Moving Near Peterborough – Seeking Recommendations

[SmilingSunrise]

Hi everyone,

We are currently living in London, but due to my husband's job change, he will be starting work in Peterborough soon. We are looking for a place to live within a maximum one-hour drive from Peterborough. I'm hoping to get some insights and recommendations from those familiar with the area.

Our Situation:

• My husband is willing to commute up to an hour by car. (so public transport opportunities are not quite important)
• Our daughter has just finished Year 1 and will be starting Year 2 next year, so we need to find a good primary school.
• We are not planning to buy a house immediately but may consider it later. Budget is not a constraint for now.

Key Criteria:

1. Commute Time: Within a one-hour drive to Peterborough.
2. Primary Schools: High-quality primary schools.
3. Safety: A safe neighborhood.
4. Socio-cultural Environment: We value diversity and would prefer a welcoming community. (as an Albanian family)
5. Vibrancy: While a lively area would be nice, we understand this might be less feasible. Proximity to Cambridge or Peterborough for occasional visits would be great.

Based on my research, I've shortlisted the following areas. I would love to hear your thoughts on these or any other recommendations you might have:

1. Histon-Impington: Good primary schools, close to Cambridge, within an hour’s drive to Peterborough. Seems to meet our criteria well.
2. Cambourne: Good primary schools, relatively close to both Cambridge and Peterborough.
3. Ely: Slightly longer drive (sometimes over an hour), but a lovely town with good socio-cultural aspects. only concern about winter driving conditions to Peterborough?
4. St. Ives: About half an hour from both Cambridge and Peterborough. Heard good things about the town, though primary schools aren’t top-rated.
5. St. Neots: Some socio-cultural concerns, and perhaps less diverse, but the location seems convenient?
6. Hampton (in Peterborough): Very close to Peterborough, good schools, new housing, and diverse. Not as popular as the others but seems to tick many boxes...

We would greatly appreciate any insights or experiences you can share about these areas or any other recommendations you might have.

Thank you in advance for your help! xx

I know someone who lives in St Ives and they really like it. They use the guided bus to visit Cambridge regularly.

I would go on local Facebook groups to try to find out more about the actual driving times. As you know, there are a lot of drivers around Peterborough and the roads can be very busy at particular times.

Less of an issue if you dh has flexibility to travel outside of busy times.

Stamford (Lincolnshire) is GORGEOUS. Oakham (Rutland), too. Great schools and loads of beautiful villages between the 2 towns. Driving distance from Peterborough or both have train stations. Rutland is just generally beautiful.

Also…. The Deepings, Bourne, Glinton, Uffington, Northborough

Oundle is a lovely town with a good primary school and there are lots of nice villages in the area as well either excellent primary schools.
Thrapston is also worth a look and would fall within the commute time.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!
Stamford does sound amazing, but we’re a bit concerned because there are only two non-faith schools, and one has a really low Ofsted rating. That’s a bit of a red flag for us. I’ll definitely check out your other suggestions..
Thanks again for the tips!

I hadn’t heard of these before, really appreciate it. I’ll definitely look into them in more detail. Since both only have one non-faith, state primary school each, I’ll be sure to dive into the school details.
Thanks again for your help!

Look into Ryhall and Great Casterton for schools close to Stamford. So many good options.

Stamford is lovely, so is the deepimgs, Bourne not so good for a young family. Impington is pretty don’t know about the schools, stay clear of st neots we’ve just moved from there it’s getting worst and the schools are terrible. St ives is a lovely town not sure on schools but there’s some lovely villages try sommersham pretty village and a nice school use to be good but that was 10 years ago, worth checking though because the village is so nice.

stay clear of Peterborough it self, hamptons is not good. I’m from near whittelsey been here a year now and it’s pleasant enough don’t know about the schools though.

I’ve only been to Oundle when at a couple of 3 - 4 day conferences held at the public school there, but it did seem very pleasant and quite different (smaller) from the other places on your initial list.

I saw Oundle rumoured as one of the schools Prince George might go to… perhaps because it’s such an isolated village?

