moving to Cambridgeshire

[notmyday]

Hello,
We are going to move to south Cambridgeshire this summer! Doing our research now and we would like to be in the catchment areas for either Comberton or Sawston Village Colleges, so thinking of Sawston, Haslingfield, the Shelfords, Harlton, Little Eversden, Stapleford. Any views on where is a good village to live? Would like to have at least a village shop and pub! And we have two primary school age daughters so I've also been looking at all the ofsteds and school websites. Visiting Cambs next weekend!
Thank you very much for your help everyone.

Agree with rubyrubyruby
Sawston is almost a small town rather than a village - probably the least expensive option but not a pretty little village. Shelford and Stapleford are pretty much part of Cambridge now - i.e. no fields in between (and a lot of building going on on border with Trumpington). Of these, Shelford is much the nicest imo. Other villages serving Sawston VC include Duxford (village to east of M11 not the museum and old RAF base) and Whittlesford and both are worth considering - don't know about the primary schools nowadays. I don't know much about the villages to the west of the M11 so can't comment on the rest.
If you are intending to stay a long time don't forget that your DC will soon (?) be teenagers and being somewhere with a few facilities and a bus into Cambridge helps.

Thanks very much for your advice. I think we probably want more of a small town or large village than a one street village, as we're moving from a small town so don't want to feel too isolated. Walking distance from schools would be great but not essential as I think it will be a case of where I can get the DC in to as we will be applying late - and one is reception age, and other will be going into Year 5. Good point about easy travel in to Cambridge for when the DDs are older. And looking for a detached 4-5 bedroomed house, budget around £700k.

Does having a station matter to you? You can get to Shelford station from the Shelfords and Stapleford, but otherwise you are not going to be very close to a station.

Well, the villages around Comberton are as follows:

The Eversdens and Kingston are beautiful but have almost no facilities, I think.
Bourn is also very pretty, and has some rather limited facilities - doctor, gastropub, very nice Indian restaurant.
Comberton itself is much less pretty, but has bucket loads of facilities via the village college, including gym, swimming pool, library, evening classes, plus a shop and a pub and a butchers and a dentist.
Barton and Toft have shops (Barton has lots of shops) but are close enough to Comberton to use the Comberton facilities. Toft has a business park where you can have electric beam welding done, should you want that.
Hardwick has a random assortment of shops and a pub.

I don't really think you'd want any of those. I think that Little Shelford would be more appealing.

This is quite nice:

tuckergardner.com/Buy/24-High-Street-Little-Shelford-Cambridge

And I agree that Saffron Walden is lovely.

As someone else said Linton Village College is another great school, lovely big village with some amenities and good primaries. I personally wouldn't really want to live in Sawston tbh, and have a couple of friends from there who went private to avoid the primaries.

Saffron Walden is lovely and would be a fantastic place to grow up. The secondary school is a bit too big IMO, but does seem to do pretty well and the size makes the sixth form excellent. In some ways it is lovely because the transport links are pretty poor, so it still has a decent selection of shops and services.

I've namechanged for this as it identifies us a bit too easily:

We have direct and very recent experience of Comberton, Sawston and Linton VCs for secondary and actually moved one of ours to Sawston (where he is now very happy) as he was wretchedly miserable at, let's say, one of the other two. Not all kids suit all schools, however good their Ofsted reports. I'm therefore strongly biased in favour of Sawston, who have masses of extracurricular activities, their own theatre and swimming pool (bit murky, but there!) and possibly the best music department ever.

Comberton has a swish new sixth form, but you may not be looking that far ahead yet! Also v good for sports, as is Linton.

Linton has a gorgeous new library, Sawston a new science/maths block... take your pick, really.

As to where to live -- we're not in catchment for Sawston but had no trouble getting him in mid-year, as it's a little less popular than the other two. Comberton OTOH is likely to fill up very quickly. Linton probably somewhere in between.

We're in a village with an excellent cuddly primary (I can PM you to let you now which one if you like) but not on a bus route for either of the secondaries we now use. All the same, I think DC3 will probably go out of catchment to Sawston.

HTH?

Thanks very much everyone that's really really helpful. Doing more research on Comberton and Sawston Colleges (though not having visited them admittedly) I think we prefer Sawston - DD1 is not very sporty at all so a sports focus at Comberton wouldn't suit her, whereas the science specialism at Sawston is very much up our street. Also she is a rather anxious child (the idea of moving has not gone down well) and Sawston college is smaller than Comberton. So I think that narrows down our village choices to the Shelfords, Whittlesford, Stapleford and Sawston itself. We'll have a tour round this weekend, and then it's a question of where houses come up. And then apply to the primaries ... a cuddly primary sounds a good idea for my worried DDs!

