[psh12001]

If your coming to christchurch, let me know where you are coming from. If you need to know anything before you get here, just ask

paul and lisa

[Babette & Andy]

Very kind offer Paul & Lisa :nice1 Our plans are to head out to NZ mid/end September, depending on housesale. Our 1st choice of location is still Chch, but all depends on joboffers (IT Project Mgr). Will keep you posted nearer to the time, and will take you up on your offer if we do end up in Chch.

Babette

[psh12001]

hiya , where in cheshire are you from? we lived in ashton u lyne , but we went all over cheshire with cheshire caravaning club.... let us know you plans
chat soon
paul , lisa and tribe

[Babette & Andy]

Small world!! We lived just of Ashton Lane for about 4 years, and then moved to Winsford - which is where we still live now.

There's quite a few caravanning sites near here, so our paths may have crossed these past 9 years that we've lived here :nice1

Will keep you posted on our progress.

Babette

[K&CS]

Hi

We're hopefully coming to Christchurch in January - got to wait to give birth first unfortunately!!

We're in Harrogate, N Yorks at the moment, and can't wait to make the move. Very difficult to decide on area in chc - so much depends on schools, and don't want to get the kids settled into a school, then have to move them because we decide to move area.

Any advice on areas/schools would be very much appreciated!

Hope it's not too cold there for you at the moment. My friend in Christchurch said it was -4 the other day!! That really is cold!

Kate & Craig

[psh12001]

it is difficult to decide and we too couldnt make our mind up when faced with looking, but our mind was decided for us and we ended up, in belfast first, where we got a rental. then once there for 8 months, our house sold in manchester and we moved further out to kaiapoi, which we love. I now work in kaiapoi, selling real estate. most people like kaiapoi and rangiora because the housing is cheaper than the city as its about 10 miles out and only takes 25 mins to getinto city.and both towns have good community feels to them. and there are more rural surroundings

someone once said, that you have to be careful when deciding where to live as it depends on what you want in life.
If you want to be near the sea,if you want to work in the city and live near, if you like skiing, if you like sport, etc etc, we love the sea , so being on the west side of christchurch wouldnt be any good, being too close to the coast and its a bit cool in the easterly wind. etc ect.
We didnt really have a problem in pulling the kids out of school out again as they settle very quickly regardless and moving school again, was nothing compared to moving the across the world...... kids are very adaptable and its the adults that have the problems adapting to change, kids take it in there stride

hope this helps.
the schools have a decile scoring system to say how they are , a kinda league table, not sure where you will find the data, but i take things like that with a pinch of salt anyway...i think its in the kids , not the school, whether they do well or not. kaiapoi s borough school and high school are both ok

hope this allhelps , ask away if you need any more

paul and lisa

[Moorf]

There's a bit of a hoo-haa it seems about High School(s) available to those who live in the seaside areas such as Sumner/Redcliffs/Mt Pleasant etc - lots of well off families living there who refuse to send their kids to the zoned High School which is Linwood College (which, one customer told me in a disgusted tone "has an in-house pregnancy nurse!! ") and so they have to resort to private schools or go into a draw to get picked for one of the more desirable schools. I can see their point.

Local gossip is of a "plan" to get a High School put into Ferrymead area.

[K&CS]

It really is a bit of a headache trying to decide about schools while we're still over here. Do you know if you have to move kids out of school if you move away from the area of the school they're attending. Over here, if you move out of catchment, you don't need to move the kids out of their school (unless you want to), but I know they're stricter over there.

Kate

[veronica]

I am pretty certain that you have to move the kids if you move out of the area. can anyone confirm that.

[Moorf]

I have heard the same, you must, in most cases, move your child to the relevant catchment area if you move out of one.

From what I am hearing it can also be a matter of "who you know" etc as far as getting into the schools you want if you aren't living in the area *wink wink nudge nudge say no more* - it's becoming quite a topic of convo in the shop!

[spodie]

My wife and I are going to look for properties that are further out and cheaper, so Kaiapoi and Rangiora sound nice. I found a site that people might want to take a look at.
http://www.waimakariri.co.nz/default.htm
:nice1

[K&CS]

Back on the subject of schools again (boring, I know), does anyone know what happens if your local catchment school is full? That's something which has happened to us here in the UK and we've had to send our kids to a school out of catchment where there's space. I just wondered what happened there with them being so strict about catchments - are they obliged to let you into your local school and, if you can't get in, will any other school take you given that you're not allowed in out of catchment?

We've got friends in Rangiora and they really like it there - it's one we're considering too.