Moving to RAF Lakenheath
 

Husband's company may be transfering us to RAF Lakenheath. Should we send our children to a DoD school or private school? Where should we look for an average to above-average rental house and what would the rent be? Also, are there medical facilities (not including medical facilities on base) nearby?

Your best bet is to go to
UpMyStreet http://www.upmystreet.com/

and just type Lakenheath in the search box.
It will give you a neighbourhood profile including local schools with their Ofsted reports, statistics about policing and crime, average house prices etc.
If you click on FindMyNearest for doctors, there seem to be several GP surgeries in the area.
Word of mouth can be very useful.
Before you register with a doctor, you should ask around to see which practice has the best reputation.

I forgot to mention Rightmove
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/

Again if you chose Lakenheath and click on "To rent", you will get a good idea of local housing and rents.

One thing you might want to investigate re schooling is that the scholastic levels aren't necessarily comparable.

Will your company pay for a private school? If not expect to pay anything up to £10,000 pa for a day school. I don't think there are any first rank schools in Suffolk.

As someone who lived as a child in England courtesy of the USAF, I have to emphasize the strong differences in philosophy and practice -- to say nothing of subject matter -- between US and UK schools.

These differences may be a bug or a feature, but you need to consider them fairly carefully if you have the option. Depending on the ages of your children, leaving them in boarding school in the States is another option.

Once small example of difference in practice: my English friend Barry was asked (at age 12) by his teacher, "Boy, are you stupid or merely idle!!??" This was a regularly repeated scenario, very different from the esteem-building that characterizes so many US schools. It is my impression that this approach continues in the more prestigious schools.,

"It is my impression that this approach continues in the more prestigious schools.,"

Thank God, it might just build a little backbone.

I don't think there are any first rank schools in Suffolk.

Summerhill? ;-)

I have to emphasize the strong differences in philosophy and practice -- to say nothing of subject matter -- between US and UK schools.


I have an interesting tale about that.
An American friend did a sabbatical in England.
His younger son was very disruptive at school and the teachers had suggested that he should be put on medication.
It chanced that the lad was sent to the nearest state school which was a really old-fashioned Church of England establishment with strict rules about uniforms and conduct.
He ended up with the sort of teacher that some of us can remember from our youth. She was near retirement, and wore barbed-wire next to the skin.
She had never heard of attention deficit disorders but in her long career, she had met many naughty boys.
Within a week, he was sitting quietly at his desk and actually learning something

As it is probably already obvious to you, seek out other more appropriate forums. There are tons of expatriates forums, including offices within DoD with tons of guidance.

On your own, one of the first thing you need to do is look at rentals rates via internet, local papers, etc... Again, the company ought to be assisting you with this; a exploratory trip for you and hubby is commonly part of this type arrangements.

Welcome to the RAF Lakenheath/RAF Mildenhall community. Regarding schools, you have three choices:

1. Children of contractors can attend DoD schools on a space required tuition-paying basis http://www.lakenheath.af.mil/departm...nseschools.asp

2. They can be enrolled in local state schools at no cost - you are guaranteed a place, but not necessarily in the school of your choice http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/EducationA...ionsToSchools/

3. You can enroll your children in private day or boarding schools, which tend to be expensive. There are several private schools in nearby towns, including Thetford, Newmarket, Ely, and Bury St Edmunds.

Many families put their elementary school aged children in local schools. Secondary education in Britain is quite different from the US, so older children ar usually sent to the schools on base.

Medical facilities are very good in the area. You can use the USAF Hospital on RAF Lakenheath on a fee paying basis. There are many GPs and specialists in the local area, and hospitals include West Suffolk in Bury St Edmunds, and the renowned Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

I've never rented in Suffolk so others will have to help you there.

But re the schooling, my thoughts are: Your decision will partly depend on the ages of your children and what sorts of schools they attend now. I personally think they would get more from attending a CofE/State school over a base school. But if they are teens who will be returning to Stateside high schools, the UK curiculum won't prepare them for the topic-specific placement exams in many states.

For younger kids - I'd definitely choose UK schools.

I don't think I'd opt for a public (private) school even if the company paid part of the fees, unless they already attend exclusive private/boarding schools back home.

I agree with janisj. State elemetary schools, for the most part, offer good education. I am not impressed with the standard of upper schools in the Lakenheath/Mildenhall area, though. Our DoDDS schools consistently score higher than US averages in Terra Nova testing, so you have no worries about the quality of education on the base.

