House move to Cambridgeshire/ Huntingdon area

[Chamberlain79]

My husband is about to start a new job in Sandy.. we currently rent a house in Amersham but can't buy in this area as we are to be first time buyers and with 3 children need a 4 bed property , which we certainly can't afford here as average house price for 4 bed is in the £600,000 region.
So we are looking at the following areas for easy commute for my husband:
Camborne
St.ives
Swaveley
Alconbury Weald ( we really liked it here!)
Areas we arnt keen on are in centre of Huntingdon.
Our ideal spend would be £350,000.
Really looking for advice from anyone familiar with these areas or surrounding ones with positives and negatives. We have one child in primary school (8) another to start secondary in September (11) and a 13 year old. So schools to avoid and schools to aim for would help too as noticed Rightmove isn't up to date with ofstead results as it had St. Peter's school as requiring improvement but they have just had an ofsted check done this March which was granted " good" .. if we went for the house in Alconbury Weald this would be the nearest for my two oldest but worries me if it's not had the best past.. especially as currently all 3 children are in " outstanding" schools etc. In Alconbury Weald they have a brand new Primary opened on site so my youngest should be fine if we choose to go here but plans for secondary school is promised within a year to two so we have also considered the option of home schooling till then with paying for tutors .. again anyone that's homeschooling advice would be great! Thanks in advance!

If it were me, I would opt for Swavesey as Swavesey Village College has a longstanding reputation for being excellent. It has a current Ofsted rating of 1.
4 bed properties in Swavesey itself are from £365k on Rightmove.

I currently live in one of the other places you've mentioned, so believe me that I'm not biased!

Thank you Pettycurry, will definitely take a look their.. did notice schools in that area appear very good!

Swavesey is a good choice - nice village and good schools. Plus it's on the guided busway so your teen could get into Cambridge easily without you having to provide a taxi service.

However, if I were you I would look at Cambourne. It's much easier to get to Sandy from Cambourne than from Swavesey (lovely cross country drive, takes about 25 minutes). Cambourne isn't on the Guided busway but there are buses every 15 minutes into Cambridge.

We've got lots of friends who live in Cambourne and it is brilliant for families, there is so much to do. Plus the schools are also great. And it's a bit cheaper than surrounding villages.

Thanks growbags, we did park up at Cambourne and liked it .. seems like what we are aiming for .. we also loved swavesey but the schools are over subsrcribed and checked available places and there are none unfortunately so looks like we will have to rule that area out . There are spaces for my 8 and 11 year old at the Caldecote school but no secondary schools with spaces and I've gone out as for as 9 miles!! But understand that these available places do change so just got to keep my fingers crossed that they change if not will have to hang on here till the end of July !

Hi,

You could try the new development at Godmanchester Bearscroft/Romans Edge (there a couple of different builders doing the houses on site) Godmanchester is very pretty & Huntingdon is undergoing some development at the moment.
I'll share your post on Facebook

Hi local editor, thanks for the information but would rather not having it shared on Fb . We are currently really keen on Cambourne as it ticks all the boxes and have seen two properties we really like so will see what happens!