Salaries and where to live

[Malu2k]

Hi there. I am currently negotiating salaries for a job position in Cambridge. Im italian and would move with wife and 5 y.o daughter. Good primary school is my priority. The office is located in Waterbeach. I don’t plan to use a car to go to work. Can you please help me? I’m lost. I’m considering a 3k net income for the whole family. Is that enough to rent in a good school catchment area? How do I get to waterbeach from Cambridge without having a car? Thanks a lot

Waterbeach is in a nice area. There are a whole cluster of nice villages around there that are very close to the city but cheaper to live in. Presumably you mean 3k net a month? You could probably get a nice little house in budget for that in Waterbeach, Milton, Histon, Cottenham for that.

If you do live in town you can get a train to Waterbeach or buses. If you love in a northern village you can cycle.

If you edited the title to at least add Cambridge you might get more help!

It's in the Cambridge section though, which helps.

Oh right . I just saw category local , not a specific local. I’ll go now. Good luck op

What about schools? Also, I believe that being inside Cambridge would make things a bit easier to adapt. Have more of a “city feeling” than living in a village. Am I wrong?

Cambridge is a nightmare to get around so you’d have to be able to walk/cycle to everywhere you need to go. It’s nice enough of course but doesn’t have a city feel to it at all. More just a town. But very nice.

The villages around are generally easier to get to know people in, in my experience. And they are close enough to the city to still benefit from Cambridge facilities. As Boggles said Cambridge doesn't really have a city feel anyway.

Waterbeach school isn't in a good state from what I hear, and is about to go through change with the new builds. Histon has good schools, as do Milton and Cottenham. Girton school seems ok but it is tiny. Some people like that, some don't.

If I were you I'd try to live in Chesterton. It's in the city with access to the facilities in Cambridge. The schools are good. Theres a train station (Cambrudge north) where you can catch a train to Waterbeach. You could also cycle there.

@EmmaGrundyForPM I was reading about Chesterton, is there any particular place in Chestertor that you would advise for me to search for a house? And what about schools in that area? Any particular one you would recommend?

Also, I'll have a negotiating talk with the employer this week. I couldn't find much information about the average pay for my position. It's an IT job, and I'm considering 50-55k /year as the average. What can you tell me about those numbers? That would leave me with 3.1-3.2k net/month.

Thanks!

Chesterton is very mixed. It depends where. Some parts would make you catchment for the Shirley, Chesterton primary and then North Cambridge Academy. Further down and you would be eligible for maybe Milton Road and Chesterton College.

West Chesterton is lovely but very expensive. I used to work in East Chesterton and really liked it there but it's not as upmarket as West Chesterton! Chesterton Community College is really good, several of my friends live in the catchment and really rate it.

I can't comment on salaries, I work in the public sector and we don't earn anything like that!