The Perse School sixth form for sep 23 - accommodation options in Cambridge

[sixthformparent]

Hi, My son got an offer to start lower sixth form (year 12) in Sep 23 at The Perse School Hills road, We are an hour away on train from Cambrdige, if we accept it what options we have in terms of relocate communte.

Train is 55 mins to station and guess 10-15 min to school from station in cambridge, while commute is not unreasonable like an 1 hr 20 mins each way, he prefers to stay locally so he can spend less on commute.

He is comfortable to stay with host family, but struggling to find suitable host families online, so want to as here.

options are (in order of most preferred to least):
Host family - struggling to find how to go about it, any recommendation / any family either studying at perse or not, willing to take my son?

Relocate - Is more expensive compare to where we are, cant fully move to need to rent and either me or wife need to stay with my son (dont prefer to leave him alone in the flat) , requires adjustments due to work , full relocation may not be possible, if nothing works out may be either me or my wife could rent and stay in cambridge.

what do non local students do - are these host families / private boarding facilities we can look at, any recommendation?

Default option is train commute- could be unreliable also an hour+ each way for16 years could be stressfull, but is an option

Any thoughts or previous experiences or guidence on reliable/safe accommodation ?

I can't comment on the points you've raised, but in terms of commuting into Cambridge for 6th form - you will find that this is a pretty standard commute for many.

My 17yo is at Hills and has approx 1.5h door to door commute, he has to catch the 6.58am bus to get in for a 9am lesson, and similar coming home.

I suspect you are further away than we are if it's a 55m train, we are only about 10 miles from the college but it is the lack of public transport which causes our issues.

Similar to poster above. This would be a pretty normal commute into the cambridge sixth forms. Ive had one at hills and another one starting long road in the summer. Although we have closer sixth forms they both wanted the college style sicth form cambridge does well. The 7 oclock train has loads of sixth form students going into cambridge and lots of socialising is done on the train. If you fail to find something suitable id be suprised if he is alone doing the.commute and may end up enjoying it.

My daughter goes to st Mary's and takes the train albeit a shorter commute than you and there is a whole load who go in train. It's a shame the purse don't do boarding or flexi boarding, especially with the ongoing rail strikes!! It's been a nightmare for those school kids - we live 15 miles from Cambridge so can drive them in on these days however this probably won't be doable for you and the Cambridge traffic is a nightmare at the best of times!! There are two rail strikes this week which are a total headache. Hopefully this will not continue however, there are still some rail issues causing problems from time to time so some sort or contingency might be a plan. The Perse is fairly handy for the station though and with their young legs can do the walk to and fro very swiftly! It's a challenge at times but generally doable. Good luck

Thank you 🙏 Perse confirmed they won’t allow host families and guardianships and housing situation in Cambridge is not great
we have a direct train from Peterborough which will take 55 mins only challenge is not sure how reliable trains 🚂 are so still exploring options but commuting seemed a lot but reading feedback here doesn’t seem to be unreasonable

Thanks Parse don’t allow host families and guardianship thinking again with all feedback and especially traffic train might not be that bad from Peterborough and they have a school bus also from station