Tollcross Primary vs St Peters

[SueJos]

Hello. My child is due to start school next August and we need to register him with Tollcross or St Peters next week. We visited both yesterday and there is now a difference of opinion to resolve :-/ Be very interested in hearing folks' experiences of these schools... good and bad... to help us come to an agreement. Thanks!

[TopangaD]

Child doesn’t attend either but friends do.. points to consider:

St p very popular unless baptised RC slim ( but not totally non existent chance of entry)

Tollcross more space now Gaelic unit moved

Tollcross very culturally diverse with lots of languages and religions, st p, almost all rc.

Feeder schools to James g Tollcross and st Thomas st p, so both great schools from what I know.

St a newer building but a full school and class sizes are biggish

Tollcross older building

Doesn’t answer your question but knowing the schools and the area just what I know and would consider. Friends kids from toll cross now at james g but were happy there, friends at so like it So far

[AliMcBally]

My two children went to St Peter's. Older child is very academic so the school was fine. Unfortunately older child was bullied a lot and the school were pretty ineffective at dealing with it. Apparently bullying doesn't happen at St Peter's!
Younger child was diagnosed (privately) with dyslexia & processing disorder in P3. Knew he was struggling but school said he was fine. After seeing reports from child psychologist, school agreed to give him 1 hour of extra support a week & nothing more. Younger child was an emotional wreck & had no confidence left so pulled him out towards end of P4. Now thriving at another local school were child is being very well supported with Dyslexia club, touch typing class, emotion support group & support for learning.
If I was having to choose between Tcross & St P's, I think you can guess which I would go for!

[SueJos]

Really sorry to hear about your experiences AliMcBally. Glad to hear your younger child has the support he needs now.

TopangaD thanks for that info. Very helpful.

[Starryskiesinthesky]

Well, obviously St Peters is a catholic school and this is apparent throughout the school so you need to be happy with that if your child was going. otherwise both are good schools and both have good high schools so it is just a case of picking which you prefer. Both of them reasonably diverse backgrounds (within reason).

[museumum]

Having worked for years next to st Thomas’s I felt the behaviour was really awful on buses lunch shops and the street. Really awful compared to other schools I’ve shared buses with in large numbers (boroughmuir, gillespies and heriots).
Assuming most of St. Peter’s move to st Thomas’s that would put me off 🙁

[SueJos]

Thanks for all those helpful comments. My preference is for Tollcross for a number of reasons... including proximity and potential before/after school care availability. Child is baptised but I am not religious myself (dad’s family) so I would be more comfortable with non-denom. Hopefully I can win dad round!

[KingLooieCatz]

In case it helps bring the dad round - DS started at Tollcross towards the end of P2 when we moved up from England. School has never been plain sailing for DS and he was diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago. Tollcross have been brilliant with him and he is now loving school and doing really well. It's a supportive and caring environment. I can't speak for St Peters, but when the council had to close some of the new build Edinburgh schools there was a class or two from St Peters lodged at Tollcross for a few weeks and everyone seemed to get on fine.

[SueJos]

Thanks for your message KingLooieCatz. Child now registered with Tollcross. Looking forward to him starting :-)

[ocelot41]

I know parents with kids at both - those at Tollcross rave about how great it is, those at St Peters not happy and considering moving child. Its a small sample but on that basis alone I would prefer Tollcross

[ocelot41]

Oops sorry Sue - just saw you have made your decision!