Private schools in the area that immediately come to mind are: Theford Grammar, Culford Scool, and King's School Ely. There are many other private preparatory schools, but the fact they charge fees doesn't guarantee a better standard of teaching.

I'll try to get back with the URLs of a few local real estate agents that deal in rentals.

If this is a joint RAF / USAF base then there is probably a US school on the base. Also if yo

Could you do a 'fact finding trip'. I just think it is really difficult to get the impression of something like a school without visiting.

julysugarbabies
Not helping you a bit here but just had to tell you how much I've enjoyed reading your post. Our Son-in-law was stationed at Lakenheath. He and our daughter lived there for 2yrs when they were first married and we visited. They lived in the small village of Little Port which is close to Ely and your post brought back the best memories of a little bakery where I was first introducted to chicken and mushroom pie and steak and kidney pie, yummmmm so, so good. We loved the beauty of Ely Cathedral and wish we could visit again. Have fun on your new adventure!

I taught high school for two years in DOD schools in Japan and for five years at Heidelberg, Germany.

It was a wonderful experience for me because the kids were just terrific. I can't speak to the quality of British schools, but I have no doubt that Heidelberg American High School ranks among the best of American high schools.

From my experience, I'd have no difficulty in recommending a DOD school. I've attended reunions of my former students, and I can attest to the success of their professional lives.

Here are some websites of rental and estate agents in the Lakenheath area. Some I'm familiar with, others I got out of the local newspapers:

www.beatricecarter.co.uk
www.mainwayproperty.co.uk
www.jackson-stops.co.uk
www.morrisarmitage.co.uk
www.acacia-property.co.uk
www.shiresestateagents.com
www.balmforth.co.uk
www.goymourhomes.co.uk
www.martinco.com
www.parkyns.com
www.lsk.co.uk
www.hazellsonline.co.uk
www.gdestates.co.uk

Many of the above are national companies with local branches, so you will have to find the local branch to view properties in the area. Some, such as Beatrice Carter, are local, and specialize in rentals for American servicemen.

The type of British teachers described above are a thing of the past in our part of the UK. Teachers here constantly complain that they are not allowed to discipline students in any way and the obnoxious, bad-mannered kids one sees on the High Street give proof to that.

OTOH, how nice to see, once again, that MissPrism remains true to form with yet another negative example about Americans. That well never runs dry!

And you'd be hard pressed to find British teachers today who've "never heard of" attention deficit disorder. Google lists more than 60,000 British web hits for attention deficit disorder in schools. Starting with this one:
http://www.addiss.co.uk/

For crying out loud!
Where does this anti-American nonsense come from?
I should be grateful if you would send me a list of my anti-American comments.
I lived in the US for two years and still keep in touch with several friends I made there.
The American parents were delighted that the old biddy was able to manage their son. They didn't want their child on drugs.
It was several years ago and the old teacher was one of the real old school.
Of course, modern teachers have heard about attention deficit disorder. Who said they didn't?

I taught high school for 35 years. I must say that I was never a great disciplinarian. I tended to rely on the good will of my students to keep order.

Whether a teacher has great discipline in his/her classes probably has little to do with whether the school is American or British. It seems to me that it depends on an indefinable something that an individual teacher possesses. I've seen large noisy men who couldn't control a roomful of 14-year-olds and little tiny women who could. I've also seen the reverse.

Sashh, RAF Lakenheath is not "a joint RAF / USAF base". It has precisely one RAF officer, who acts as station warden and liaison between the Ministry of Defence and USAF. All the rest of the personnel, except some civilian employees, are American.

There are five DoDDS schools at RAF Lakenheath and nearby RAF Feltwell: two elementary schools, one intermediate school, one middle school, and one high school. Including military personnel, civilian employees, contractors, and dependents, about 20,000 Americans live in the area.

Experience in other theaters/DOD bases really isn't that relevant to this situation.

It isn't like a new student would have to learn Japanese or German or anything to attend the local schools.

don't worry MissPrism - even some of us 'Yanks' have been on the receiving end ;)

(how could one, anecdotal, "interesting tale" be interpreted as some sort of anti-American rant??)

janisj:

My point was that the DOD schools at which I have taught have been very good schools, and that the parents should have no concern about whether their children would receive an adequate education. It would be different than what they'd receive at British schools, but not necessarily inferior.

I believe that any DOD school would be more than adequate. They are all part of the same school system. They have an added advantage in that discipline is quite strong.

