Moving to Cambridge with family

[kyrylom]

Hi, all! I have been made an offer to move to Cambridge from Prague (Czech Republic). But as I have never been there and I will have to move with my child (4 y.o.) and wife it would be great if you could share your experience and help me to make the right choice. So it seems that we should be ok financially (the annual salary expected is 80000). Considering my rule of thumb - 1/3 of net salary can be spent on apartment rent, I have a budget of 1500 pounds per month on 2-bedroom apartment. Is it possible to find a good apartment in this range? And what is also very important which Cambridge districts you could recommend for living with a child - good schools etc.? I will be working at the Cambridge science park. But not necessarily look for the apartment near it. A 30-40 commute time will be fine.

How lovely! Cambridge is a lively, buzzy city with lots going on.
You basically have a choice between living in the city, fairly near the science park, or renting in one of the many very pretty villages around it.
The one thing that may affect your choice, and it's a disadvantage of living in Cambridge, is that the traffic can be very bad if you have to drive in to work every day. But rents will be cheaper outside the city centre and with that budget you could probably rent a 2-3 bedroom house, with garden.
Have a look on here -
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E274&insId=1&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=1500&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&sortByPriceDescending=&_includeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnishType=&houseFlatShare=

But I just wanted to add you don't need a car in Cambridge especially if you're going to live in or near the centre of town, it's a city for cyclists!
And it has a very good bus network.

My brother lives in Cambridge and works in Girton. He lives in Willingham outside Cambridge. He says the schools are better in the villages if you plan to use a state school. If private, the best ones are in the city itself.

The science park is on northern edge of Cambridge, so if you lived in Histon or Impington or Waterbeach you could only have a ten minute commute, access to good state schools, a bigger place to live and more rural surroundings.

have a look In Ely. its a 20 minute train ride from cambridge, and you would be able to afford a house such as this which is located in a nice area of Ely, called Wichford. Wichford has a good primary school link, which while it is a christian school it takes children of all faiths. there is also local facilities such as a swim school in Ely itself so plenty to do

You will like Cambridge, I visit him and his family several times a year. There is always something to do or see.

I'm afraid I don't have young children so I can't advise about schools but I do know there are lots of excellent primary (5-11 years) schools in the city, and even in the villages local primary schools tend to be good.
Have you heard of Ofsted, the English school inspection service? If you
Are looking at a particular school you can usually see it's latest Ofsted inspection report and mark on a website. You would be looking for at least a 'good' mark for the school.

Thank you all very much for the replies. Frankly speaking did not expect such a quick reaction. As to the moving around Cambridge I do not drive a car. In Prague the public transport is great. So if the bus network is good in Cambridge that is absolutely enough for us. We are not active cyclists yet (apart from the kid - he rides bicycle well already) but I am looking forward for this to change. As to the accommodations we are not looking for something large. We would rather invest in location and interior than in square feet. So for now the first intention is to look in the city itself. Yes, I have heard about the Ofsted and 'rightmove' has a nice feature 'SchoolChecker' to check the Ofsted rating and location of the schools nearby.

What about the private schools? I don't have much information on whether it is as superior compared to the state school as it is expensive. I know it costs around 15k per year. Maybe someone can say from experience whether it is worth it?

State primary schools in the north of city are mainly good. Mayfield, Milton road and arbury all have consistently good Ofsted reports. st Luke's seems to have problems at the moment, though not sure of exact details. The old Shirley had a bad rep, but I've heard it's really nice now.

Most of these schools feed into Chesterton for secondary, which has amazing results, so they must do something right.

I love living in CB4. Close to town (walkable, cyclable) and a bit cheaper than south Cambridge. For your budget, you have a decent choice. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE%5E414&insId=1&sortType=2&maxPrice=1500&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=2&googleAnalyticsChannel=renting

I personally would avoid orchard park, as it's just quite far out. Looking at the map, anywhere south of roseford road and east of histon road is easily cyclable to town and not far for you to get to work.

A relative lives near Roseford road. It’s great for public transport and schools. St Lawrence’s is where hers go.

If you can get a place at a good state school then for primary school private isn’t really worth it. But don’t assume you will get a place just because you live in the catchment sometimes schools are full. A family who moved in by me have been allocated a school completely the other side of town (we aren’t in Cambridge by the way).

Thanks again for your advice! They are so very helpful! I have been looking at the potential places to live at the rightmove. There are quite nice apartments and new constructions at Trumpington. Granted it is far from my work, but other that that may be you could share your opinion about this part of the city.

Sorry, one more question. How big is the council tax when renting a house? On a council page it varies from 1.2K to 3.4K. Should I pay it in full or only part of it? And maybe you could also give me an estimate of monthly expenses in Cambridge? Just for estimation of the potantial family budget. Thanks in advance!

Trumpington to the Science Park wouldn’t be the easiest journey, I suspect you would have to change buses in town.

Actually ignore that last comment, the guided busway goes from trumpington to the science park. www.thebusway.info/pdfs/tt/ABDR.pdf

Council tax depends on the assessed value of the property. So 2 similar types of property can be in different council tax bands if one is in a more expensive location.

If I were you I'd look in the Chesterton area. Easy to cycle to the science park, walking distance to town, good schools and you should be able to get a 2 bedroom property in your budget.

Council tax is usually paid monthly with direct debit. The estate agent advertising the property for rent or sale can tell you which council tax band it is in so you can look up the annual cost online and calculate the monthly payment.

Trumpington has some lovely new builds and the guided busway is super easy for getting around.

I love living in Cambridge

Hi OP. Move to CB4! It's great, and easy for the science park. You have the science park one way and the river and the city the other. And the schools are good. Commuting from Trumpington to the Science Park would be an unnecessary pain, and I hear mutterings that all is not always rosy at Trumpington Meadows. Buses in Cambridge are OK but still subject to traffic delays. Much easier to live in CB4, buy a bike and cycle to work. Good luck and welcome to our lovely, international city!

Biscuits can I ask what you’ve heard about Trumpington Meadows? It looks well placed location wise for the Park & Ride to the city centre, busway to Addenbrooke’s and train station, Waitrose and access to motorways. Wondering what the mutterings are.

OP best of luck with the move to Cambridge. Best thing to do is to visit different schools (independent and state) when you’ve arrived and see which one will suit your child best.

Here’s a current ranking of primary schools based on an overall score including Key Stage 2 results, pupil-teacher ratios, absence rates, reading ability and maths progress.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/best-worst-primary-schools-state-17157483?utm_source=sharebar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shareware

Fascinating breakdown on the link supplied. St Matthews - always v.popular - comes quite low, Morley Memorial - a really good school - is rated a bit midling.

@wraithberry I knew a couple of people who moved over to new development in Trumpington from North Cambridge and their kids didn't last long at TM. I didn't like to ask why but one of them mentioned antisocial behaviour. Now bear in mind the Cambridge Evening news is a right-wing rag, but there have been a few articles like this. www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/trumpington-meadows-glebefarm-clayfarm-affordablehousing-16362218. But you're right it's a good location if you want to be close to hospital, M11, station etc. It will all depend on your work location. But I wouldn't advise a newcomer who is going to work at the Science Park to live in Trumpington - it seems unnecessarily far away!