would you live in your catchment area ?

we are house hunting and mrs T-r is convinced that we should live 25 XC miles away from both our works. – in winter it will be a 5 or 6 hour trip to get home as youll have to deviate via the city. ive done a similar commute a couple of days this year as we are currently 35 miles XC from my work – but 5 miles from hers – now her job is about 5 miles from my office. – not to mention it costing about 400 quid in fuel a month as due to working hours we cant lift share with each other(and id like to be closer as i want to ride to work more often)

How ever since there is **** all squared out there for rental in the area we have found a house in catchment area but out in the country. Obviously our local service town would be the town the school is in.

I cant see the issue since its not like we are near the local scallys housing estates but Mrs T-R is not so convinced – afterall shes the teacher.

NE of scotland if it matters 😉

Sounds bonkers to me. My mum was a teacher and for many years in the same catchment area as her school and always local. I don’t see why it should be an issue.

We were also in a rural area.

On the other hand, i can’t imagine that your argument that “a bunch of middle aged, middle class blokes on a mountain bike forum said it would be OK, so obviously it will be” is going to get you much further than your already explained reasonable case.

Good luck on that one!

She’s a geographer. Put together stats for all the miles, time in the car, fuel costs, car costs etc and tell her that she’s being a bit daft.

FWIW, I’ve just moved from a house that was 15 miles (across suburbia) from work, to one that is 6 miles (across countryside) from work.

The difference to my quality of life is amazing. My commute in the morning is now 20 minutes ride, rather than a choice of 1) an hour and a half drive, 2) an hour ride, 3) an hour and a quarter train.

I work flexi time, so I’m leaving home at the same time, but getting home about 2 hours earlier!!

I actually feel like I have a life outside work during the week now. Can’t stress how good this is!

Dave

in winter it will be a 5 or 6 hour trip to get home

6 hours to do 35 miles?

Dog sled? Or… 4×4 – it’ll smell better.

As a Lecturer in an FE College, if i wanted to move out of catchment it would have to be at least an hours drive away. Think i’ll settle for the 3 miles ride over the heath 🙂

Never had any problems out of work (touch wood) despite having some ‘interesting’ students.

My mother did when she was still working and it’s not something that I’d recommend. It led to a few “interesting” encounters that on at least one occasion led to police invovlement. We did not live near the “scallies” either.

25 XC miles away from both our works. – in winter it will be a 5 or 6 hour trip to get home as youll have to deviate via the city.

Unless you’re commuting via the banchory to fettercairn road I think you’re exaggerating. For a few days in winter you might take this long but certainly not every day.

i was doing auchenblae to dyce – when the snow hit for 3 weeks i had to travel with the rat race through the city …. was **** chaos.

banchory to inverurie would be the new one – i see it being north deeside to anderson drive in the snow – only to find out the schools shut ….. i agree not every day – but once was enough for me to realise i really do hate this shit city ! – and i missed the worst of it this year by being abroad !

zulu i have done that – im just checking its not me being the stupid one ! – you guys will tell me in no uncertain terms if i am im sure 😀

Depends a lot on the type of school. Most teachers would probably choose to live outside the normal catchment area but 25 miles away might be going a bit too far. 10 miles (or even less in some cases) will be enough to not see the vast majority of the kids outside of school time.

The city was only bad on the days it actually snowed, I was travelling from Bridge of dee to Dyce from January. Other than that the city itself was fine this winter, as it was last. Chaos when it was actually snowing but fine pretty much every other day. I’m not sure about the ‘shire though.

roads in city werent bad but the shire was utter chaos – i normally use the bucksburn – kingswells – peterculter – netherly road . it wasnt so much the snow but the ice that was getting you.

an LR will get you through snow – but on ice its next to useless…. other than that you can drive up the ditch,grass verge when the traffic decides to stop on bridge of muchalls hill !

…in winter it will be a 5 or 6 hour trip…it costing about 400 quid in fuel a month

Got your answer right there. Even if I had a job where I couldn’t ride to work there’s no way I’d spend that long commuting.

catchment area will be fine from what I know of teachers who have done this tbh.

5 – 6 hour commute to work no chance I would even consider it I think I could get to most of Europe in that time scale [ assuming 3 hours each way]

A few miles away would be sensible – no need to move 25 miles away however – the commuting will drive you crackers.

if you’re in settled jobs then one of the benefits of moving house is that you can cut down the dead time and money spent commuting. As TJ said crackers is the word for it.

one of the benifits of renting till she is in a settled jobs is we can move about to suit her at the moment …. i can be working in the office one day and in africa the next … where “i” live isnt “that” important but avoiding traveling through the city is my biggest aim – just sucks time – where i used to live on the edge of the city cycling was about 7 minutes door to door – if i had a meeting at another office and needed the car it would take me 40 minutes to get in and about an hour to get home !

in summer i can do auchenblae to dyce in 40 minutes in the morning and an hour dead at night.

or auchenblae to stonehaven on the bike in 40 minutes followed by 25 minutes on the train – and the same home – however in winter them same roads is lethal with ice and potholes

how ever roads and trails are excellent round where we are at for riding and v.quiet – foot of cairn o mount

houses im looking at give me a 10-15 mile commute by bike thusly saving a few hunderd quid a month ! and give me access to the roads to the north west of aberdeen

My wife is a Teacher and we used to live in the catchment area.
We moved and now it is a 28 mile commute for both of us. Best thing we ever did.Commute time is 30-35 mins.
No Kids coming up to us saying hello miss all the time, no parents in the pub asking questions about there little johnny,And my wife will not get to teach our kids (So no issues with my kids being picked on because of who there mom is.)