I live in Whittlesey, 7 miles out of Peterborough. Nice town, I moved here from Peterborough a couple of years ago, ds is at one of the 3 primary schools, all are good, his was inspected literally at the end of last term and report is due September.
Yaxley is a nice place it's literally down the road from Hampton (wouldn't recommend personally) I have friends living there and the primary's are again good
Market Deeping (St James and St Nicholas too) is lovely again 10 miles out of Peterborough, not sure on the primary schools though.

Bourne, Glinton, Oundle, Helpston (not sure if there is a school there but lovely little village) Uffington, Northborough as suggested are nice too

Thank you so much for your comment, especially for sharing your experience about St Neots.
I’m curious about why you specifically wouldn’t recommend Hampton Vale and Hargate, as we’ve come across very different opinions—both positive and negative. I’ve heard a few good things about Whittlesey, but since it and Somersham are not very diverse, do you think we might face challenges with adapting and making new friends?

Thank you so much for your comment. Could you please share more about why you wouldn’t recommend Hampton? I’d also love to hear more about Whittlesey—do you think the lack of diversity might be a problem for us? Many thanks..

My issue is mainly the parking and the severe lack of phone signal.
The estates were also in part at least built on Fletton Brickpits and I'm not sure how solid that foundation is.
Whittlesey isn't massively diverse in general terms, but I wouldn't say it's unwelcoming, like anywhere there are rude, unkind people, but for the most part it's the kind of place where people say hello when they pass eachother in the street or at least smile.

The only good thing about the hamptons is the Tesco/garden centre and there’s a good vets, but it a large uncared for estate. The atmosphere is a general depressing uncared for every man for himself.

I find Whittelsey friendly with a good community spirit the town centre is like most market towns but there’s been a good few new shops opened in the last few years and there’s a nice market, leisure centre and some beautiful walks over the fens (which in the winter can flood so check where you look, ) but it’s quite beautiful and when they freeze people ice skate. There’s some new builds which my son is looking into moving to, but there are also some lovely character old homes more in the centre.

I know a couple of people that lived in Hampton. They both had a lot of problems with their new builds eg drains and both moved to one of the local villages pretty quickly.

I know Yaxley quite well as I grew up there. It's bigger and nearer Peterborough than Whittlesey, so a bit more diverse. It's not lively, but right near the A1 so easy to drive to Peterborough or Cambridge.

Lots of young families.

Some thoughts:

Histon-Impington - not really diverse at all and comparatively very expensive due to being so close to Cambridge

Cambourne - rather more diverse than above but still quite an expensive place to live due to proximity to Cambridge.

Ely - "only concern about winter driving conditions to Peterborough?" That's not a concern at all. I can only think of a couple of days when there has been a lot of snow and that didn't affect the main roads at all.

St Ives - not particularly diverse, the neighbouring town of Huntingdon would probably be better.

St Neots - similar comments to St Ives

However, with all of the above places, can I ask what is more important to you, proximity to Cambridge for occasional visits or to Peterborough so that your husband spends less time on his daily commute? All of these places are closer to Cambridge than to Peterborough.

Hampton - it depends. Personally, I find Hampton not as bad as others are making out.

Also, do be aware of where you live in Hampton as it is Hampton Vale primary that is doing well, Hampton Hargate and Hampton College less so. There is also another primary school that only opened a few years ago, Hampton Lakes and there is no information for this school.

You mention renting for a period; I would happily rent a home there but I don't know if I would buy a home there. The reason for this is that it is a very modern estate and houses are typically much smaller than equivalently priced older houses elsewhere.

Here is an example of a typical 5 bed detached for £475k in that area:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150564881#/?channel=RES_BUY

I would rent this any day of the week but I would never think about buying somewhere like this.

There are other areas of Peterborough that also have very good primary schools and are equally diverse as well.

Take, for example, Lime Academy Abbotsmede on Kingsley Road, which is very close to the centre of Peterborough and in about as diverse an area as you can get. This school gets very good results.

