Private school or move house

[Snowpatrolsnowpatrol]

I'm not sure if I'm writing in the right section but I'm in a dilemma about secondary schools for my DC.

There are very few secondary schools in our area that have any sort of decent reputation. We have an option of going into a fee paying boys only secondary school (school A). It has small class sizes and has an excellent rating. Aside from the academic side (although that is the most important angle for me), I think it would offer DS a community type environment which would suit his personality. The extra curricular activities are great too and include many of which he already does and I think it would overall be a fantastic school for him. We can just about manage the fees with a bit of scrimping and saving. It would mean taking a bus which is more than half an hour each way but could read/revise on bus.

We live in an area that I really dislike. Its in a big housing estate, there is no community feel and the amenities are few and far between. Although I have lived here for years and years, I don't know our neighbours. We wave to each other while passing in cars and say hello if we are both of us are on our drives at the same time. Cars are needed to everywhere. I've never been happy here but we've worked on the house little by little and selling it would give us a 300K deposit towards another property.

If we moved five miles away, we could buy a smaller house in an area that has more of a community feel to it. It isn't much better than where we are but there is a large non fee paying secondary school (school B) in the area and because of that the house prices are roughly 200K more than where we live currently. The houses we could afford would mean we are starting over again with doing up the house. The school has a good rating. It is mixed which my son would prefer. Because it is so large, it has a lot of extra curricular activities too, although they aren't run as well as school A. Results are good from school B but not as good as school A. If we lived in the area, our son could walk/cycle to school and maybe make friends locally with classmates. The area would be a little nicer to live in too. His commute to school would be less than half an hour each way and that would be either walking/cycling.

To complicate things further, I have two children. While DS1 would prefer a mixed school, his younger brother would prefer a single sex school. His younger brother would also benefit from smaller class sizes in school A and because they focus on results, I know they would help him reach to his full potential even if that is not very high.

What is the best thing to do? Prioritise school A and continue living in a area I'm really unhappy in or move house and see if we can get into school B and perhaps enjoying living in that area more than where we live now?

Both boys must attend the same school. Different schools are not optional.

bit of a thread drift but feeder schools for state comprehensives - I'm shocked, not saying its not happening I guess I don't live in an area where this happens but I just didn't think the Education Authorities were allowed to do that, it goes against the idea of fairness in the comprehensive system. What happens if a DC lives across the street from the comp but isn't at the 'right' primary?

Answering for my area - I guess people know the school admissions criteria when they move house? And catchment areas aren't normally drawn with the school as their centre either (our catchment junior school is 1.5 miles away from people at the edge of catchment who are 200m from a non-catchment school they can't get a place at) so there is already "unfairness" in the system.

It can work both ways - some people get their children into feeder primaries to bump them up the admissions criteria for their preferred secondary - and then move. Others move schools in Year 5 or 6 (my DC used to go to a junior school that had a "bad reputation" but suddenly became very popular in Year 5 and 6 when parents realised it was a feeder for a sought after comp.

The not getting into your catchment secondary if your child didn't attend a feeder school is normally an anomaly blip when new areas of housing spring up and there are more children in the area than places at the local school. Historically this has adjusted over time (more school provision made available).

I would say School A because what are your chances of B? You say it's oversubscribed and you can't afford to move to the guaranteed catchment. What happens if you move, your son doesn't get a place, and then you can't afford fees anymore because of the cost of the new house? What back up school is in the area?

Mind you, is DS2 guaranteed a place at school A? You said the brothers must go to the same school. What happens if DS2 doesn't get in to school A?

I think possibly your dislike of your area and the school issue are related but separate issues. Honestly, I wouldn't encourage downsizing with your kids going into their teen years. If moving to a nicer but similarly priced place with 30 mins of school A is not possible, moving into the guaranteed catchment for B is not possible, and you aren't moving somewhere completely different in then country, I'd say stick it out for now and pick A.

It's also possible to make an area have more of a community feel by getting involved in things. Some places have an organic community, others you have to work at helping create one. To be honest I'm not sure the village communities you mentioned are so great if they look down on people living just outside the village!

I was in a very similar position. I managed to get my DS1 to one of the schools at the area I wanted to move. The area is a hothouse for good schooling in the area. I disliked the school and moved him to private. I started again with DS2, which again managed to get in to THE outstanding school of the said area. I was commuting 20 mins to each school opposite directions for some time. I realised that on the academic side the school was not what I wanted for my children. Private all the way. Small class size is one of the most important factors.
I ended up staying in a house that I doesn't cover our needs, in an area I dislike but at least I am doing the best for my children.

I think this is often true. My child is in catchment but not at a feeder school. Head said catchment is Key. It may be important for the handful of places offered to out of catchment children (after out of catchment siblings).

In my part of hants we have officially linked primary schools aka feeder.

The order goes: catchment, feeder, out catchment. So being at the linked school only helps if you live out of catchment.

Our local (outstanding) comp has feeder primary as one of its higher criteria. But we're in a village setting, the comprehensive has 6 village schools feeding into it, so almost everyone at the feeder schools lives in the catchment.

@Katcol5 thank you for your charming private message. What a surprise you have name changed but fortunately not in time.

There are plenty of areas of the country where going to a feeder school wouldn't matter. If moving a longer distance is viable, I'd investigate that.

Regardless, I think if you're serious about moving somewhere, you'd probably need to start looking soon?

At first, you didn't sound that keen on school A, but now you do. If your second child would also get in, then maybe it makes sense to go for school A and see if there is somewhere else you can move to that you like.