It allows my wife to be able to switch off from work without constant reminders of her job.

When we were looking for houses in the NE of England we realised we could get something sizeable out in the country and have a fantastic house with the country side (horse and bike riding) on the doorstep. Thing is, we decided that we’d never be in our house as we’d be driving to work each day. For my fiancee this was even worse as she’s often sent to London so she would need to travel into Newcastle to get the train/plane. We decided to go for convenience, <10 miles for me to get to work and we are near the airport/trainstation/newcastle office for my fiancee. We go to work everyday but only out riding at weekends so it seemed a sensible compromise. When the bad weather hit my commute went up by 10 minutes, people out in the hills didn’t make it in and took unpaid leave. We can walk to the shops and pubs and have managed to drop to one car which we only use for “fun activities”. Saved a fortune in fuel and running costs which in turn pays for bikes/ horse riding/ other fun stuff.

As a child we lived five minutes walk from the school that my dad worked in. Nice enough catchment area, probably 20% of pupils lived in coucil/housing association housing if that’s a measure of ‘affluence’. Dad didn’t really mind at all: being both head of fifth year/year11 and a languages teacher meant he was at a disadvantage with some kids/families and relied a little more in his dazzzling personality :D.

Pros:
-walked to work unless he had tons of books to take home. Therefore one car family.
-Never got ‘snowed in’ 😆
-walk home from end of term staff pub crawl.

Cons:
– halloween was ‘interesting’: extra special attention is paid to one’s teachers’ houses isn’t it?
– My sisters and I went to the same school. Trail rat, do you have kids and would they also go to the school?

Dad didn’t mind it, and the school was plenty big enough (1200) that he was never our head of year or teacher. I had him ‘stand in’ for absent staff maybe three times in 5 years. But we ‘Mr Wilson’s kids’ were definitely under extra scrutiny from pupils and staff. No point whatsoever bunking off school or forging notes, and my sisters responded to being teacher’s kid by underachieving and generally being naughty. After four ‘geek years’, I eventually responded by being in bands and acting outlandishly rather than naughty or nerdy. (only limited success at not being a nerd, mind!). My sisters and I (and a couple of friends whos mum also taught at the school) often wonder how different school would be if we had not been at the same one as Dad. Big sis turned herself round nicely and is now a headteacher. Ulp!

no kids

the house is about half/3/4s of a click outside the town on a farm

jonba has the money shot – 1 hour longer to come home to parents at weekends for her when im working away and shes got nothing planned vs – 1.5 hours in the car everyday …. and i get back 2hrs of my life – dont have to train after work – i can train going too and from work !

Firstly,congratulations on Mrs T-R getting a job. Apart from cake ingredients a couple of times a year,ie flour/eggs, I never got any real grief living close to school. HOWEVER,I also had to be canny about being pished in public,and couldn’t shoplift from my local co-op.I was also unsure of the ethics of buying crack from my ex-pupils.
Those are the main reasons I shy away from living too close to the school. However if she got the Peterhead job,I would hope I am preaching to the converted. 😀 Galashiels is too close to peehead.

inverurie stuart – its only 2 days a week but supply will top it up a bit im sure

small world btw – your probhationer who got the job at kirrie – thomas – we went to school together.

Aye, Tom had said,he will be missed. Any job these days is good un. Can’t you just stay in Auchenblae for the time being,until things are firmed up with your partners job? Lovely wee place,albiet with a smoking hole where the pub was! We have just got permission to convert a barn just outside of Fettercairn,where my wife is from.

I never lived directly in catchment in my state school days but knew a few who did. One poor lady had a job that had her in conflict with the more difficult element of the school (pastoral role with frequent communication with social services). She was spat at, house daubed in paint, irate drunk parents battering her door at 2am, crap posted through her letterbox etc. She moved. That’s extreme though – as long as you are not right next to the school or in an urban area where the scallies might hang around in bunches and “have a wicked idea – let’s go round to Mrs xxx’s house” you would be fine. Meeting loads of the em and their parent’s in Tesco can be a bit tiresome.

Conversely now I have gone to the dark side and work in the independent boarding sector I get a house with the job right next to the school – bit weird at times being that close to work, but a 50yd walk down my garden as a commute has it’s advantages.

maybe you just haven’t noticed that you’ve been whingeing that you need to ride your bike more, and this is her solution..?

Well tbh its gonna cost us an arm in leg to stay here an commute to there

I love our house here , locations great for riding – had it been 10 miles closer to work all would have been fine !

Small matter of me having to do a 3 am start when ever im flying away as well isnt good !

Atm its all up in the air anyway as the owner aint got back to us and we go to the alps tomorrow morning !

Hopefully something in blackburn will come up that would be ideal ! – narrowly missed out on a farm house at kinnellar because i hummed and hawwed about key meter electricity being a complete ball bag but then realised just top it up in 50 quid intervals and there will be no issue other than its slightly more expensive !

pity she’s not an English teacher 😉