"how could one, anecdotal, "interesting tale" be interpreted as some sort of anti-American rant??"

If you've got a chip on your shoulder, everything's vinegar.

I don't think there are any first rank schools in Suffolk.

Summerhill? >>>

My little sister went to Summerhill after she got expelled from Rodean (and a few others). She's mental. Summerhill didn't help!

ps Can you imagine trying to explain Summerhill to the yanks?

I think that old girl taught me.
My version hadn't even been to a teacher training college, but had risen from being a pupil teacher. That dates me and her;-)
I suspect that she had been brought out of retirement, because it was during and just after the War and many male teachers were in the services.
Our school was in a largely working-class area and many of the lads fancied themselves as hard men, but she put the fear of God into us.
She got me through the 11+ so I suppose that I owe the old dragon a lot.

She wouldn't have got a job at Summerhill.

Most of my schoolmasters were unqualified and seemed to have been selected on the basis that they'd "had a good war". They were bloody good though.

A bit over fond of beating the bejeezus out of us for modern tastes and the Latin Master, in retrospect, was clearly a wrong 'un.

Aspects of this discussion are something of a hoot.

My original post on factors important in deciding between British/US schools simply described some possible differences, about which I said they might be either a bug or a feature (good or bad, for non-geeks), depending on one's circumstances.

I think we have not quite had a Summerhill in this country, but for Americans who don't know about the school, the children got to do pretty much whatever they wished, and the best book on the topic available here in the US had a frontispiece (no pun intended) showing joint nude swimming by male teachers and teenage students, mostly girls, while the founder, Neill, sat by smoking a pipe benevolently. I am astonished it is still going!

Summerhill's Ofsted inspection from last year: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/pdf...0_20071129.pdf

I'll try that again, with http://tinyurl.com/4x6o57

Thank you to all who have replied. We have been checking out all of the websites that were recommended and are now more informed than when we began.

We live in a state (not a very big state) that has one of the highest percentages of parents choosing to send their children to private school rather than the state-run public schools. We are one of those sets of parents that send our children to private school. The public school system here is less than ideal and usually ranks in the lower half nationwide (elementary, middle/intermediate, & high school). The reputation of the public school system here is rather well known (negatively) amongst military personnel.

With regards to the housing and medical issues, we will continue to research and contact the resources that were suggested.

Once again, thank you to all (MissPrism, Cholmondley_Warner, Ackislander, avalon, Josser, Viajero2, Heimdall, janisj, sashh, cd, Pegontheroad, BTilke, flanneruk, and owain) who have taken the time to reply and given us more insight to what we would be getting ourselves into.

...and try the fish & chips at the Bird-in-Hand in Mildenhall.

>>ps Can you imagine trying to explain Summerhill to the yanks?<<

I read Neill's book a few years ago.

Lee Ann

Thank you, basingstoke2, for the recommendation to try the fish & chips at the Bird-in-Hand in Mildenhall. Will try our best to get to that should we go on a "fact finding trip".

ElendilPickle wrote:
"ps Can you imagine trying to explain Summerhill to the yanks?"

Well...I'm a Yank. Please kindly explain Summerhill.

Julysugarbabies, you wrote: "We are one of those sets of parents that send our children to private school."

If you wish to educate your children privately, choose carefully where you live, or you will put a lot of miles on your car driving them to school.

What are the ages of your children? There aren't any private schools in the immediate Lakenheath area, afaik, but some pre-prep and prep schools in Thetford, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, and Ely, 10-15 miles away, and Cambridge, 25 miles away.

If middle/high school age, your options are even more limited. Most are boarding schools with some places for day students. Here is a website with a list of independent schools in England: http://www.independentschools.com/england/

Scroll to the bottom of the page for Location Listings, and enquire in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk. You will need a map to find those close enough to Lakenheath for a commute. Note that, although Lakenheath is in the county of Suffolk, it is near the borders of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, so some schools in those counties are within commuting range.

Actually, I was quoting Cholmondley_Warner when I said I read the book.

Summerhill is a private school in England. It's child-directed, meaning the students decide what they want to study - or not. Here's a link to the school website:

http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/

Lee Ann

As my litle (mental) sister went to Summerhill I have met a lot of Summerhill alumni.

They are all as mad as a box of frogs.

Thanks ElendilPickle & Cholmondley_Warner. I (a Yank) now have a clearer understanding of Summerhill.