Loxley,
As ex EGCC guy now YYZ guy, from my point of view here would be my answers to 1 & 2.
1. Kids would have been entrenched in run up to exams at time of closure so a move south to the same education system would have been easier for them.
2. If its got to be a different country then lets make it of my choosing re time and place, simple as that.
Add to that were are only on this planet once (there's a debate for Jet Blast) then here seemed to be an adventure worth having a go at.
As for banding, I ain't going there!!!!
I also didn't like the idea of paying over inflated price for a house in a possible bidding war with a group of my colleagues. Here I became mortgage free at the time of move and got a lot more house and land for my money. Also a hell of a lot more snow I hasten to add.
That said if EGCC hadn't been closing would I have done it? Never in a million years, I loved it there and would go back in a heartbeat but not now to NPC or for that matter Swanwick.