Well, I have to say that 'sport' seems to have a fairly wide meaning at Comberton, including 'nice country walk' and 'cycling proficiency'. But yes, the music and science at Sawston is very good.

I wouldn't worry about the designation of the village college. Even though Comberton is a sports college DS's school team regularly thrashed them at football and rugby! One of the VCs mentioned in the thread became a specialist XXX college because it was the only subject area that hadn't been chosen by neighbouring colleges (unreliably informed of that by previous head).

Yes, sorry, didn't mean to put you off by mentioning the sports at Comberton -- in fact, we found this means it does sports suitable for all, not just sports for the manically sporty. My very unsporty child really enjoyed trying sailing, mountain biking, table tennis, charity walks, 'parkour' (which seems to mean leaping off the walls) and the climbing wall, and barely had to do a sniff of the miserable 'being picked last' for team sports.

The size isn't that much of an issue either, tbh, as individual class sizes are similar in all three schools. Teachers in all three are generally lovely, too, though we've found the odd dodgy one in each.

Worried now that you're one of my assorted offspring's teachers, Grendel! Maybe I'll wander round Parents' Eve muttering 'Pombears' and asking if I'm being unreasonable in making a further appointment.

Ah, thanks very much for the clarification - helpful to know I may not have to rule out Comberton completely which would obviously narrow down our village and primary school choices. Tingalingle you sum up my fear totally re the "miserable 'being picked last' for team sports" so it's good if it's not like that! And Lilymaid, my DH made that same point about what does the designation actually mean.

I'm looking forward to coming up this weekend and getting a better feel for the area - will update next week! Thank you again for your help.

I'd not worry too much about school specialisms. In my experience they don't mean much in reality, though I would check that there isn't a requirement to take a GCSE in the specialism if you are not keen on it (obviously not an issue for core subjects). I have also found that schools that were late to specialisms have had to take whatever was not taken in the area. My understanding of Comberton is that it has an excellent reputation and is a challenge to get into if you are out of catchment. Obviously that doesn't mean it actually is excellent as reputation tends to lag experience.

Tingalingle - No, but at least one other MNer is (I shan't reveal who), so you can still wander round muttering 'Pombears'.

Really, all the schools in Cambridge are good (even the ones which are seen as dreadful are actually average) so it doesn't matter hugely which you choose.

I hate to say this, but you might want to think about 6th forms as well - just because since Hills Road Sixth Form College is so hugely academically successful and you say your daughter is quite science-focused, you might as well take advantage of it...

God, no, don't rule out Comberton. It's a very good school, with very little bullying and disruption (and I say this as a parent of a bully-magnet). The intake is probably in their favour, plus the amount of parental input, but they also emphasize social development. If we were in catchment, I'd be as happy for DC3 to go there as to Sawston.

No, they don't require you to take a GCSE in their specialism. Both currently insist on the usual set for most kids: Maths, (double) English, double science, and a language, plus three free choices. Currently Sawston doesn't guarantee you'll get all your choices, whereas CVC pretty much does, as it's larger.

Sawston offers Engineering (and Statistics, oh yum), Comberton has Electronics, if you have a maths/sciencey type of child (can you tell we've just had Options Evening?) Triple science is an option for top sets at both.

Of course, this could all have changed under some new gov initiative long before it becomes relevant to you!

Uniform is cheaper at SVC than CVC, though burgundy-faded-to-pink sweatshirts are not to everyone's taste...

Grendel, you're making me twitchy now! Never mind. I'm the parent who wandered round Sawston last term practically sobbing in gratitude to the staff for being so bloody NICE to our rather difficult youngster, so their ears will only be burning in a good way.

What's said on MN stays on MN, Tingalingle

I should say that Comberton is about to become an Academy and to set up a new secondary school in Cambourne

Hmm anyreason no one has mentioned BVC?

Yes that's right, thanks - Linton is too far over for my DH's commute so not really considering it. Good to know I can keep options open for either Comberton or Sawston - just need to see which villages we like AND find a house in one of them now! Thanks again everyone.

There is nice 4 bed detached in stapleford for £525k, very close to their primary school (friendly, great facilities - even has a moat!!) - you are then v close to shelfords without paying massive premium, but close to fields and green space of gog Magog hills and wandlebury. Stapleford also has lush deli farm shop place where I spend far too much time and money. To be fair, everywhere in south cAmbs pretty nice. Hence the prices. Good luck. Pm me if you end up in Shelford/stapleford as a kind mumsnetter befriended me when I moved here last year so feel I should keep the cycle going...!