Aibu as a Scottish person, to wonder wtf at the English school admission system?

[irnbruforlife]

Before anyone starts, I know the Scottish school system isn't perfect. But that's a whole other thread. I'm from north east Scotland. Children go to the school for their catchment area. The odd person will ask for a different school for whatever reason (such as bullying etc.) Their request is accommodated do far as reasonably practicable, but not at the expense of someone on that catchment area. There is no school lottery that I seem to be reading about in England, with children ending up with no placement, or having to go to school 2 hrs away despite living across the road from one, or siblings going to different schools.

In Scotland, there might be just one secondary school in a similar, relatively small city
Name a city in Scotland that has one school! I can’t even think of a decent sized town with one secondary school.
I don’t agree either that in Edinburgh you have all sorts of choices - you have lots of different types of private certainly, and then you have state non-dom and state catholic a schools, that’s it.
Thank you to the poster who made the kind remark about teachers’ pay

YANBU

As a Scot living in england the system here is terribly unfair.

We didn’t get any of our choices (all reasonable choices just a very high birth year).

In hindsight it’s wirked out well but so stressful.

I am now starting to stress about high school. Eldest doesn’t go to a feeder (as we never got a place) so will be down the list for places at high school even though we are in catchment.

Give me Scottish system any day.

And the town I grew up in had 4 high schools.

The surrounding towns all had 2 high schools.

So not sure which reasonable size Scottish towns you would only get 1 high school.

Not all Scottish schools are religious. They have, by law, to have an act of daily worship, but that does not mean they are religious.

Catholic schools often have better results than the ordinary schools because discipline can be better. You don't need to be Catholic to go to a Catholic school.

You can apply for 'out of district' places in secondary schools. I did this with both DDs, because the local secondary school had been failing when I was there, and there had been almost no staff changes in the 15+ years in between. They were sent to the other secondary, which was and is much better and was all of 5 minutes more travel than the first. There were no issues with this that had anything to do with being out of district.

The Scottish system, like the English one, has been severely dumbed down over the last 20 or so years, but was always considered superior to the English school system.

And don't get me started on English house buying. Why would you even consider buying a place that had someone else named on the deeds, who could stop you doing stuff to your own home? Madness. Scotland has the oldest land registry in the world, which a lot of other countries have copied.

Also baffled by the English system. I've spent about an hour, maybe two, of my life organising schools for my two. I put no thought into it, no stress whatsoever, they both went to the catchment primary and then the catchment secondary.

Talking is right. Councils are not usually allowed to build new schools. Existing schools can expand on to new sites.
The expectation is that Free Schools will fill any gaps. But there is no guarantee they will so existing schools have to squash more children into their site.
I believe it's Michael Gove's doing.
Add to that the local plans requiring some councils accept huge numbers of new houses and rapidly the schools become overwhelmed.

Scottish schools absolutely do not have to have a daily act of worship. They need to have opportunities for religious observance (I think it’s around 6) throughout the year.

@talkinpeece
That explains it then. Th original comment was about “last year” which I assumed was 2017, so was looking at those figures.

They need to have opportunities for religious observance (I think it’s around 6) throughout the year

Ours does something ever couple of weeks.

They may well do, pp said it was a legal requirement to have it every day.

I found/find the English system incredibly stressful - we weren’t even ttc but needed to factor in school distance and (subject to change) quality for our future DC in our property search, which felt mad. DH was raised in the USSR - on 1 September you deposited your 7 year old in the nearest school, they’d be registered, that was that. If schools became badly “oversubscribed” due to population density, students would be taught in morning and afternoon shifts. If we ever emigrate, the English education system will be why.

So not sure which reasonable size Scottish towns you would only get 1 high school.

I live in a reasonable sized town. 160k people. There are 8 high schools.

Why would you even consider buying a place that had someone else named on the deeds, who could stop you doing stuff to your own home?

Can someone explain what this means?

What an eye opener. I genuinely didn’t know that there were Catholic schools in Scotland. I’m in N.E, all the schools in our area are essentially non-deniminational/non-religious. The kids last school had a visit to church/concert in P3, but that was it. Their current school has an annual carol concert, but that’s as religious as it gets. There’s RME, and that covers all the major religions, not just Christianity.

Can someone explain what this means?

All properties in Scotland are freehold. Many in England are leasehold and the leaseholder can put restrictions on certain things.

‘So not sure which reasonable size Scottish towns you would only get 1 high school.‘

It’s just relative really. Our local city has a population of 10,000. (One secondary) It’s considered big compared to other local areas. Down south the same population would probably be called a large village I’m guessing?

I’m in N.E, all the schools in our area are essentially non-deniminational/non-religious

I grew up in the NE. From what I remember there weren’t many religious things. I think once a year the local reverend came and did a sermon. It’s a real eye opener to see the difference in the Central belt, the amount of stuff they do in the ND schools. You don’t get the marches up there either.

3out

Most towns have at least one Catholic school - well definitely where I grew up.

And I did grew up in a large town near Glasgow where there was quite a number of schools in a small area.

Until comparatively recently, and this may be why there is no longer a daily act of worship, the only thing that had to be taught - by law - in Scottish schools was religion. Not literacy or numeracy or anything else, just religion.

There are definitely Catholic schools in the NE. DM taught in a Catholic primary school when DB was a baby. It was unusual for them to allow a non-Catholic teacher in those days, but it was a short term placement, possibly covering some kind of leave. If you aren't a Catholic, you probably don't have the schools on your radar.

“In Scotland, there might be just one secondary school in a similar, relatively small city”

Well Stirling is the smallest city by population and it has 4... so...

Same where I live in South Wales.
I’ve never heard of anyone having issues getting into schools. There are about 7 primary schools within a rough 1.5 mile radius of where I live.
I wanted my children to go to a welsh speaking school. It’s the only one in our catchment and there are 84 in my DC1 year and a similar number in my DC2 year.
Last year, many applied outside of catchment and all got a place. They were declined on first application but the HM sorted it.
I don’t know anyone who’s ever been refused a school place in any local school here.

I’ve taught here 20+ years and there hasn’t been a daily act of worship in that time, not saying there never was.

@Random18 there’s literally none here. I wasn’t aware of any in Aberdeenshire or the Highlands either, but obviously I don’t know every area (or even close to every area)