1 year anniversary

We've been here a year!!

As I sit here today, I really can't imagine a life lived elsewhere.  I fell in love with this place before we even moved here and I still feel the same way.  I feel as though I was always meant to live here.  I really count myself one of the lucky ones, because I know that, for some people, emigration can be a very tough experience.  For me, it has been an absolute joy.  To get a more balanced view, I thought I'd ask the rest of the family for their opinions too.  (Calvin and Paula have only been here 3 months, but they answered the questions too, just to give an idea.)  So now we have answers from 50-somethings, 30-somethings, and 20-somethings.


1. How do you feel about having lived in the UK for a year?

Grant: That it is home
Gill: I feel so thankful that we get to live here and I am so grateful for the amazing year we've had exploring our new home.
Rox and Jon: Happy, it's been a good  year
Calvin: (only been here 3 months) Very happy with how it is going, loving my new job and the area we live in.  I just feel a lot more relaxed and feel like I can "live" life.
Paula: (only been here 3 months)  Time has flown and it feels like home.

2. How difficult has emigration been?

Grant:  It hasn't been that difficult because we came with the whole family.
Gill: SO much easier than I imagined it to  be.
Roxy and Jon: It's been a lot easier than we thought, the build up to emigrating was more stressful than living in a new country.  
Calvin: I have no issues at all, the whole process has been easy.
Paula: It was surprisingly easy.  The only thing that I miss is my friends.


3. Do you feel you are better off - emotionally?  Financially?

Grant: Emotionally, yes - financially, no.  Our age was probably the worst time to emigrate as far as pension etc goes.  But on the other hand, I now know that I have a stable job and income, whereas in SA retrenchment was an ongoing possibility.

Gill: Emotionally, I feel a LOT better off.   Financially - it's a tough one to answer.  I stress daily about our pension situation, it's frankly frightening.  On the other hand, we lived with retrenchment hanging over our heads in SA - there was no job security and our pensions there would probably have ended up being worthless anyway.  So we're not really any worse off retirement/pension-wise if you look at the big picture.  In SA we owned our own home, and it was a relatively nice house, in a good suburb.  Here we rent a very humble flat in a nice suburb.  So that gets me down a bit, I'd love to be able to afford to buy a little house with a small garden.  So in that aspect we were financially better off in SA... but then if Grant had been retrenched it would all have gone up in smoke... so....?

Roxy and Jon:  Yes, we feel very safe and happy in our new home.  Yes, we don't have financial stress like we did in SA.

Calvin: Yes to both, I feel more safe and relaxed.  My job is paying me well, so in the financial department I feel fine.

Paula: Definitely.  I feel like I have a lot more freedom, I can walk to places a lot more, instead of having to take my car and be so security conscious about where I park and drive when I am on my own.  We are heaps better off financially here.  Calvin and I are completely financially independent for the first time and we can even save every month for holidays, so we are already planning trips.


4. If you knew a year ago what you know now, would you still do it?

Grant: most definitely
Gill: 100% definitely 
Rox and Jon:  Yes, absolutely. The life here is safe, there's more to do, and those long Summer days are bliss.
Calvin: 100% I would do it every time.  I have always wanted to live overseas and see what it is like.
Paula:  Definitely.  

5. If you could go back to a year ago, what would you do differently?

Grant: Nothing, I think we did it all right.
Gill: I wouldn't stress so much in the run-up to leaving SA.  Flip, I think I aged 20 years in the year before we moved... for no valid reason!  I wouldn't have left my Carrol Boyes sugar spoon behind by mistake.... still burns my butt!
Rox and Jon:  We wouldn't have sent Issy to school (we'd have started homeschooling from the word go) and we'd perhaps have looked for cheaper housing, our rent's quite high.
Calvin: Nothing.  Saving more money would have been good, but everything worked out in the end!
Paula: Nothing.  I think that the experience couldn't have been any different really, it's always going to be stressful leaving a country and I think we handled it well.

6. Are you happy with where you chose to live?

Grant:  100% definitely.  It would take a lot to beat our area.
Gill:  I absolutely love the area where we live.  I thank God every day that we happened to drive through this area and that Rox and I actually voiced that we liked it.. imagine if we had kept quiet and gone with our original plan!  
Rox and Jon:  Yes we are.  We love the village vibe and the countryside.
Calvin: Yes, the area is very nice.  The commute to work can get annoying sometimes with the trains, but I love the company I work for, so I'd rather commute further and be happy at work than work 20 min away but be unhappy.
Paula:  Definitely happy, the only downside is Calvin's commute, but I love the area and all the parks nearby and we are definitely going to be here for at least 2 years because of my uni and it would take a lot to make us consider leaving the area.

7. Biggest surprise?

Grant: How expensive it is to eat out.
Gill:  Hmmmm, there have been a few surprises... I was led to believe that the Brits were an unfriendly bunch and that's not at all true, in general I have found them to be polite, warm, kind people.  The weather (until the last 6 weeks!) has been SO, SO much better than I imagined.  I never pictured us living this outdoorsy lifestyle.  And yeah, I agree with Grant, eating out is prohibitively expensive, unfortunately!
Rox and Jon:  How well we've all adapted to the new surroundings and making some good friends so easily.
Calvin: How smoothly the whole process went.  Very happy with how I was able to get a job so quickly and we found a place to rent with a bit of searching and viewing, we are very happy with our home.
Paula: How naturally everything fell into place, Calvin got a job, I found nice people at uni and everything has just been simple since we arrived.


