Cambridge; schools as competitive to get into as London?

[OverseasMum2016]

Hi there,

We are living overseas at the moment and we are looking at moving home to the UK in the Summer with our boys who are currently in Years 3 and 4. It looks like we be living in Cambridge which we are really happy about. We previously lived in SW London where our boys went to private school as we were not in the catchment area for any good states schools. I'm scared of going back to London because of the crazy stress/competitiveness of the 11+ and getting the boys into a good secondary school.

My question is; is Cambridge as crazy/stressful as London for getting into secondary school (good state or private)?

I'd love to hear from you, particularly if you have experience/knowledge of this in both Cambridge and London.

Thank you v v much!

State schools in Cambridge are catchment based so it depends where you live

As regards private schools some are selective such as The Perse which is 3 applicants to 1 place available but others are less so. However, the demand for private places does appear to outstrip places available (if you are talking about central Cambridge rather than Cambridgeshire).

As mentioned above the state schools are basically catchment based (subject to the other admissions criteria such as for looked after children etc). However each school does have to publish its admissions criteria so once you have a few in mind check these out. As with everywhere the better schools will have higher house prices for their "catchments"

I don't think the independent Cambridge secondaries are as tough to get in to as the London ones sound. Certainly mine who are reasonably bright but not exceptional by any means got into the Perse from state primary with fairly minimal tutoring (and in retrospect that was just because I had no idea of the standard and they probably could have done it without).

So I don't think they are as competitive in the sense of everyone doing years of extra tutoring and still very bright children don't get in. I assumed this was because there are more school places than London since they seem to turn out similar results to London schools but take a wider band on entry.

At primary the prep schools only really have a place if someone leaves so you may or may not be lucky. But equally there seems to be a move from some primaries to independent in year 3, meaning that the state schools should have places in KS2. I don't know for sure, but I think people are often leaving because they always intended to go private from 7 rather than a particular failing in these schools.

DS got into the Perse from a state primary, some years ago, with a minimum amount of tutoring - mainly on things not covered in KS2 testing. Stephen Perse is the only other really selective academic school in Cambridge.

Thank you so much! You have put my mind at rest. Much appreciated.