One way or another, a good education costs money. Whether through astronomical
school fees in the private sector or soaring house prices close to the best
schools the state can offer, you are going to have to make a hefty
investment in order to give your children the best possible start in life.
Today, The Sunday Times publishes its list of the 500 top secondary schools
(both state and private) in Britain online at
www.timesonline.co.uk/parentpower. Private schools dominate the table,
scooping the top 15 places and taking 347 out of the 500.
To send your daughter to the school that heads the overall table, the
all-girls North London Collegiate, in Middlesex, would cost an eye-watering
£70,000 over seven years. St Paul’s heads the boys’ table, where annual fees
are more than £14,000.
But our top 500 list also includes several comprehensives, schools that are
free — but near which houses cost tens of thousands of pounds more than
identical ones further away, simply because pupils are admitted according to
how close a family lives to the school gates. Recent research by academics
at the London School of Economics revealed that even to move into the
catchment area of a good primary school in London and the southeast would
add an average of £61,000 to the price of a house.
Just how close the link is between school and property price is now being
debated in Brighton, where a furious row is raging over plans to redraw
catchment boundaries. Parents protested earlier this month about changes
that would see houses formerly in the admissions area for two of the city’s
best comprehensives, Varndean and Dorothy Stringer, excluded from 2008.
Andrew and Emma Saunders bought their detached four-bedroom house in Patcham
in 2002 because they wanted to send their two children, Harrison, 6, and
Oscar, 4, to good secondary schools.
“Last week, our children could have got in to a good secondary school; this
week they can’t,” says Andrew, an actuarial analyst. “Local estate agents
have also said that house prices will be affected by as much as £100,000, by
losing the catchment-area premium.”
Sean Bidwell, owner of Bidwells estate agency in Patcham, says it is too early
to assess the financial impact because the exact boundary lines have not yet
been agreed. But he confirmed that “these boundary changes will affect house
prices in Patcham”.
Four-bed detached houses in the current catchment areas for the two good
schools cost £550,000; three-bed semi-detached ones on the boundary cost
£300,000, and are up to 10% more expensive than those outside, he says.
Despite their popularity, the two Brighton schools don’t even figure in our
top 500 list; for those comprehensives that do, the house price premium is
just as marked.
The 10% premium also affects families living near Watford Grammar School for
Girls, one of the most successful comprehensives in the Sunday Times list
(ranked 208th overall). Mark Tanzer, sales manager of estate agency Watford
Estates, says that three-bedroom terraced houses within the postcode-defined
catchment area in west Watford are £20,000- £25,000 dearer than those
outside — £275,000 rather than £250,000.
This is despite the fact that only 55% of the school’s places are designated
as community places for children living in its catchment area. Children
compete for the rest of the vacancies, with one in 10 allocated on the basis
of musical aptitude and others on performance in a tough academic exam.
It is a price many are willing to pay. In the catchment area of Dame Alice
Owen’s School, in Potters Bar (205th overall), John Reynolds, manager of
Andrew Ward estate agency, also talks of a 10% property premium — a
percentage of the 200 places are allocated to children who live close to the
school. A three-bed house costs about £350,000, but Reynolds says that some
parents buy on an ex-council estate nearby. “A lot of people buy one of
these cheaper ex-council houses to get an address close to the school, but
probably have a big house somewhere else,” he says.
So which makes the most financial sense: buying near a good state school or
forking out for private school fees? A recent report from the Halifax bank
claimed that to privately educate a child from the age of three to 18, you
can expect to spend £326,000 — the figures are based on attendance at an
average-priced, pre-prep school, followed by a prep school, and finally
boarding in a senior school.
Martin Stephen, high master of St Paul’s, sent one of his sons to a
comprehensive. He believes it is possible for parents to end up paying more
to move into the catchment area of a good state school than they would if
they paid for a private education.
“A friend worked out what their house move cost in terms of house price
premium, commuting to work, and so on. He worked out it cost £18,000 a year
over the period the child was in school,” says Stephen.
