Life in Norfolk & Suffolk

[Kharo]

Good evening. Could do with some insight from you lovely people. We are relocating south and are trying to decide whether to buy a house near Banham or Wymondam (with the intent of a school run to Norwich) or head further east towards Debenham. Slightly concerned Debenham may be too rural and “away from it all”. Husband will be commuting to Bedford every other day. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!!

Justaweeone Thanks :-) It doesn't have to be.

Thanks! Lexie1970

OP I lived within spitting distance of St. Augustine’s (less than a minute walk) and couldn’t get my 2 children in.

It’s a catholic faith school, with many of the staff from the local university hospital taking up places...good luck tho.

Utterly love your handle PatMustardsMoustache!!! What a great name :-) St A's results are impressive. What reputation does the school have locally? How early do you think I would have to get there to park at the Costessey Centre? Thank you!

I live in a village about 3 miles from Debenham - think the commute to Bedford, even just twice a week, is a long way, as mentioned up thread traffic on the A14 round Cambridge is dreadful at rush hour. Debenham is a bit of a drive from the A14 though. We love our village and the area in general, only half an hour from the coast (Aldeburgh), 20 mins from Woodbridge, and trains to London from Ipswich take just over an hour.

Both my children went to Debenham High School and did really well, but it is only up to Year 11, so one went to Farlingaye (Woodbridge )for 6th form, the other to Northgate (Ipswich). Debenham has quite a large catchment area.

I work from home, broad band is currently slow but adequate (I do on-line training using join.me/skype) but fibre broadband is being rolled out gradually in the local villages.

There is a Drs surgery in Debenham (with other surgeries in the same practice in Otley and Grundisburgh) and we have not had any problems getting appointments etc. We go to Ipswich for any hospital treatment, dentist etc. Debenham has a small Co Op, plus butchers, bread shop, flower shop etc, bigger supermarkets in Ipswich, Stowmarket, Woodbridge and Framlingham. The latter two are great for small town, varied high street type shopping.

Really grateful for all the info rabbitsandrhubarb Thank you! Debenham high school does look impressive! And Farlingaye wasn't on my radar - it does look very good! Thanks :-) When I rang Debenham they also mentioned Hartismere and Thomas Mill. Do you happen to know about the local primary schools around Debenham? Some of the results look patchy. Also if you don't mind me asking, who do you use as a broadband & mobile provider (I currently use EE). Thanks again for your time and help!

Use BT for broadband, and for mobile (they use the EE network). Where we live, mobile signal is good, but down in our village itself, which is in a dip, mobile signal is very poor/non existent. I switch to using data on my phone if our broadband is having a very slow day (have a very cheap family SIM contract with BT)

Hartismere and Thomas Mills both excellent high schools as well - have known friends with children at all of them, who have had good experiences.

Our local primary school, which is very small, has recently had a slightly disappointing Ofsted (though it was good when my children were there and they were very happy and did well), I believe Debenham Primary has good reputation (but places may be in short supply), also Stonham Aspal and Earl Soham seem to be popular locally.

Many thanks rabbitsandrhubarb

Costessey Centre has a decent sized car park so I won't worry about parking.
As said before it's a faith school and doesn't have a catchment area as such. Many students then feed into Notre Dame, a Catholic High. I note you mention a house that you have found, can I ask which area it is in as that might shed more light on things. Also what type of property you like as well as your needs and wants in the area. One thing you may want to consider is good access to the A11 probably from Hethersett to the villages south of Attleborough( we live in one of those villages on the A11 corridor) as it was to make my husbands commute a bit easier as he is often in Birmingham. Then identify suitable villages from there and look at schools. Regarding schools I would suggest you obviously consider results but don't be too sucked in by them as their Ofsted rating can change over night! You really need to visit some villages and schools to see what works for you as well as houses as what's on paper or online doesn't reflect the true picture( we went through this at the time!).
Feel free to pm me.