Erskine Stewart's Melville Junior School or Dollar Academy

[rosyposybluebell]

Hi, my daughter will be starting in P6 (Scotland) in August and I have to choose between the schools mentioned above and their respective secondary schools. Do any mumsnetters have children at these schools and if so , why did you choose the one you went for?
many thanks

[motherstongue]

These schools are miles apart. Will she be boarding?

[3nationsfamily]

Obviously one of the main differences as they move through the school is that ESM becomes single sex for most of the secondary phase. Would that suit your daughter? The other issue is city vs country which is again a personal choice, the Mary Erskine girls would be more independent in travelling/ city life than those at Dollar on a day to day basis, there is also the relative sizes of the schools to consider.
Fundamental to it all though is the travelling time- they are far apart- are you going to be living between the two? Think about when she is a teenager and wanting to see her friends at weekends/ you going to watch hockey matches/ school plays etc- how convenient is it going to be.

[rosyposybluebell]

Thank you for your responses. On the travelling front we are right in the middle with regard to distance from the schools and the official school buses pick up about 5-10mins away from where we live. (Will not be boarding.

On the co-ed / single sex front, the junior schools at both are co-ed so they get to know the boys etc. My understanding is that at ESMS although they move to single sex for senior school they share a common house system and mix for sporting and cultural events but split on the academic front before mixing again in a common sixth form.

On the location front I am drawn to Edinburgh as I think it will help DD develop more independence and have access to all the resources of a city.

I suppose I am asking whether anyone has encountered any negatives at either school and what they were / are. Obviously the schools highlight all their positive points. I have a couple of weeks to decide so maybe I need to stop over-analysing everything and go with gut feeling. DD doesn't really have a preference and is chilled about the whole thing!

[starving]

Have a friend with 2 dc at Dollar & she is very happy with it (been there since p1, now both secondary), but it suits them as they are local.

I have a dd at MES since s1. It was her choice to go single sex and we went along with that. She also got a place at a co-ed which we would also have been happy with but at the age of 12 she found all boys very immature. She is very into her music and the school has an excellent reputation for that. DD is now in s6 which is co-ed and has some classes with the boys, and she still finds some of them very immature! The house system is twinned and in all years they do joint activities (outward bound, drama, musicals, orchestras etc) so they do get to meet them, just not in the classroom.

Having visited 4 of the Edinburgh private schools we felt that although dd would get an excellent education in all of them, she would fit better into only 2 of them and she felt that MES was the school for her. I think your gut feeling and knowing your dd counts for a lot.