Moving to New Plymouth

[nasirazad]

Hi there, we (wife,me & 3 young kids (2,5,7) are moving to New Plymouth (from Auckland) soon in late March to early April, I am taking a work transfer and would be working out of NP next week (19^th Feb) to spend some time there and look at few locations. We haven’t locked in any particular location we want to stay as we are open to the idea of deciding on it based on a good school location and then finding a decent house in the area to rent or buy.

We would really appreciate if people living in NP can recommend some good schools and good surrounding area. Also, are there shopping centres nearby in that area, activity options, etc?

We have narrowed it down to following schools but haven’t locked down any yet, we have been told that Welbourn and Vogeltown has good schools, any suggestions on that?

Any other info would be appreciated and thanks a million in advance for your time and effort.

Name	Years	Area	Decile
Ahititi School	1–8	Ahititi	5
Bell Block School	1–8	Bell Block	5
Inglewood School	1–8	Inglewood	5
Kaimata School	1–8	Kaimata	6
Merrilands School	1–6	Merrilands	6
New Plymouth Seventh Day Adventist School	1–8	Vogeltown	6
St Patrick's School	1–8	Inglewood	5
Urenui School	1–6	Urenui	5
West End School	1–6	Lynmouth	6
Bell Block School	1–8	Bell Block	5
Merrilands School	1–6	Merrilands	6
West End School	1–6	Lynmouth	6

Thanks
Nasir

[Branca]

Hi Nasir,

I am familiar with NP as I grew up there and still have family living there. I would suggest that unless you want to live rurally, you avoid all the areas which are far from New Plymouth. If you live fairly centrally in New Plymouth it allows for a great lifestyle with hardly any time spent on travel to work or to leisure activities. More time with family or doing what you love!

So I would leave out of your list Ahititi, Bell Block, Inglewood, Kaimata, and Urenui schools. The rural schools are lovely but it's just the location - plus the selection of houses in those areas is much smaller. Actually most schools in NP are pretty good and regardless of decile I would say all would provide a decent education.

If education is important to you, look into Montessori as an option - this provides a fantastic learning environment and the New Plymouth Montessori has preschool and primary. I have personal experience with both of these and they are lovely. Just google New Plymouth Montessori and you'll find their website. Depending on the age of your children there might be a waiting list to get in, though. Other than that, most suburbs in New Plymouth itself are quite pleasant - just look for a house that gets plenty of sun! And if I were going to buy there, I'd probably look at locations where you don't have the sun in your eyes driving to/from work. Just my personal preference, if you're going to be driving to work each day. Of course, there's also the great coastal cycleway / walkway, and you could look at houses with easy access to the cycleway too.

Best wishes for your move!

[north shore]

This can be a useful site to compare schools:

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school/school/student-engagement/stand-downs?district=33&region=7&school=2197