Would you move to London with your young kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting into CofE school. We lived next to the best one but had to go private as lottery/waitlist. Top private but still a lot more$. No regrets.

Also where will you live? Some parts of London aren’t London let’s be honest.

We would be paying for private. Sorry this is all new to me- are their private CofE schools? Is it difficult to get into a private primary school?

DH's job would be in the city of London. My dad grew up in Mayfair, not sure we can afford that but we have friends in Hampstead and they seem to like the area. My parents would live separately but would prefer to be near us.

[Anonymous]

are there* trying to type while the baby climbs on me 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Hell, yes, go! The morning after the election I had my husband looking for job posts overseas. Living almost anywhere other than the USA for the next four years is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hell, yes, go! The morning after the election I had my husband looking for job posts overseas. Living almost anywhere other than the USA for the next four years is better.

Good riddance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting into CofE school. We lived next to the best one but had to go private as lottery/waitlist. Top private but still a lot more$. No regrets.

Also where will you live? Some parts of London aren’t London let’s be honest.

We would be paying for private. Sorry this is all new to me- are their private CofE schools? Is it difficult to get into a private primary school?

DH's job would be in the city of London. My dad grew up in Mayfair, not sure we can afford that but we have friends in Hampstead and they seem to like the area. My parents would live separately but would prefer to be near us.

I'm no expert but I attended school as a child in England. CoE schools are what we would call public schools. Public schools are religious in the UK. My village school had chapel and we all said the Lord's Prayer. That's just how it was.

Getting places at your local school (aka our American public school) is very difficult and my expat friend ended up having to send her children to school across London, even though there were many local schools including one right in their house. Getting into what we'd call private school is both easier and harder: there isn't the same admissions process we have here, BUT you put your child's name down many years in advance (used to be at birth, don't know if that's still the case). So that could be very challenging too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting into CofE school. We lived next to the best one but had to go private as lottery/waitlist. Top private but still a lot more$. No regrets.

Also where will you live? Some parts of London aren’t London let’s be honest.

We would be paying for private. Sorry this is all new to me- are their private CofE schools? Is it difficult to get into a private primary school?

DH's job would be in the city of London. My dad grew up in Mayfair, not sure we can afford that but we have friends in Hampstead and they seem to like the area. My parents would live separately but would prefer to be near us.

I'm no expert but I attended school as a child in England. CoE schools are what we would call public schools. Public schools are religious in the UK. My village school had chapel and we all said the Lord's Prayer. That's just how it was.

Getting places at your local school (aka our American public school) is very difficult and my expat friend ended up having to send her children to school across London, even though there were many local schools including one right in their house. Getting into what we'd call private school is both easier and harder: there isn't the same admissions process we have here, BUT you put your child's name down many years in advance (used to be at birth, don't know if that's still the case). So that could be very challenging too.

sorry for the typos. My friend's family was an expat family in pharma so they had lots of relo help, etc., but getting school places for the two children was still very difficult and they didn't know which school the kids would go until, I think, the day before school started. They were freaking out because of course the kids need a particular uniform depending on which school they go to, and they couldn't even start shopping. It felt like it might not work out but then ultimately it did, but hugely stressful especially for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Yes, for a ton of money. No, if money would make things tight.

My spouse is a Brit, and we are looking at moving to the UK at some point but NOT to London.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting into CofE school. We lived next to the best one but had to go private as lottery/waitlist. Top private but still a lot more$. No regrets.

Also where will you live? Some parts of London aren’t London let’s be honest.

We would be paying for private. Sorry this is all new to me- are their private CofE schools? Is it difficult to get into a private primary school?

DH's job would be in the city of London. My dad grew up in Mayfair, not sure we can afford that but we have friends in Hampstead and they seem to like the area. My parents would live separately but would prefer to be near us.

I'm no expert but I attended school as a child in England. CoE schools are what we would call public schools. Public schools are religious in the UK. My village school had chapel and we all said the Lord's Prayer. That's just how it was.

Getting places at your local school (aka our American public school) is very difficult and my expat friend ended up having to send her children to school across London, even though there were many local schools including one right in their house. Getting into what we'd call private school is both easier and harder: there isn't the same admissions process we have here, BUT you put your child's name down many years in advance (used to be at birth, don't know if that's still the case). So that could be very challenging too.

sorry for the typos. My friend's family was an expat family in pharma so they had lots of relo help, etc., but getting school places for the two children was still very difficult and they didn't know which school the kids would go until, I think, the day before school started. They were freaking out because of course the kids need a particular uniform depending on which school they go to, and they couldn't even start shopping. It felt like it might not work out but then ultimately it did, but hugely stressful especially for the kids.