This is not such an affluent area of the city. Most properties are Victorian terraces or 1930s semis.

Then about a mile north of there, there is Newark Hill Primary which is also very good and the area is also very diverse. The area is a mix of 1930s semis and more modern housing.

On the other side of the city in Ravensthorpe there are two primary schools; Highlees Primary is very good indeed but the neighbouring Ravensthorpe Primary not so much. The area is very diverse.

Ravensthorpe was built in the 1970s and there are a mix of terraced houses and really quite nice semis. The semis are quite nice and sell quickly. The terraced houses are another story.

Then finally, and also one that I know people who live locally to the school and have sent their children to in the past, is Fulbridge Academy on Keeton Road.

The school does really well and the area is about as diverse as you can get and there are a lot of east Europeans living in the area.

It's an area of Peterborough called New England and it is not the most affluent of areas. It's a mix of Victorian terraces and semis along with quite a lot of nice 1930s-1950s ex-council semis with large gardens.

There are some nicer 1930s semis and detached homes a bit further away.

According to the ONS, at the time of the last Census the ethnicity of the area near Fulbridge Academy was:

32% white British
28% other white
25% Asian
3% black
3% mixed
8% other

First of all, thank you so much for your detailed message; it has been incredibly helpful.

Given that Peterborough is about an hour away, being closer to Cambridge seems like a better fit for us as we've heard so many negative comments about Peterborough that it would indeed take some courage to put it back on our list.

Although Histon itself might not offer diverse opportunities, its proximity to Cambridge makes it a place where we can potentially engage in more diverse social activities and events.

I hadn't considered Huntingdon because I've heard some negative things about it, and similarly, we've started hearing not-so-positive things about St Neots as well.

Regarding Hampton, I'm surprised you praise Hampton Vale because Hampton Hargate seems to perform very well on paper. However, Hampton Vale also looks quite good. I don't have any opinion on Hampton College. If we choose Hampton, I would hope to be near one of these two schools.

As you mentioned, renting initially will allow us to gauge our satisfaction with the area, so budget doesn't seem like a big issue for now.

Thank you again for your detailed and valuable feedback!

"Regarding Hampton, I'm surprised you praise Hampton Vale because Hampton Hargate seems to perform very well on paper."

These are the official figures from the government for both schools below.

Hampton Vale is "Well above average" in the Progress score in all three areas, reading, writing and maths.

In contrast, Hampton Hargate is only "above average" in maths and is "average" in reading and writing.

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/146753/hampton-vale-primary-academy/primary

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/132763/hampton-hargate-primary-school/primary

Just reading your last comment about thinking about huntingdon, I would advise against, it has some nice areas , but not very very growing family friendly, might be ok for little ones 😏 but not a good place for teenagers there’s a lot of anti social behaviour there in the evenings and the college is very rough. My son went to the college for a term but left because it was so bad we moved him.

i personally like the villages round Cambridge and would have bought there, but my children are Lincoln/deeping area so it was that little bit to far from them.

above Peterborough to Lincoln has some lovely places but I can’t tell you much about them was years since I lived in Lincoln.

i know your children are small just starting school, but if your looking to settle you need to think older education and teenage going out alone, st neots/huntingdon was terrible for that and I was glad to get my sons away from there. From what I’ve heard Peterborough is the same, so I would avoid places teenagers would travel to for a night out.

I grew up in Whittlesey and still have friends there so go back quite often and it’s turned into a lovely little town.

Thank you for touching on a point that I have been really curious about.

Don't these progress scores actually reflect more on the KS2 success at the school? Since they show the progress between KS1 and KS2 results, I feel they don't really indicate KS1 success. Given that I haven't made a long-term plan yet, should their importance be somewhat secondary in my considerations? What do you think?

Additionally, if we consider these two schools, Hampton Vale's progress scores are better, but their "% of pupils meeting the expected standard" is not very impressive (65%) compared to Hargate (78%). On the other hand, for "% of pupils achieving at a higher standard," Vale has 11% while Hargate has 16%.

