Huntingdon

[SuperGlumFairy]

I just wondered what Huntingdon itself was like to live in? We had been planning to move to Ely but have not been able to secure a house and now all the primary schools are full so have switched to looking at Huntingdon.

How is it to live there? How are the schools? Any areas of it I should avoid?

No, there's no railway in St Ives so you'd have to travel to Huntingdon or Cambridge. There are loads of facilities in St Ives though and it is a lovely town from what I know of it (not much!). There's a leisure centre, Waitrose, library, a few shops. This site has loads of info about what there is.

Not sure about jobs, there might be more in Huntingdon.

Sorry your ex is being such a dick about this :( Do you know anyone in the area at all? We should have a meet up when you're all settled in.

I am very blessed to have a wonderful sister in law who is in Chesterton, she's being an absolute rock for me at the moment. My parents in law are also being very supportive, they are really good people so I don't expect trouble with them, I have one old work colleague out towards Ely but that's about it for in the area. I am hoping in time Ex and I will get to being on better terms but right now we are just bringing out the worst in each other. A lot of hurt and frustration on my part and a lot of selfish git on his side ;)
St Ives sounds lovely, just not sure what to do with secondary college for Miss 14 if there is no place for her there or at Swavesey, what are the other options when I don't drive at all?
How long is the bus ride to go St Ives to Huntingdon for shopping?

Godmanchester very nice also biased
You can walk to the train station, waitrose, sainsburys and a vet from godmanchester. Community school is brilliant, local community very nice too.
Schools in Huntingdon are all on the Oxmoor which is better than is used to be but the is a lot of challenging behaviour. Pm me if you need estate agent details etc.

Is there a bus from Godmanchester to St Peters school though as I know Hinchingbrooke is the catchment school but Admissions Office advises it is full. St Peters seems the only option.

I have driven through Godmanchester before as Ex and I actually got married out at Buckden at the George Inn before it was all modernised. St Ives does seem a bit cheaper with the housing at least.

Him not sure, just looked at the go whippet website and couldn't find one. There is one to Huntingdon train station though and it is about a ten minute walk from there.

She could cycle it easily. Most of the children in GMC who go to hinchingbrooke walk or cycle and st peters is hardly any further really. It would probably take her 30 mins to walk, or she could catch a bus into Huntingdon and walk 10 mins from there.

I used to teach in cams so have some inside info on schools. I was sec and my neighbor is a primary head. I don't have time right now but can on you more later.

Personally, I would go for st Ives over Huntington, but if there are no spaces at the ivo then that is a problem. Do you know if there's a waiting list? Could you home school short term til a place opens up?

If you're living in st Ives you really wouldn't need to go to hunt for anything. There are buses to the big Tesco on the a14, and st Ives has everything you need for daily living, including local butchers and an OK market twice a month.

Have you thought about Ramsey are? Way cheaper, the school there has improved a lot, and still within easy reach of Peterborough, but I don't know about buses or trains from there. Not as big as st Ives if you're looking for work.

What kind of school would suit your dc's best? Are they academic, sporty, sociable etc?

I'm in the US so Will post at odd times, but I have a lot of friends teaching in the area still and could ask around about admissions and whether there's any chance of late entry to a school. Sometimes they are theoretically full but are aware that a family is about to move out so can offer a place later.

SuperGlumFairy I also got married at The George!!!

OP Godmanchester is lovely. Community Primary is large and well resourced ((own large indoor pool with professional instructors!). St Annes CofE is smaller. It had a disappointing Ofsted recently which was felt to be very unfair by those in the know. It's a lovely caring school if you like the strong CofE ethos.

sent you a huge message but forgot to say - if your dd has to travel to get to school, I'm pretty sure the county will provide a bus or taxi for her if you get pushed to somewhere you wouldn't choose. Check up on that, but her getting to school may be easy, it will just impact her social life as she won't see people around outside of school hours.

Thanks for all the advice thus far. Looks like St Ives is a clear favourite for families so will have a good nosey about on the net today and have a closer look.

I don't plan to be to be without a driving license forever so that will certainly open up more options in the future but just not immediately.

Miss 14 (well later this week she will be) is very academic, she's an incredibly bright student in all areas of her schooling and is currently one of the top 5 students in her year here. She's very quiet and shy though and doesn't tend to socialise a lot outside of school anyway but does have a good core group of similar friends here. She's not at all sporty but still tries her best in what she does. She's not into boys, makeup, swearing and back chatting quite yet so I am very lucky there. Homeschooling could be a possibility with her though I would have no idea where to start. if there are activities in St Ives that she can join she would soon build a network of local friends I guess until we could get her into Ivo.

