Any advice on Edinburgh primary schools in the city centre?

[sofiele]

Hello, we are moving to Edinburgh next year with our daughters (3 and 1 now). I've seen the HMIE reports and some old league tables but all the info. is so old, and very spotty for the primaries, and I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions on which primaries in Edinburgh are honestly good. I'd prefer state schools (of course) but I suppose if the school is really worth it we'd come up with the fees...any thoughts out there?

[Babyramone]

bumping for you

[KristinaM]

are you planning to live in the city centre? which part?

[harrisey]

The trouble with Edinburgh is that about 1/3 of kids are in pvt school and so ome state schools dont seem to come out as 'good'.

I have a few friends in Edinburgh - I know Morningside Primary is good (about 2 miles from centre) but not sure about others.

I always bang on about this but if you are in Scotland you will have the chance of Gaelic education for your dd's - there is an excellent primary school for this at Tollcross (about 1 mile from centre) which feeds into one of the best secondaries in the city (James Gillespies HS). There's a gaelic education thread on here that I started a while back (my kids are at Glasgow Gaelic school).

I'm intrigued as to why you say city centre. Very few people live in the very centre of Edinburgh, and it is very congested and you would get a flat but not a house (I lived there for 7 years as a student and after). There are loads of nice areas outside the city centre but I wouldn't live too centrally with kids, there are too many nicer places further out. But Edinburgh is very expensive - and living in the right school catchment area really does add to the cost.

Speaking as a true scot though - the education system up here is great - much broader than elsewhere in the UK, more flexibility for teachers, less specialisation early on, works to guidelines rather than NC, none of the pressurised testing that you get elsewhere (my dd1 did national tests in maths and gaelic in March and didnt even know she did them - neither did I till we got the results!!)