with grammar schools?

marple is lovely!

Nothing is wrong with them, but there is a benefit in the admission process to living in the catchment. There are far less places out offered out of catchment.

This means the price of the houses in the correct postcodes are very expensive in comparison to a similar house out of catchment. It's extremely competitive in greater Manchester for the places, so if someone isn't interested in those schools it's probably better to buy elsewhere.

There’s nothing wrong with grammar schools. It’s about it being the right fit for your child. I went to grammar when it was the 11 plus and if you passed it you went to grammar. If you failed you didn’t. It’s a very different system now & it’s lots of tutoring & entrance exams. In all honesty I didn’t thrive there. They have always been very academic & even more so now and I would say more competitive these days. I don’t think my kids would thrive there. If they wanted to try for it I would support them but my eldest is 10 & she’s not interested. The local high school is excellent and I think she will do really well there. I know quite a few kids who are applying and really want to go to a grammar and its definitely the right choice for them but it’s just not right for mine.

I believe the tutor doesn't sit next to you in class when you start at Grammar school.

We moved to Tottington 5 years ago and it's the best move we made. Lovely houses, good commute and decent schools - we chose the private route but the local schools are excellent.

Lymm for school, countryside but with nice community (or it was years ago). Downside would be having to drive to Manchester/altrincham...wouldn't take you that much longer than from altricham as bottleneck is nearer manchester

We're in Didsbury and were not affected at all by the floods.
We paid less than 500k for our house...four bed with a garden and parking.
We love it here!

You might consider towns with less than an hour commute by rail, eg Preston, Chorley. Plenty of good schools in these areas.

@riverbat I’m in Trafford too. My teenage DD is at grammar school. It’s is a very pushy environment and the girls are all very high achieving. However, I won’t be putting my boys in for the equivalent boys’ school but rather the co-Ed grammar up the road. Less pressurised but still a great school. Our local comprehensive is also very good so don’t discount Trafford based on grammar pass/fail worries as we really do have a plethora of excellent schools locally. Primaries are excellent here too. Easy to get into Manchester via the trams. Lots for families and kids so lots to do locally including lovely NT properties close by. We’re southerners and we’ve enjoyed living here but we’re moving back south soon due to work.
If not Trafford then have a look at Stockport. The primaries in some parts of Stockport are excellent. I work in education services across GManchester although I’m not school based. Primaries in Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme and Cheadle and Marple all sought after. Some great schools in the Heatons too. In terms of secondary schools, Cheadle Hulme High School is outstanding both on paper and in practice. The senior team there are some of the most committed I’ve met. It’s on the edge of an estate with a very high achieving primary too. Can’t remember the name of the primary but I’ll double check and post back. I don’t know what property prices are but I imagine you’ll get 4beds in your budget. There’s direct trains into Manchester from up the road too. Houses in Bramhall are more expensive and their primaries are all good but their secondary school hadn’t got the best reputation. We looked there when we bought here but the grammar school system swung here for us.

I live in Altrincham and although it's lovely I agree that if you're not interested in grammar don't bother as houses are massively overpriced because of the grammar schools.
Yes the secondary's are good but I would say you would find equally good schools in other areas without paying overly inflated house prices.
We having four children Y11, Y5, Y2 and Y1 but if I had my time again I would have lived in Lymm or Knutsford. Although I don't know what the commute into Manchester is like.

I live in Marple and it is lovely and would tick many of your boxes. Driving into Manchester is a bit of a nightmare from Marple however the traffic in Greater Manchester is generally awful so no worse than anywhere else and Marple does have a decent train service.

@NellyJames can I pick your brains please?
Although we aren't in Trafford, I would like our children to sit the exams for the grammar school. I believe we are in the catchment area for the Girls' , however it's a bit more complicated with the Boys' because that goes on postcode.
Can I ask, what did you do for Primary? We are considering private because the local state primaries don't do any 11+ prep. Would you recommend that route, or would you go state primary and hire a tutor from Year Four?

Liverbird77... Check private primaries do 11+prep...some don't... My child was tutored with kids from local private school
to grammar school as they didn't...

If I was starting out again I would go for Ramsbottom, Marple, Lymm, Tottington, Heatons with that type of budget.. Perhaps Whitefield/Prestwich. I'd pick these over my local area Altrincham, Sale, Didsbury, urmston etc as they just feel less like suburbia, feel closer to countryside and hills, have lots to offer while still being commutable.. You will also likely need to compromise on 4 bed (be it 4th room size, garden, semi rather than detached, garden, location etc) in alt, sale, Dids, urmston with that budget.

Your budget should get you a 4 bed house in Timperley.

The local primary schools are really good and you would be in catchment for Sale and Altrincham Grammar schools. If you pick carefully you would also be in catchment for Wellington school which is highly sought after.

Timperley is on the tram for Manchester and Altrincham and a short drive from places like Dunham Massey and Tatton Park.

There is also Wilmslow which is on a fast train line to Manchester and London. It is Cheshire rather than Greater Manchester and has lots of villages around. Wilmslow High School seems to be good, a family friend's DD goes and is thriving.

@happytoday73 good point, thank you

@Liverbird77 I wouldn't tutor from Yr 4, its too much.

@Liverbird77 my daughter in year 11 sat the grammar exams she was at state primary. We used a tutor in Y4 for maths. She slipped from top ten in year group down to the middle we also felt that school couldn't spend enough time on each maths subject as the had so much curriculum to get through and certainly wouldn't have been able to get her up to the level required for the grammars.
Maths was her weaker subject we didn't bother with English in y4.
We did a year of entrance exam prep in Y5.
Alty girls still goes in distance from school and competition is tough.
That said it wasn't the right school for dd she passed but we didn't take the place she is at the other girls grammar.
We are going through it all again with dd2 now so if you have any other questions feel free to pm me

@Liverbird77, sorry, I didn’t check back. DD was at state primary and both DSs still are. We tutored from summer term Y4 as the exam is at the beginning of Y6 so really just over 1yr. In terms of those at school with DD who were at private, the ones I know went to either Hale or Wilmslow preps and quite a few come from Ladybarn in Cheadle which seems to get them all where they should be. They get lots of kids into Withington and MGS but also help their Trafford kids get their grammar place.
Catchment for Alti Girls is basically just based on distance for all those who reach the pass mark. With the boys, the top (I think) 10% scorers are offered a place regardless of where they live. Then it’s catchment I think. We’d decided our boys would be better in co-ed so if we weren’t thinking of moving back South, we’d hope they could go to Sale Grammar. They’re both bright but not crazy bright like DD so whilst she copes well with the intensity at AGGS, I don’t think that would be right for them.

@Africa2go, @troppibambini6, @NellyJames, thanks all of you for your input.
Full disclosure...I am a secondary school teacher and I did a term's supply at one of the other grammars. I think the curriculum at both Alty grammars looks so much better.

@troppibambini6 thanks for your kind offer. I will pm you if any specific questions come to mind. I totally agree about deciding whether it's right for the individual child. My kids are tiny, so I am planning way ahead, but I am not one of those mothers with an unrealistic view of their level! If they weren't bright enough, they would just be miserable.

@NellyJames thanks for the info too. You're actually the second person to recommend Ladybarn. It seems like a brilliant school.

If anyone feels able to recommend a great tutor, I'd be eternally grateful if you would pm me. It's hard to know where to start!

Thanks again troppi and Nelly for taking the time to reply in such detail.

Second Saddleworth, gorgeous little villages like the Lake District. Uppermill, greenfield. Your money would go far in Mossley. 19 mins by train to town