Torquay

[movingtodevon1]

We have (naively) brought a house not knowing the area well (moving from Wiltshire for work) and after reading several threads on MN I'm starting to panic!
Please tell me there are nicer parts of Watcombe!
The house we are about to complete on is on the top right edge of Watcombe right next to Brunel Woods, the street seems lovely and very quiet/tidy.
I have heard that Torquay isn't the nicest of towns and has more than its share of problems so not going into the move with our eyes completely shut but am really hoping that we haven't made a massive mistake! I need positivity!.... if possible 🤣

Also what are the primary schools like, we have two children, one is about to leave this year for secondary but we have several years to go with the youngest and really need to find a good school that suits her - will be aiming for the Grammars when the time comes.

@muchalover I'm not sure how long ago that she was teaching at Priory, but it actually has a huge playground, with a large woodland trim trail, enclosed green playground for R/Yr1 with a wooden pirate ship, upper garden levels with the veg beds and rabbits and chickens, space for football etc and they share the playing field with St Margaret's next door, so they have plenty of outside space.
It's a surprisingly large site for that sized school.

Priory grounds:

Update:
Well we moved in after Easter and we love it! The children are settled at their new school and are thriving, the house, street and area is lovely, and I can honestly say I think we will be very happy here!

That's lovely !

Did you get a space for both in the same school ?

and are you willing to semi share which one you chose ?

Yes, they are both at the same School, in the end I rang the available schools and enquired if any of their y6's were heading to the same grammar as my daughter and chose the School that several girls were....
Without mentioning the name of the school, it's very close to the grammar's so the school run next year should be a breeze 😉

The school run makes sense, and I guess it's not the school which requires improvement.

Being the ' new ' girl at school can often be very popular and I would hope she has made friends fairly easily and enjoys the Grammar with them and of course she will make even more friends then.

Yes, she has integrated really well, and has made several good friends so it's all hopefully falling into place!
Oh and apparently we are not actually in Watcombe, apparently we come under Barton!..... told you we were buying blind 😂

That's great @movingtodevon1 ! I'm really glad that you're happy that you made the right choice to get down here.
Yesterday we had a picnic on Corbyn Head and watched the airshow, and today we spent the day swimming and playing at Oddicombe Beach. Weekends like this (and most days really) make me think that we are as lucky as you can get to live here, so glad that you think so too!

Thanks for the update. It's possible to read horror stories for nearly every town in the UK, but the reality is far different for most inhabitants. I love Torquay.

Congratulations, hope you are very happy in your new home. 💐

I was just thinking about you yesterday @movingtodevon1 as I had mixed up in my mind how old your younger dd is !
and for some reason I thought you would be getting the results of secondary school applications and was wondering if dd2 had been successful with going to the Girls' Grammar.
but having searched for this thread I realise she is not at this stage yet !

Anyway :)
how are you all enjoying life in Torquay ?

We love it!
Both girls are doing well in their respective Schools. Dd2 is in y4 so we have a while before we have to apply for secondary for her, fingers crossed she can follow her sister to the grammar.
Thanks for asking and thanks to everyone for the advice etc when I had my wobble last year!