I live in Leicester and I have kids.
It's no great shakes, believe me, but it's not all bad. Like most places in the UK, there just isn't a whole lot for the kids to do - girls do dance and boys do football and once they hit 13, it's hangin' in the parks, drinking, smoking and having sex.
Having said that, we keep our kids pretty busy anyway and they have found friends who are also busy and have no intention of hangin' out in the parks. There are quite a few families like ours (we also work with a lot of kids in the community so we see a lot).
We came here when our kids were in jr. high so I can't really speak to the primary schools here but we've been really impressed with the schools my kids have attended. (there are certain areas to avoid..) Go for Leicestershire County rather than City. The east side of Wigston is a good place to start (meadows or little hill - both have good reputed primary schools).
Also, Leicestershire County is one of the few school systems in the UK that has separate jr. high (called high school here - what we would call high school is College) and IMHO, they do it very well. Primary school is 4-9 (reception to year 4), High school is 10-13 (year 5-9) and College is 14-18 (year 10-13).
Other than that, Leicester has the highest population of Indians outside of India, it has a pretty good University, some cultural life. We just had our city centre refurbished and shopping came into the 21st century but it is still pretty bad relative to most cities, I find. There is a passable Mexican Resaurant and Fab Indian food. The countryside is lovely, lots of rolling hills and there are some pretty spectacular walks and pretty villages. It's centrally located so you can get just about anywhere within a few hours (1.5 to London, 1 hour to Brum, 1.5 to Cambridge etc..).
If you want to know more PM me.
