would you buy this house?

[swissrole]

We have found a good sized house (we need it) in the village we want to be in and have had an offer accepted but much to our disappointment the school is full and i mean really full so an appeal dosn't look too promising. The kids are in a good school now which is 12 miles away from our new house. The question is would you go on the waiting list at the new school and commute in the meantime or just look for a house elsewhere????

How long is the waiting list at the new school?

Not long but the class we want (yr2) has 30 and is ks1 so they cannot take any more unless someone leaves but i believe the ratios change at ks2 so perhaps they might take him then - nightmare!

Just because others are already on the list doesn't mean they will be able or willing to accept a place if it suddenly came up. If you are local your dc may jump up the list too, and once one has a place the other becomes a sibling. What age are they ?

4 and 6 - so would be in reception and yr 2.

Yes I would buy the house. The longterm picture is what you are after. The school place I'm sure will come up. People move kids in and out of school all the time.

I would buy the house and get on the list. Your DC will make friends in the area and that will help once they get places at the school.

Could you not move the children to a school closer to the new house, even if not the one you really want?

i will probably be offered places at a nearer school with transport but am worried that this would mean 2 school changes for the children especially the one thats just about to start school.

I'd take the house, everything else will eventually fall into place.

i suppose i can't expect everything to be perfect straight away.

We live in a 2 bed hse with 3 kids so we're bursting at the seams.We also send our kids out of catchment to school so this move was to consolidate all of these things.

I hope if we made such an upheaval that it would end up ok because we only intend on moving once. At least if we moved the space thing would be solved. We love the village and i can only hope for the best with the school.

yep, buy the house.

I'd buy the house, especially if the school they're already at is a good one. I grew up in the middle of nowhere so travelled half an hour to school everyday anyway, just felt normal to me. The you have a bonus if a place does come up in the near by school.

My husband does not want to buy the house if the kids have not got places in the school. I see trouble ahead.

but the chances of timing a move that smoothly are almost nil, wherever you move to. Chances are places will come up in time, maybe before September, maybe not. Is he perhaps not as committed to this area as you sound ?

Then you might never ever move as good schools - which presumably you are moving for - are always oversubscribed.

Move and get on the school waiting list. Commute until the place becomes available.

Move. If your child is unhappy at their current school you can move them in KS2 (year 3).

I think maybe he isn't as committed to the area as i am - i was brought up there.He says the reason we are going there is the school and community and that we won't be part of it. I agree that life dosn't always go smoothly and sometimes you have to take little steps.

Check the school policy on waiting list. Ours has an odd one where when a place becomes free they don't contact anyone, they just give it to the first person to ring up and enquire. Those in the know rang every day or got friends with kids at school to pass the info on when they knew someone was leaving. So check, because it may not be a queue system and being in a house in the village already might help get you in sooner.

Buy the house. We moved 18 months ago and have had a 10 mile school run for dd2 ever since, but she now has a place at the same school as the other two in September when she goes into Y3, so the end is in sight. 18 months of pain wasn't too bad, you'll get into the flow of it.

We put dd2 into Rainbows in the village to help her find a few local friends, which worked a treat!