Was this for public (in the American use of the term) or private school? This is my nightmare and the only thing keeping us from going.

[Anonymous]

I did it for 6 years. My kids were 6 and 2 when we arrived. It was amazing and I am grateful for the experiences.

That said, it was insanely expensive and that stress had a cost on my marriage. We are now separated and coparenting our kids, now 14 and 10.

The culture shock of coming back and living now in a small town in Florida hasn’t been fun either. We didn’t have an exit plan, though. It’s not a bad place and my kids are settling in…but it’s hard as they did make good friends in London.

If I were to do over, we should have left after 3-4 years. But as you have a UK parent, YMMV.

[Anonymous]

That would be an amazing experience for your family. It sounds like neither you or your husband are British citizens? But your DH would have a work visa through his company?

A few things to keep in mind:

Taxes are way higher over there, so make sure you are budgeting based on what he will be bringing home and not what he is making here.

The weather is really dreary. It takes some getting used to and can be quite depressing if you are not used to it.

Look into medical care that will be available to you as non-citizens.

Everything is smaller there - definitely takes some adjusting. I’d get rid of half the stuff you own or store it here. Including clothes, kitchen stuff- everything.

Obviously you are already looking into schools so just make sure you know what you are doing there.

Everything is way more expensive there. Do make sure to up your budget on everything.

Take advantage of being so close to the mainland and look into rail passes.

[Anonymous]

OP you need to look up all these questions on Mumsnet. It’s the British equivalent of DCUM and actually much more widely used and comprehensive. There are entire forums there dedicated to private schools in London, how to get in, the entry tests, differences between schools, comparing private to the various forms of state schools, etc. Getting into a good private school in the right neighborhood in London is not so simple, and you are late in the year for starting admission for next fall. I’d start there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you need to look up all these questions on Mumsnet. It’s the British equivalent of DCUM and actually much more widely used and comprehensive. There are entire forums there dedicated to private schools in London, how to get in, the entry tests, differences between schools, comparing private to the various forms of state schools, etc. Getting into a good private school in the right neighborhood in London is not so simple, and you are late in the year for starting admission for next fall. I’d start there.

This is very helpful thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thank you for the feedback. This would be an indefinite move- we could come back any time or also stay for as long as we want. We would rent out our house here as we have a fixed low interest rate. We live in an incredibly expensive area so London would be the same if not cheaper for some things. Weather isn't an issue for us.

Would be be doing this if Tuesday had gone differently? No probably not. And I'm not naive enough to think England is a Jane Austen novel/Bridget Jones movie. My dad is British and left for a reason so I'm pretty eyes wide open about it and that's actually my biggest hesitation. I'm worried I won't adjust well to the lower quality of living, I'm worried my anxious kids will have a hard time adjusting, I'm worried we will regret it. But I'm also incredibly worried about what's going to happen here and this seems like a door to something else I should try to at least think about walking though.

Don’t rush into anything. I hate the election results too, but I’m not running away.

[Anonymous]

As long as you can live in a good neighborhood and send kids to private, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck getting into CofE school. We lived next to the best one but had to go private as lottery/waitlist. Top private but still a lot more$. No regrets.

Also where will you live? Some parts of London aren’t London let’s be honest.

We would be paying for private. Sorry this is all new to me- are their private CofE schools? Is it difficult to get into a private primary school?

DH's job would be in the city of London. My dad grew up in Mayfair, not sure we can afford that but we have friends in Hampstead and they seem to like the area. My parents would live separately but would prefer to be near us.

I'm no expert but I attended school as a child in England. CoE schools are what we would call public schools. Public schools are religious in the UK. My village school had chapel and we all said the Lord's Prayer. That's just how it was.

Getting places at your local school (aka our American public school) is very difficult and my expat friend ended up having to send her children to school across London, even though there were many local schools including one right in their house. Getting into what we'd call private school is both easier and harder: there isn't the same admissions process we have here, BUT you put your child's name down many years in advance (used to be at birth, don't know if that's still the case). So that could be very challenging too.

I wouldn't quite say that all state schools are religious. A deal was struck when universal education was established in the UK that the religious schools (mainly CoE) would become part of the public system in exchange for all schools (the majority of which are not religious) having a religious assembly in the morning. Currently, all state schools are legally required to provide an act of “collective worship” that is “broadly Christian” every day. Many heads admit privately they no longer stick to this, preferring to run less religious assemblies more relevant to their diverse student bodies. Parents can opt out of this assembly.

I actually found these assemblies quite helpful as a kind of "inoculation" against organised religion.