8. Most difficult thing?

Grant: Not working for 3 months.  Finding a job.
Gill:  I don't know how to properly articulate this - I feel like Grant and I have taken a drop... not in our standard of living as such - I think that our quality of life has improved 10 fold - but... I suppose it IS our standard of living....it's hard to describe.  Basically, I'm used to having my own home with a garden and pets and I don't like living in a rented, borderline crappy, flat.  I have adapted to it better than I thought I ever would, but now, after renting for a year, I'd really like to own my own home, with a little garden, so that I can have a pet and right now that isn't in my future and I wish it was.  But, having said that, our flat is SO conveniently located, and it's a breeze to keep clean, and I love my tree with all my bird-feeders (the crazy bird-lady, that's me!) and our neighbours are really sweet... so yeah, it's not a HUGE deal.. but that's the thing I find most difficult.
Roxy and Jon:  Missing family on special occasions and getting the kids organised with coats on and coats off in Winter!
Calvin: Adjusting to new people, making new friends.
Paula:  Not having my best friends nearby and trying to coordinate calls to them with how hectic life is for them and for me, whereas before you'd always just make a plan to meet up in person on the weekend.

9. Thoughts about the future?

Grant: I'd like to buy a house. 
Gill: Butter up our kids because they're the ones that will be changing our nappies one day??  (Funny...Not funny!)  Ummm, yeah....The house thing. 
Rox and Jon: It looks brighter here than it ever did.
Calvin: Looking forward to it! Still very positive and want to stay.
Paula: I'm excited and I can't wait to look back in a few years time to see how far we've come.

10. Advice to others contemplating the move.

Grant: Do it sooner rather than later
Gill:  Be very careful about where you choose to settle, I think that can make ALL the difference!  Do your homework, don't believe everything you read on the internet (my goodness people can talk utter nonsense!)  If at all possible, come as a big, extended family unit - I think that has made this a LOT easier for us.  Come when you're 30 so that you will qualify for the full pension when you reach retirement age.... don't be like us and wait until 15 years before retirement age... But on the other hand, if you are 50 come anyway and work until you drop!  And finally, come with a positive attitude, if you come here and keep your focus on South Africa and all that you have left behind, you are setting yourself up for misery.  Come here and embrace the place!
Rox and Jon: Have a positive attitude.
Calvin: If you are thinking about it and are able to be positive with the change, then I would say go for it.  Things can be difficult and change isn't always easy, but there is a sense of excitement in doing the big move.  It might not be for everyone, but if you stay positive and think of the future then you will be fine.
Paula: Take the chance, you can always go back if you are unhappy, but I don't think you will be!

Finding a school for your child

One of the biggest stressors when emigrating to the UK is often finding a school for your child.  You want your child to settle and be happy in their new country, and considering that a considerable number of their hours will be spent at school, the school they are placed in is a big factor.  For us, a big decider about where to settle revolved around where Isabella would be at school.  

There were three big factors that affected our decision about which school to choose for Issy:
1. Ofsted rating
2. whether the school was "oversubscribed"
3. Catchment area

So first, the Ofsted rating: 
The UK makes something called the "Ofsted Report" available to the public, this report rates schools on various criteria and gives them a score from "Outstanding" all the way down to "Inadequate". Obviously, when choosing a school for your child you ideally want it to have an "outstanding" or "very good" rating. (In the interest of transparency I will say that, in my personal opinion, this method of selecting a school isn't always foolproof - the Ofsted is largely based on academic criteria and sometimes, for a child who is not particularly academic, other criteria may be more important. Having said that, I still think there is value in the Ofsted rating, as a school that is performing really poorly is probably not a good option for any child.) 

The dreaded "oversubscribed": In our experience many, MANY of the desirable schools are "over-subscribed", which basically means they are full and not able to take any new pupils. 

Catchment area:  The schools in the UK are quite big on catchment areas - what this means is that once the schools have received applications (for people actually living in the UK, primary school applications have to be in by 15 January and secondary schools by 31 October, of the year before the child needs to attend school) they will then assign spots based on whether you live in the catchment area, whether there are siblings at the school etc; if there is still availability after that, they will then assign places to applicants who live outside the catchment area.  Ultimately, you need to choose a home largely based on what school you want your children to attend. 

A website that was VERY useful was https://www.192.com/schools/  On this website you are able to type in a postcode for the area you are interested in and a list of the nearby schools will then come up and it will state whether they are oversubscribed and what the Ofsted rating is. 

Once we found a school that we liked for Issy, that was not oversubscribed and had a decent Ofsted rating, Roxy emailed the school and made sure that there was availability in the grade that Issy would be going into, only once we had had confirmation that there was, did they go ahead and find a house to rent nearby.  

It does vary from county to county, but in general you need to contact the local council office to assign you a school.  (For people already living in the UK they apply via the council and list their 3 favourite school choices) When Rox contacted the council she stated that she had been in contact with the particular school and that they had a place available for Issy, the council then contacted the school and Rox then received a letter in the post saying Issy had been accepted at the school, after that all correspondence came straight from the school.

In the UK, children begin Reception year the September after they turn 4.  They will generally put your child in the grade according to their age group, even if they were in a lower grade in South Africa - this can mean a jump of 2 grades for some children.  They have teaching assistants to help the child catch up.  

The school day generally runs from about 9am to 3pm.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash