Primary Schools Cambridge

[rvc]

Hi, my husband has just got a job at addenbrokes so we will be relocating to Cambridge in September from London. My two kids will be year 6 and year 4 then and we are looking for good schools either state primary or prep in Cambridge. They are currently at an outstanding state primary in London. We will be looking to live in central cambridge but as yet have no specific location. Any advice on primaries would be really appreciated. Thanks so much

I expect you will be limited by which primary schools have space in the right years. Probably worth thinking about secondary as you will need to apply for your yr6 by the end of October and it will come around quickly for your yr4 as well! Cambridge is fortunate to have many good schools so lots of choices but as I said it will depend in the state sector where there is space.

Yes you're right - I'm sure it will be tricky to get them both in to the same primary - for secondary we were thinking of either independent or Chesterton which seems very good but am aware that there's more to a school than ofsted reports so any thoughts on secondary as well would be good

St Luke's Primary is in a good place just now. The school got a bad ofsted rating a few years ago, but has been academised and has got a really great new headmaster and deputy head. The school is in a really good place I think, but because the word hasn't really got out yet, there are a lot of spaces. I think it would be worth you asking for spaces there. It is a feeder school for Chesterton Community College which is a great school with an Osted outstanding rating.

With a child in Year 6, you should be looking at secondary schools really. Make sure you're in the catchment for a good one. It's true that Chesterton Community College has a good reputation thanks to the Ofsted report and it's oversubscribed as a result. You'll need to be within catchment and pretty close.

Primary schools are less important and as PP said you should contact the council admissions team to enquire about which schools have places available, as you're unlikely to get much of a choice.

If you're on Facebook there is a group called Cambridge Parents (UK) which I suggest you join as you should get lots of advice there.

This page has lots of helpful info including a PDF with a list of all the schools and whether they have places broken down by year group:
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/children-and-families/schools-learning/apply-for-a-school-place/in-year-admissions/making-an-application

Gosh those pages are so helpful as is the St Lukes tip - thank you so much. Just finalising job so will start thinking about things seriously.

One thing that will be helpful for you is that primary schools weren't able to do open days this year, so a lot of them did video tours and zoom meetings which they recorded in some cases. The info is not always easy to find on the websites, so if you can't find anything, I advise emailing the schools to ask. At risk of outing myself, I have just done a primary school application (for reception) and was looking at several schools in my local area of Cambridge, so if you end up looking at the same area, I'd be happy to PM you some links.