What would you do?

[vodkatonic]

We need to apply for schools for DS1 end of this year. We are living in a nice house (mortgaged), in a dodgy area of London with no desirable schools nearby.

What would you do?

Would you sell up and move? which might be difficult in this climate.

Would you rent out current property (again might be difficult) and rent yourself until able to sell and buy a new property in our more desired area.

Do nothing and let DS1 go to start reception at a local school with the hope to move and get him into a school when he goes into KS1?

Thanks!

put it on the market at a reasonable price and see. If no sale by summer, try to rent it out. You might have to live in smaller place near a better school. On the other hand, hve you visited your local school? Visiting gives you a better idea than ofsted reports alone.

Does he start next September ie you have until Jan 2010 to put the application in ?

Yes thats right

It depends how much you like your current home and want to remain there. First, I would say visit the school, as ruty suggested. If you are not convinced by it then look very closely at the admissions criteria for ones that you are interested in. You can move by selling if you are not very attached to your house or let it and rent elsewhere if you are but good London primaries are very competitive: I heard a rumour today about a popular three-form entry school near us where, next year, there will only be 10 places available to non-siblings which would mean moving into the bike shed to get a place.