Which do you think is more important, these percentages or the progress results? Because of these factors, Hargate is ranked 1831st out of 15,000 schools, while Vale is 6089th by Locrating.

Many thanks for your feedbacks!

"I feel they don't really indicate KS1 success. Given that I haven't made a long-term plan yet, should their importance be somewhat secondary in my considerations? What do you think?"

You are quite right. However, your DD will be moving on to KS2 a year from now when she starts in Year 3 (I presume in the OP you meant she is starting Year 2 this September).

If you are only planning on staying wherever you move to for 6 months or a year then it doesn't really matter which school she goes to. But if you're planning on staying in one place for two or three years at least then the KS2 results do become relevant.

"Which do you think is more important, these percentages or the progress results?"

It's a bit of both. This is going to be another long post with lots of numbers in it. The links to all the information are given at the bottom.

Things like the overall % that meet expected standard are based on two things. Firstly how academic the children are anyway and, secondly, how good the teaching is.

You could have one school with a lot of high achievers but the teaching is just average and they will still outperform another school which only has a small number of high achievers but very good teaching.

This is the case with Hampton Hargate and Hampton Vale.

When pupils start Year 3 they are classified as either Low, Medium or High Attainers based on their KS1 results.

If you dig into the information available you will see that it is split up so that you can look at these groups separately.

It turns out that, in the latest results, Hargate had 41% High attainers, 42% Medium Attainers and only 17% Low Attainers.

In contrast, it was reversed at Vale. They only had 18% High Attainers, 49% Medium Attainers and 33% Low Attainers.

Overall, Hargate did have a higher % of pupils meeting the expected standard but this was only because they had a lot more High Attainers than Vale.

If you look at the figures for each group separately then Vale outperforms Hargate

% of pupils meeting the expected standard

School Hargate Vale
High.......100%......100%
Med........76%........81%
Low.........27%........21%

So Vale did just as well among the High, did better with the Medium. The figure for Low Attainers was not as good but when you look at the Progress scores for Low Attainers it looks like they were particularly low.

So, although Vale did well with both High and Medium the overall figure came out lower because they don't have as many High attainers as Hargate does.

It's a similar matter with % of pupils achieving at a higher standard. If you break the figures down by prior attainment you get this:

% of pupils achieving at a higher standard

School Hargate Vale
High.......38%......38%
Med........0%........5%
Low.........0%........0%

So, Vale does just as well with High and also gets some of their Medium at the higher standard as well which Hargate does not.

But, since there are more High Attainers at Hargate the overall figure for the school is higher.

You can also look at things like the difference between boys and girls. At Vale it's pretty equal but at Hargate there is a big difference between the sexes where 21% of girls were at a higher standard but only 12% of the boys.

Another thing this is useful for is for looking at the type of pupils going into the school at Year 3. One of the other schools I mentioned above literally had only one pupil that was a High Attainer and the rest were split 50/50 Medium and Low.

They do a fantastic job and even get 15% of their Medium Attainers to the higher standard. They are clearly very experienced at getting Medium and Low Attainers to do well, but maybe the teachers aren't so used to teaching High Attainers

(I have no idea about this and am not implying anything negative at all about those teachers as they certainly do get impressive results).

These are the links with all the figures.

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/132763/hampton-hargate-primary-school/primary/results-by-pupil-characteristics?accordionstate=1|3

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/146753/hampton-vale-primary-academy/primary/results-by-pupil-characteristics?accordionstate=1|3

You can find the same information for all primary schools by searching here:

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

It's a long drive from Ely to Peterborough.

I do it reasonably regularly to catch the train up to Newcastle. I wouldn't like to do it every day. Can be over an hour if you use the main roads or less if you go down along by Ramsay but they do close that sometimes.

I used to teach in Impington. It gets a lot of international families as the secondary school teaches the IB and is used to them. It's not very racially diverse but lots of non- British families.

I know a lot of people that live there and it's a good place to live. Bloody expensive to buy though.

Stamford and Rutland are really lovely, but you said you'd like somewhere diverse, and there's very little diversity in Stamford/Rutland.