As for my 8 year old twins, my son does struggle a bit with school, mostly with his writing. He has been working with a Speech Therapist for several years as he had a learning gap, he keeps up well with his class though but does seem to have more trouble with writing and things that involve no boundaries. ie Write a story about anything you like as opposed to write a story about an elephant with a red balloon. He's much better with things like maths and gets those concepts more easily as it's more black and white. His twin sister is the opposite, struggles a little with maths but her writing skills, comprehension etc is above her age. They are both quiet, well behaved kids though and fairly sociable so I think they will adapt more easily with the change at this point.

KickAssAngel - off to read the msg, thanks so much

EcoLady - How long ago? I remember when we got married (15 years go later this month) that the lady who organised our wedding there was getting married there the week after we did! We did photos at Buckden Towers too, beautiful day despite how things have now changed.

Flowery - haven't ruled Godmanchester out either.

If you do end up home schooling, even temporarily, let me know because we are going to HE our DDs so I already go to a few groups and know a few HE families.

Hmmm so I have been advised that there are 3 other out of catchment children on the waiting list for Yr 9 St Ivo..all I need to do to jump up the list is move into the catchment area right??

Not sure. I can fb a friend who would know. Or ask admissions again. If you did get to the top of the list that's a good bet you'd get dd in.

StopEating- Stukeley Meadows is full for primary though but it was the one area of Huntingdon I likely would have felt safe enough to live, plus have all the facilities I needed close by. It is good to hear St Peters is coming up though as Huntingdon itself has everything I need opportunity wise for me as well with Job Centre, the Regional College if I should choose to do further study, CAB advice, a good amount of retail work advertised etc Everything I need is there really, at least St Ives isn't too far though. My Miss 8 is just annoyed that there is no Claire's Accessories store in St Ives as she is really into bling!

KissAssAngel - according to the admissions criteria for St Ivo an in catchment child places higher than an out of catchment. I just need to get a house though!

Oh bum, sorry I must've missed that bit, must read things properly before posting!

Have you considered brampton at all? I'd imagine its bikeable to st peters and is w nice little village, similar to godmanchester but better for train station access. Just another option to consider if needed.

Tell miss 8 that thanks to the guided busway there's reasonably frequent busses between st ives and huntingdon, so all is not lost if she MUST get to Claire's accessories! Check out thebusway.co.uk (I think, I'm sure Google will give a definite answer). You'll also find details about onward travel to Cambridge from there too.

Also would you consider renting for a while? I believe there's a fairly healthy rental market in st ives. Certainly two friends of mine didn't have any problems recently finding somewhere.

STopEating - yes we will be renting as it is. Losing so much money on the shipping and airfares that buying will not be an option for me for a very long time, if ever. It's just trying to get a house that will allow a cat, is affordable, near facilities and school vacancies nearby. Trying to get that all in one house is proving hard hence we are branching out to look at more than a few possible locations now.

Another question...are there any parts of St Ives considered dodgy or not safe? It looks beautiful, loads of green areas, neat and tidy and I love the look of the schools there, but are there any social problems like in HUntingdon or parts that are less nice than others?

not really.

since huntingdon police started cracking down then the high street is a bit drunken on a sat night, but it doesn't sound like that would affect you.

Hi, OP, hope things will start to fall into place for you soon. In response to your earlier question, there often seem to be retail vacancies in St Ives shops, if that's what you meant.
In terms of area, I don't know if there are any dodgy parts of town, but if you can live south of st Audrey Lane then all the main facilities are easily walkable.

Thank you STrangerintheNight - good to hear there are no known dodgy parts of town. At this stage we would be happy with something in St Ives, Godmanchester or Hartford/Stukeley Meadows area of Huntingdon.

We need to be out of our house here in 10 days so I am desperately looking at self catering accommodation in those areas to at least have somewhere to go while we continue to look for houses.

Slight hijacking of the thread with regards to Godmanchester. We currently live in Histon which is great but we're renting and prices to buy are slightly out of our price range. Hubby works in Histon so a commute from Godmanchester wouldn't be horendous (even though it's on the A14!).

We've only ever driven through but it looks lovely and want to do a bit more investigation.

Are the local schools overscribed and what are they like? My son would be starting next September.
Thank

Godmanchester lovely. (also biased like flowery) . St Ives quite nice although don't like there. Swavesey v. good schools but you need to be in catchment. I know theres a big Waitrose in St Ives but Tesco will deliver. No train station.

that made no sense. St Ives quite nice but dont LIVE there so don't go so very often and not that familiar.