Arriving in a month - school advice pls!

[rachel574]

We will be arriving in Cambridge in about a month and plan on renting. We have a five year old who will need a place for school. Do we find school that has space first and then look for housing, or housing first and then school - or both simultaneously? We are looking to stay under 3000 pounds a month but can exceed that if need be. Also, having easy access to the A14 out of Cambridge is crucial for us, as is walkability (we are coming from a very walkable lifestyle in DC and ideally want to be able to walk our child to school, walk to shopping, etc). We also have an almost one year old. Thanks so much for any and all advice! :)

Yes what you suggest would be sensible. Find out which schools have places available and then find a property near to them rather than find a property and having to traipse across town to get there.

Cambridge centre itself is very cycle friendly too.

Can I suggest living just north of the river? This would give you easy access to the A14 either at the Histon or Milton junctions. You could look at schools like St Luke's, Milton Road, Mayfield, and living in those catchments you could be at the river and then town pretty quickly. (You'd be even quicker on a bike, by the way, and almost everyone cycles here). My DC went to/are at Milton Road and the vast majority of children walk/scoot/cycle to school. Your rental budget seems generous so you should be able to get a decent house for that in these areas. Why not find out where the school places are available first and then go from there? If your DC is already 5, would s/he be going into current Reception or Year 1? I assume you want DC to start school in June rather than wait for September. Welcome, Cambridge is a great place to bring up kids.

Many thanks for the advice! It does make sense to live north of the river. Per the Cambridgeshire schools website, we won't be able to start until Sept because it will be too late in the year (less than 6 wks before the end of school). Plus, we won't even have an address, since we'll be in a hotel while looking for a place. I imagine it is going to be hard to find a first year spot as we'll be applying so late .. but hopefully we'll get lucky! I guess I will start by contacting schools north of the river to see if any still have first year spots, and then based on that start to look for housing. Appreciate the responses; this is all pretty stressful.

Hi Rachel,
Contact the admissions directly via phone and they will tell you which schools have places across the year groups in all primary school in Cambridge . Are you sure whether your child would start in year 1 or 2 in September?

If your dc is still 5 on the 31st August they will be going into year one. If they will be 6 by then it will be year two. It must be stressful, but Cambridge is a truly international city and a great place to live.