If your house price holds up, it may be a price worth paying. After all, you
will recoup the outlay when you sell. But if the comprehensive’s reputation
and exam results start to dip, or if admission rules change, then opting for
a state school may turn out to be an expensive mistake.
As parents in Brighton may soon discover for themselves.
That good schools are key in deciding where to live was taken into account by
the Academy of Urbanism, which recently awarded its first ever Urbanism
Awards. The Academy received more than 750 nominations from the public for
Britain’s best urban location.
Ludlow, in Shropshire, won the Great Town award. David Rudlin, who wrote the
report for the awards, says that education was a key deciding factor in
assessing a positive urban environment: “Education more than anything else
is the thing that really matters when choosing a place to live.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Denyer
Do you think it is worth paying an extra £25,000 for a home near a good
school? Have your say by entering your comments into the box below.
I moved out of London because many of its suburbs are going down the pan!
I used to live in the Hendon area where many homes are being sold for over 500K.
At the same time there have been several mass brawls between kids that attend two of the local schools at which results are poor to mediocre.
I saw drugs being sold outside my house, guys fighting with golf clubs on my driveway (blood everywhere) and property being vandalised.
There seems to be very little value left in many of our large cities, they are dirty, smelly, noisy and overcrowded.
I've moved into the St. Albans area and there is such a contrast, good schools, people seem to be pleasant, there seems to be almost no graffiti.
When I need the doctor, I can usually get an appointment the same day, that would have been impossible in London.
In London you fight for everything because the infrastructure is collapsing due to overcrowding, immigration, call it what you want.
I'm glad to be out, see ya!
Graham, St Albans, uk
I admit we moved and bought in an overpriced area just to get in the catchment area for a good state school. I am not entirely comfortable with doing this, but every parent wants the best for their child. When you weigh it up against many years of school fees, which we would have struggled with, it makes financial if not moral sense. I agree that bringing back grammar schools would be the fairest and simplest option.
P.Arnold, Weybridge, Surrey
I am shocked to learn all this business about catchment area, high house prices and the injustice that goes with it. I feel like the rules are set by the rich to keep their priviliged status. Gifted kids should only be judged by their brain power not by parents wealth or proximity to good schools. Therefore I say: bring back the entrance exam and let the kids from less priviliged backgrounds prove themselves. After all they are British too and should have as much right as the rich kids, unless I am missing something there....
M Chardi, London, UK
Top 15%? Oh please! That means that in every group of seven or eight kids there's one brighter than yours. Even 98th percentile scores aren't as dramatic as parents often love to boast they are - especially when the child is young. The early gains made by pushy parenting wear off as the child gets older and finds her own natural level. I'm not saying your child isn't reasonably bright but the implication that your child is more special, or entitled to more resources than the kid she sits beside really annoys me. The only saving grace is that you didn't tell us how 'gifted' she is.
P Allen, London,
the beleaguered middle classes yet again find their lives spiralling beyond their control, first it was the demise of the grammar schools open to all regardless of income or class now its the good comprehensives on the way out . The difference now is house prices. When I attended grammar school in the 70s the pupils were drawn from a huge social spectrum ,from the vast council estates of the have nots ( but willing to try) to the gated paddocks of the haves(but not taking it for granted). What unified us was not income or trainer logo but the acknowledgement that we needed to work hard, with no excuses accepted. So far I see no evidence that these old grammar schools have been replaced by anything better.....education should never be a lottery system of winning tickets or russian roulette. Bring back the entrance exam and let parents prove that their children are worthy of a place at a good school.
c. goodchild, worcs, w. mids
it used to be a fairly safe bet, to buy in a catchment area of a good school. now this may no longer be the case, if the boundaries are drawn differently. i live in a good area with a good junior school, but i have a very bright child (top 2% in the country for english and top 15% for maths) and her school would not do anything to help her. so we had no chioce but to choose a good private school. moving would have done nothing to solve the situation, but if there was a school good enough to help her i would have moved if the difference was possibly no more than £50k afterall that is still cheaper than private school fees.
jayne rooney, coventry, west midlands