Moving to Cambridge in a month!

[marushka82]

Hi everyone, I just found out today that we're moving to Cambridge from London in May.
We're going to start looking for places to rent soon but I wanted to ask your opinion/advice about which areas are family friendly and which bits to avoid!
We've got an 8 mo DD, I'm still on maternity leave and will be commuting to London 3 days a week from mid July. We're going to be renting initially and we're after a 2 bedroom place (probably want to pay up to £1000-1200 pcm - we should be able to find something nice for that price I suppose? :D
We're planning on buying bikes to cycle to work/station.
After a quick search on zoopla it seems like there are a lot of places available either in CB4 or CB5 (the areas that come up very often are Trumpington, Cherry Hinton or Chesterton - what are these areas like?)

TIA!!!

Glad it all went well.
Good luck with your move. .

Glad it was a good day. Just thought, as well as Snap Nursery in Chesterton itself there is the Butterfly Day Nursery on Elizabeth Way and Cambridge Day Nursery on Milton Road. Very do-able if you are going to be on Pearl Close...

We live not far from Pearl Close and have 2 sons, 3 and 23m. Lovely area :) Both boys are at the Cambridge Day Nursery on Milton Road when and if you need such things!

Welcome to Cambridge :).

Dd went to snap nursery 7 years ago and it was terrible. May have improved since then though

Hi AfricanBigElephant. My oldest went to SNAP years ago and after your comment thought I would check out their OFSTED. Reads pretty well and they got a 'Good' in 2013.
I have a friend whose toddler goes there who is happy.

Good to hear it got better :)

Welcome to Cambridge!

Lots of meet ups being planned.

If anyone fancies being a local ambassador please let me know (responsible for meet ups & get togethers)

The newly opened (Sept 2013) Chestnut Nursery is in Chesterton too. My 16 month old goes there, nice staff and lovely facilities...

Does anyone know anythng about living in Great Kneighton, Trumpington. Looking at moving there but worried it might be a bit souless? Does anyone know anyone who lives there or does live there and can can advise? Thank you....

Once again thanks everyone for their tips! We're here now and so far I'm really liking it! We're close to the river, in a quiet area, ahhh, so much different than London!

Could any of you recommend some mum and baby groups or playgroups in the area please?

Find out if Church Mice at St Andrews still exists - I don't think you have to be churchy and it was always friendly. Bouncearound in town is bafflingly popular - to me it was torture, but everyone and their dog went there. Find out who your local NCT rep is? NCT used to have a nice group at the Unitarian Church on Victoria Street. Try St George's Church, or Arbury Community Centre, or Shirley? Sorry - my kids are bigger now so I don't know where are the nicest playgroups.
Parent and baby/toddler swimming at Chesterton Community College? Also if you can get over the river quickly, I heard great things about the baby group at the church next to Tesco - is it called Brickfields or have I made that up??

Church Mice does still exist! If you are churchy, St Andrews has an active junior church.
Dolphin Baby Swimming operates at the Grove School pool which is less than a mile away.
Look out for the Chesterton Festival next month too.
This might be useful www.standrews-chesterton.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Chesterton-News-March-2014.pdf esp page 4

Hello!

So I live nearby and am on the NCT committe :). We have a Bumps and Babies group on a Friday morning 10-12:30 at the Unitarian Church on Victoria Street (as someone said above). It won't be on next week as it's half term, but will be back the Friday after.

We also have an Arbury / Chesterton coffee morning every other Tuesday morning. A chance to get together with some other local mums and have an informal chat over coffee :). This coming Tuesday is actually at my house. Message me if you'd like details or send me your email address and I can add you to the mailing list, even if you can't make this week. You don't have to be an NCT member for any of this, by the way.

Other local groups - Prampushers at St George's Church 10am Thursday mornings (again not this week as it's half term). Also Google search for 'Surestart Cambridge' and look at both the North Cambridge and Chesterton Childrens' Centres. They both have loads of great activities on.

There's also Wednesdays Together (10-12:30 including lunch for the children) at North Cambridge Chidrens' Centre and Thursdays Together (10-2pm including lunch) at Brown's Field Community Centre. Both are great groups.

Little Acorns at St Luke's Church on Victoria Road (not to be confused with Victoria Street or Victoria Avenue!) is also lovely. Friday 9:30-11:30. And there are 3 soft play sessions at Buchan Street Neighbourhood Centre on a Friday morning (might need to prebook, particularly for the two earlier sessions).

I could go on, but hopefully that's given you plenty to start with! :)

Oh and yes, the Toddler group at Brickfields is called Citybus (Wednesday morning 10-11:30) and it's great.

And if we're talking about Baby swimming then I have to mention Waterbabies (www.waterbabies.co.uk) who also do lessons close by and are fab :). We've been going since my eldest was 10 weeks old (he's now almost 4).

You can tell we spend a lot of time going to baby and toddler groups!!