Moving to Edinburgh from Oz

[Miseramel]

My family is heading to Edinburgh to live for a year as part of a shake up of our lives. We hope to do a lot of travel around Europe while we base ourselves in Edinburgh. We leave tomorrow but will be in Edinburgh early August (after travelling around England/Wales).

My DD is 9 turning 10 in October, in Oz she is Year 4 but I think she will be going into Year 5 in Scotland? My major concern (well apart from finding rental accommodation and a job!) is finding her a great school. We will live anywhere if the school is good as I want her to have a great experience over there and from research, it seems to all be catchment based (same as Oz).

Can anyone tell me about Sciennes Primary school? I've heard it has a good reputation from a friend who taught in Edinburgh. Any other recommendations that I should consider?

[bearsbeetsbattlestargallactica]

Sciennes does have a good reputation, and as a result can be oversubscribed (though I don't know about its current state for your daughter's year). Edinburgh has a relatively high proportion of privately educated kids - is that also something you'd consider?

[Miseramel]

If a school is oversubscribed does that mean that even if you are in the catchment you won't get in?

As for private education, at this stage we wouldn't (she's in a state school here in Oz), we'll be saving our funds for travelling.

[bearsbeetsbattlestargallactica]

Yes if it's oversubscribed it means the there aren't enough places for everyone that wants them, so if that class is already full they wouldn't be able to take her even if you move into catchment. But you could clarify whether that is the situation by just giving them a call.

Don't blame you at all to want to save your money for adventuring. Could you home educate the kids for a year to maximise adventure time?!

[AssangesCat]

You would get a place in your catchment school but not right away. The Edinburgh Council website probably explains - I think you might wait a term or something. The council will offer you another school in the meantime but it might be the other side of the city and not a great one.

School are all closed now but staff will be back in a day or two before the children go back. I suggest you try to narrow down your preferred schools and when staff are back in ring round and see which ones have spaces in the right class. The council might have some idea in the meantime.

In these situations I always suggest Tollcross Primary, as a great school that isn't quite as in demand as the more suburban schools in that part of town. They have a lot of experience with families arriving from overseas as well, but it is filling up.

If you're planning to travel a lot, maybe home education maybe home education isn't a bad idea if you can manage it.b

[EchidnasPhone]

Edinburgh schools are all quite full but if you’re open to a faith/catholic school they usually have space. I think the education in Edinburgh is great and everything is so close even if you’re not in your direct catchment the next school isn’t too far away. Depending on your dds birthday will define what year she is. I have an April born dd so she was 9/10 in p5. Good luck and enjoy Edinburgh. Best move I ever made x

[LemonadePockets]

I second Tollcross, it’s a good school.

Have you looked at areas to rent? You’ve chosen one of the most expensive cities to rent in, but it is a beautiful city and steeped in history.

I’m from Glasgow but lived in Fountainbridge for a few years & my in laws are in Edinburgh so we spend lots of time there. Happy travels!

[SavoyCabbage]

If you put her in school then you will have to travel only in the school holidays which will put restrictions on your adventures. Especially as everything is more expensive in the school holidays. You can’t take them out of school live you can in Australia.

Also you might find she is really far behind. My dd also went into year four and she really struggled. She would absolutely be catered for at school, but my dd found it a bit of a shock going from being an average child at school.

If you home educated you’d be able to go all over a use your base to join clubs and things so she could make friends.

[Miseramel]

Great thanks, I'll take a look at Tollcross Primary. That sounds like a better option if it's not oversubscribed. I guess we have to wait for everything to fall into place, need work first then a rental then school so she may miss the first term.

We're not sure about home schooling because we would like her to make friends but I guess it's an option if one of us doesn't work and we can't get her in to a good school. We were planning to travel mostly during school holidays anyway.

Thanks for the info on her being behind and possibly struggling, she sits fairly average so it's good to have a heads up.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

As she's going into P5 you might get lucky with schools the class size limits change from P4. There are a number of good primaries - have a look at the feeder schools for boroughmuir, royal high and James Gillespie's. The council's education department may be able to advise on which schools have places (though when we switched schools in P4 we did have to contact the school directly). Off the top of my head you could look at Cramond, Blackhall, Buckstone, Morningside. The council website have catchment maps. We had friends who moved to Edinburgh who skipped forward a year because they came from a different system and all doing well. Good luck - Edinburgh is a great place to live and bring up children. Also to note, Edinburgh can be expensive to fly out of sometimes on holiday compared to English airports - Newcastle isn't far and the holidays are different in England so you can sometimes save £££ by flying from there!

[celtiethree]

Are you sure she’d be going into P5 and not P6? Her Oct birthday doesn’t rule out P5 but a child that wasn’t deferred would be P6. Though I’m always rubbish at working this out so happy to be corrected.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

Oh I think Celtietree might be right re P6. DS had just turned 10 at the start of P6. That might help - there seemed to be a few departures to private school at DS and friends kids schools at P6 - all from good primaries but it seemed to be a thing to go at that age for those that weren't doing private all the way through.

[prettybird]

I agree: she would be in P6 in Scotland (but where the confusion might have arisen Y5 in England ).

Technically, she could go into the lower year (there was a Turkish boy at ds' old school who had an October birthday in the year below - but that was because he'd moved in secondary school) but it would be very unusual and she would be by far the oldest in the year.

[cazzyg]

Yes, the normal school year would be P6, assuming an Oct 2009 birthdate and not P5.

[Miseramel]

Oh yes, that sounds right now that I think about it. She's in year 4 in Australia but is actually in her 5th year as their first year is called Prep. Thanks for all the responses!

[MoreProseccoNow]

I would agree with @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo - in terms of where to look for schools. In my DC's school, children who have moved from abroad do not necessarily go in to the " correct" year group by age - it's often a year down, so that they are not behind.

With a December 2009 birth date, it should be starting p6, but could be p5. A lot of places come up at this point, as children move on to private schools. There is certainly capacity at this stage in my DC's school (Royal High catchment primary).

[Mistressiggi]

If you're just over for a year I wouldn't worry so much about the school she gets into. People worry about catchment to get the secondary of their choice, mostly. The primaries aren't "good" or "less good" usually in terms of teaching or support for pupils - it is about the other children attending, and sadly mostly boils down to how middle class or otherwise they are.

[Chocolate1984]

Sciennes has a great community, good parent support & mainly good kids. The school it's self is ok with kids who have good ability and don't require any additional input but if your kid has any problems don't expect sciennes to deal with it. Anyone with SEN is practically ignored unless so disruptive they can't be ignored. No resources, sweep it under the carpet. Bullying is rarely dealt with - didn't see it, didn't happen. High achieving kids are ignored. Underachieving kids are ignored. The classes are completely oversubscribed-38 in p1, 40 in p2??? The play ground is rammed which is why bullying goes on undetected. Sciennes benefits from decent kids and high achieving parents. They don't have the issues other schools have because of the catchment, not because it's a great school.