Moving to Florida

[Sueb]

Hi

Please can anyone help, my family are thinking of moving to Florida and I would like to know if anyone could tell me what the schools are like in the Kissimmee area, the children are 11 and 13.

Thanks alot

Sueb

[florida4sun]

Hello,
the schooling is not good, about 2 to 3 years behind UK schooling. If you do a search on the forum you find lots of threads about it.

[esprit]

There are some schools which are better than others. Celebration is good but at the age your kids are they would be in the middle school and you have to live in Celebration for that. A lot of people will rent a condo or townhome initially anyway to get in catchment. Martin is right, they are behind the UK. My son, who got all Cs in his AS levels came here and was an A grade student from day one. Brit kids find school easy, your problem comes if you go home.

[LiesaAnna]

welcome to the forum!
as advised above go to the search in the bar at the top of the page and tap in what you need to know and am pretty sure you will find much info!

[Ray&Sarah]

Welcome to the forum Sue, sounds as though your friends kids would be well advanced at school if they moved to Florida.[msnsmile2]

[Rocco]

Seminole County have the best schools. My partner is English and until our house closes we are renting short term. We've stayed in a couple of very nice houses and it's great for a vacation area but to settle? My personal opinion is there is nothing here. Why settle in an area full of people who are leaving every 2 or 3 weeks which if you have children is not good if they're friends leave that often? We're getting married very shortly and I will be the first to admit she had a very hard time adjusting to normal Floridian life, she constantly wanted to live a Disney vacation! We're moving about 50 miles away from this area and now she finally is starting to blend.

[Super Ted]

I thought That Seminole Area had some of the most established homes and best scools

[esprit]

Lake Mary is very nice up there.

[Rocco]

My fiance asked me to read this on the computer and asked me to add something. Hope it helps.

When I first came here from England he told me I fought against everything. I found literally everything to be slow paced, frustrating and hard work. All the rules and laws which I had been told were in place to apparently protect me as a consumer or client seemed to work against me. I noticed that children here weren't up to the same standards at school, not by a long chalk. That worried me and so did the fact that everytime we went to view a house outside the Disney area, there could be a great house which was set between two ugly shacks. And that apparently was normal for here.

Agreed that children are behind in schools compared the UK, there is no argument about that. But on the other hand there are other things here which even the UK cannot compare to. Kids here have Summer school where they have educational lessons in order to catch up and earn credits, and sporting activities. Not like England where we have 6-7 weeks school holidays in the summer and kids are just left to their own devices. School here is all encompassing. My son will be getting his driver's permit shortly (he's 16) and he's very excited about that. I think there's a broader range of different classes here, and a lot of focus is on social skills, which builds children's confidences, unlike the UK, where we tend to overlook that. Kids meet up Friday nights and weekends and just hang out, go to movies, play pool, swim or have a pizza and thats nice to see.

Life is very different here, I spent the first two or three months very frustrated, angry and upset. There were times I just wanted to return home again and obviously that was upsetting for everyone. Then I realised I had signed up for 'the programme' so to speak and had to see it through.

Unless you are 100% committed to the total change in lifestyle and not unrealistic in thinking that it will be like one long Disney holiday (like I did) then don't come to Florida is my advice. It's far more expensive living here than you could ever imagine. Yes house prices are cheaper, but take into consideration the cost of living overall here, the wages are really low for a lot of people here and that's WHY. Dental and medical are ridiculously high, even food isn't that cheap. You might think eating out is cheap but if you are living and earning to the dollar and not the pound (sorry this keyboard doesn't have our pound symbol!!) it's actually not that cheap. When you are shopping on 192 think realistically that a dollar is like a pound and when you realise you are 2-3 dollars for bread, 3 dollars for milk, 4 dollars for toothpaste; imagine that in pounds and then you will see it's not cheap is it? It offends us that so many local shops charge tourists these terrible prices, when outside this area, it's much different.

Oh and by the way, if you are thinking about living an extended Disney holiday....don't. It gets old after a short time and it's expensive. The restaurants and diners on 192 aren't good in comparison to other places and the prices are higher and the choice isn't great. I used to think it was unbelievably good and now I've been taught otherwise. PS... there are a lot of slums here too. Good luck though, it's not all bad, but if you don't come with exactly the right attitude, it can be.

Oh and for the people on the E2 visas which I've just been reading about. How awful! I admire your guts in doing this, but what a risk. I wish you all lots of luck, I wouldn't do it, but understand for some there is no other way so I hope it all works out for you. Has anyone ever had their children sent home? And if so, what happened then? Where do these children go to when they are sent back to England? What a nightmare. God bless.

Patsy

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Rocco
When you are shopping on 192 think realistically that a dollar is like a pound and when you realise you are 2-3 dollars for bread, 3 dollars for milk, 4 dollars for toothpaste; imagine that in pounds and then you will see it's not cheap is it? It offends us that so many local shops charge tourists these terrible prices, when outside this area, it's much different.

[/quote]Patsy, thank you for a very honest opinion.

There's just one thing I don't and probably will never understand and that is what you're saying about prices. I've heard it before and I've never managed to work it out!

A dollar isn't like a pound at all, it's value is far less than a pound. I think this is where the problem lies when trying to compare prices - if you're thinking a dollar is a pound, then you're getting the wrong price impression altogether.

If we take an exchange rate of 1.8, then your $2-3 for bread comes to £1.11 - £1.66 which is not that far off what you'd pay for a fancy loaf in the UK. The bog standard sliced bread we buy in Florida is about 70 cents a loaf - that's 38p a loaf. The similar sliced loaf we buy in the UK is 84p (or $1.52).

$3 for milk is £1.66 - 6 pints of milk at my UK supermarket is £1.63.

$4 for toothpaste is £2.22 - a bog standard Colgate toothpaste is £1.99.

Sure, things like dental and healthcare are all private and therefore expensive (as they would be in the UK if you paid completely privately for it) but you should have some insurance to pay at least in part for these.

Petrol/gas is much more expensive in the UK - currently it's around 84 - 89p per litre but, when we were in the US last month, gas was $2.20 a gallon. Filling up a car tank cost me about $25 (£13.88) in Florida whereas in the UK doing the same thing cost me £49 ($88.20) the other day!

So, in some cases there are only pennies (cents) difference in the prices but in some other cases there are lots of difference.

If you want to compare the prices of UK supermarkets, you can do this online at http://www.tesco.com or http://www.sainsburys.co.uk or http://asda.co.uk