Dh applied for a job in London (where we currently live) but has been given an interview for one in Glasgow. It's not something we'd have seriously considered if it hadn't happened this way but the more we think about it the more it might be a good opportunity (if he were to be offered the job, obviously).
I am just at the daydream stage really but where are good areas for families in and around Glasgow? The job is fairly central and I'd be looking for one too (I'm a civil servant and would be hoping for a transfer of some kind). We are in the fortunate position of owning a house in London that has a fair amount of equity. We'd probably get about £950k if we sold it and but if we could reduce our mortgage and get something closer to 500 or 600k that'd be helpful. 3 or 4 bedrooms and a garden would be ideal. I can't decide if I'd prefer close to the city centre or somewhere further out with access to the countryside. Open to suggestions!
I have two girls aged 5 and 1. Any information about the school application process and childcare position would be really helpful.
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Where to live in/near Glasgow
longestlurkerever · 12/11/2016 23:04
Have a look at Pollokshields (Nithsdale Road mentioned above is in Pollokshields). The first planned suburb with lots of lovely big stone built villas, big wide streets, large gardens, trees and parks.
Newlands, the other side of Queens Park (and yes, that is a park 
) also has nice Victorian era houses.
Shawlands - in particular "High Shawlands" - also has some nice houses. Strathbungo is a conservation area with some lovely townhouses.
Once you've lived in one, with their high ceilings and large rooms you get spoiled for "modern" houses.
For that budget, you might not get a full stone villa, but many of them have been converted. We live in one - dh calls it a "horizontal semi" and have 3 bedrooms, a study and a big dining room (which could be a bedroom) as well as a large dining kitchen and an enormous living room. The garden (even just our half but we choose not to have a boundary with our downstairs neighbour) is of a size that in London would have been sold and 2 4 bedroom houses squeezed on to it)
Shawlands, Newlands and most of West Pollokshields feed into Shawlands Academy, which is a good school. We actually had to do a placing request for ds for Shawlands Academy as we're in the catchment for Glendale Primary (which has an excellent reputation but you might struggle to get in in a in-year request), as it feeds to a different secondary but to date, all placing requests have been able to be requested.
On that note - catchments are key in Scotland. Every child is effectively in the catchment of two schools - a non-denominational school and a Catholic school. (There's also a Jewish primary in Newton Mearns). However, it is possible to do placing requests to a different school which may or may not be accepted, dependent upon space. We thought we'd have to do a placing request for Glendale but it turned out it has a strange shape of catchment and we were already in catchment.
Southside has good links into Glasgow (and in Pollokshields, our wee diddy subway) and lots of lovely parks - Maxwell Park, Queens Park and Pollok Park.
I agree Trooperslane - I love it here. And I'm originally a Northsider 
(Bearsden/Milngavie - dh takes too much great pleasure in telling me I'm not really a Glaswegian 
) and am totally converted to the Southside. Still easy access to the mountains as Glasgow is a small city with a motorway through it (40 minutes and we're at Loch Lomond) but also really accessible to the city centre.
Longestlurker - the other thing to be aware of is that Scotland has different cut off dates for school entry. So depending on when your older dd's birthday is, she would be in P1 (Primary 1), P2 - or even have the option (if she's just turned 5) of deferring and starting P1 next August. Cut off is 1 March, with flexibility for those turning 5 in Jan/Feb (and used to a lesser extent, Nov/Dec) to start P1 a year later.
She would be technically pretty much in the middle but because of deferrals, that skews the average.
Ds' birthday is at the beginning of September and I would say in practice, he's in the "young" half of the year.
She would sit her Nat 5s (equivalent to GCSEs) when she is 15, her Highers at 16 and would be advised to stay on to do S6 (Advanced Highers or more Highers - assuming she is academic) rather than go to Uni straight after her Highers at least, that's the advise we've given ds who is not long turned 16
So she'd finish school the same time she would have done in England.
Other advantage of the Southside is that in 30-40 minutes, you can be on the Ayrshire Coast!
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