Moving to Cambridge but where?

[nlm7]

Dear all,

We want to move to a village on the outskirts of Cambridge with a few shops. We have two teenage daughters so it has to have a good secondary school.

Comberton school looks great but the surrounding areas don't seems to have any shops. We both work from home so it would be good to walk somewhere.
Sawston has a great school but I'm not sure if the area is quite right for us. It does have a few shops but is it run down? This is probably the top option so I'd love some advice from someone who lives here!
What's Impington like? The school looks good.
Thank you!

My friend lives in Ashdon and her daughters to to Saffron Walden high school, which is an excellent school, if that helps?

Histon and Impington are lovely. Impington village college one of the best schools in the county.

What's your budget?
I hear good things about Histon and Impington.
Personally I'd pick a village on one of the busway routes so the girls can easily get into cambridge on the busway. Other than the busway the bus services are pretty crap out to the villages. And I wouldn't like living in a village and having to be a taxi driver for teenagers!

www.thebusway.info/routes-times.shtml

Huston and Impington are on the guided busway route.

Melbourne ? Or Meldreth? Friend has dds who all went through Melbourne village college.. she liked it for her dc. Melbourne has a few shops/pubs and you can walk to the train station at meldreth to get into Cambridge
I’m guessing it’s expensive though (that bit nearer and easier for London) although cheaper than Cambridge I imagine ..so depends on your budget

Thank you so very much for taking the time to respond. Much of our problem is that one child will have just finished GCSEs and the other about to begin them. So many schools are full so, although the catchment school might be wonderful, if it’s full, then my youngest would be commuting to a potentially not too good school with a place - not good... Therefore, I think it has to be Sawston - school looks really good and close to city centre; they’re full but other schools are so far away that I think we’d still get youngest a place.
Youngest is the one who will find the move hard. She’s in to musical theatre in a big way so I’d be incredibly grateful if anyone knows of a wonderful youth company that she could join in Sawston or the city centre. The one she currently goes to is very professional and it’s her passion. X

www.camtheatrecompany.co.uk/get-involved/

www.stagecoach.co.uk/cambridge

Most 6th form kids go the one of the 3 sixth form colleges in Cambridge. I would move somewhere they can easily commute in to town. Only a few Cambs schools have their own 6th form.

@nlm7 young actors company I’d 100% recommended. They do various short films/productions plus have a successful agency alongside.

Not musical theatre though?

This hasn't been updated recently but I've heard v good things about www.cambridgeyouthmusicaltheatre.org/

Comberton and Cambourne and Swavesy I think have reputation for music, musical theatre etc.

Impington's sixth form has a big performing arts offer, which probably has some knock-on on the rest of the school, but they do GCSEs across three years, which may rule it out as a sensible option. It's certainly something you should ask about.

If you have to go onto a waiting list, it's worth knowing that that is usually ordered in order of the admissions criteria, not how long you've been on it. So if you move in next door to a school, you'll immediately go fairly high on the waiting list - although possibly below someone with a sibling already in the school. It looks as if Impington has a draft policy on "in year" admissions for 2020 which doesn't mention siblings and does prioritise those moving from outside Cambs.