Homes close to Harrogate Grammar School get top marks for education location

Nearly 80 per cent of its primary schools were rated either good or outstanding at their last Ofsted inspections, and the quality of its secondary schools is famously high.

In fact, in comparison with many other towns and cities in the UK, it’s hard to go wrong when choosing a school for your children.

And yet securing a place at the “right” school is held by many to be so important that upping sticks to buy a property in the desired catchment area is a very common reason for moving.

This kind of “positioning” is perhaps most obvious among parents hoping to get their child into Harrogate Grammar School, which is widely regarded as one of the best mixed state secondary schools in the region, and as a result properties close to the school can command a premium.

The school’s catchment area fluctuates annually, depending on the size of a given year’s year group, but its radius around the school tends to vary between 0.8 and 1.2 miles.

For admissions in September 2023, the application deadline is the end of October this year, so anyone hoping to ensure their child is eligible to go to Harrogate Grammar School is well advised to live within this area by then. That means they need to look for a new home in the area now, in order to be in the property by the autumn deadline.

The following three properties are indicative of the types of home available within Harrogate Grammar School’s catchment area, and all are currently for sale.

You don’t get much closer to the school than 91 West End Avenue, a tree-lined street which runs along the side of its playing fields. The semi-detached house has four bedrooms, a house bathroom, reception hall, kitchen, utility room, downstairs shower room, and three reception rooms.

Outside, there are front and back gardens and off-street parking on the drive. It’s also handy for the Stray and is just an easy walk away from the centre of town.

On the other side of Harrogate Grammar School, further up Harlow Hill, 26 West Lea Avenue is an extended mid-terrace townhouse just off Otley Road, where there is also a convenient pub and small row of shops.

It has four double bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large open-plan dining kitchen and sitting room. Outside, there is a garden to the front and an enclosed, paved courtyard garden to the rear with shed.

Finally, just a stone’s throw away, 3 Harlow Crescent is a semi-detached house with three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and two reception rooms, as well as gardens on three sides.

Part of the back garden is owned by Northern Powergrid and is currently leased to the owners of the property for £50 a year.

The highly popular Harlow Hill Allotments (there’s a waiting list) are just around the corner.