Moving to Aberdeen this summer--good nursery school?

[ClaraKiso]

We are going to move to Aberdeen from the US this July. I am currently looking at nursery school for my girl who will be 3 years old this Sept.

Since we are living in the area of AB15 5ND, I called most of the nursery schools in the area, and found Bruce, St Swithin, and Timber Kinder Garden have available spot for my girl. I also put her on the waiting list of Rocking Horse. I am not sure the quality of these schools. And, should I put her in a nursery that have attachment with the future elementary school?

Any recommendation is appreciated.

I'm afraid I don't know about nurseries myself, but we are considering a move to Aberdeen/ nearby villages and so am interested to see what people think.

www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/education_learning/schools/scc_nursery_school_places.asp

Here is the council's page on nursery education. Providing you choose a city council nursery or one of their partner providers you will get some free care.

Ab15 5nd is in the catchment for mile end primary which is a new build school. I would be trying to get my child to nursery there. But I don't know how much childcare you require. A private nursery might be better if your DD needs to be in more than the 2.5 hours a day.

Actually, I think you should phone or email the council and ask what is available. They can explain the Scottish system and your options far better than I can on a forum.

Thanks Jolly!!!

Do you have any ideas which catchment(s) is/are a good one that contains many good public elementary schools? It seems that we need to live in a good catchment in order to go to a good public school in Aberdeen.

I'm not in Aberdeen so can only comment broadly.

How long are you likely to be in Aberdeen for? Primary schools (from age 4.5 to 5 depending on birthday) are important but if you are planning to stay long term then you need to look at secondary schools (from about age 12). Find the secondary school, look at their catchment area and feeder primary schools and then the attached nursery schools.

The only flaw in this plan is that schools can change an awful lot over this time frame due to staff changes, changes to the catchment area, possibility of new school buildings, etc but it will give you an idea of where is best.

Normally you will get a place in the primary school if you live in the catchment area. If you don't live in the catchment area for your chosen primary school then you can make a placing request and hope for the best.

Are you also aware of the Catholic/non-denominational thing that we have here?

I'm not feeling all that great this morning, so I really hope this makes sense.

In Aberdeen, unless you are catholic or your child has significant additional support needs, each house or property is in the catchment area/zone for ONE primary school. Especially for the City Centre and West End schools you are very unlikely to get your child into an out of zone primary.

So, for example, if you live at no 1 Brown Street your house is zoned for School 1 and that is the school they will attend. While if you lived at no 1 Smith Street your house would be zoned for School 2 and that is the school your child would attend.

You can make a placing request to a primary school that your house is not zoned for, but I wouldn't put all your hopes on it being accepted, especially if it is a desirable school.

The catchment areas apply similarly for secondary schools, but placing requests are probably even less likely.

The most desirable Council secondary schools in Aberdeen are probably:
Cults Academy
Aberdeen Grammar School (which is not a grammar school with an entrance test, the name is historical)

The most desirable council primary schools, in alphabetical order, would be:
Airyhall (new build, West end)
Ashley Road (West End, victorian)
Broomhill (West End)
Cults
Ferryhill
Mile End (new build, West End, probably the 'best' along with Cults)
Milltimber
(this list is not exhaustive. There are over 60 primaries in Aberdeen and I'm mainly working from memory)

There are also three private schools which you don't need to be zoned for:
Robert Gordon's College (has a pretty selective entrance test)
St Margarets School for Girls
Albyn School

You can find details of school inspections by Education Scotland the schools inspection service at www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/index.asp

If you are practicing Catholic, you will also have the option to send your child to one of the city's three catholic primary schools. There is zoning for these, but I'm not entirely clear how the zoning works. They are:
St Peter's RC School
Holy Family RC School
St Joseph's RC School

Feel free to pm me with any more specific questions, but again, the city council might be best to offer advice on things like the processes for applying and the likelihood of getting placing requests accepted. Also, the city council website has details of the catchment areas if you go here:
maps.aberdeencity.gov.uk/LocalViewweb/Sites/Web_Publisher/
and put in the postcode you are looking at then click on School Primary Catchments then it will tell you which school the postcode is zoned for. I can't find a way to look up the school and see which area is zoned for each school. But the council might be able to provide this info if you ask.

We don't have league tables in Scotland like there are in other areas.

PTA, thanks for your advice. Would you tell me more the Catholic/non-denominational thing?

Jolly, thanks a lot for your detailed information. Will dig more based on that.

In Scotland, state school are non-denominational (ie no one denominiaton but they still supposed to have acts of daily worship that are broadly Christian in nature although in practice most don't ) or denomiational. In practice that means Roman Catholic (although there is a Jewish school in Glasgow and I think a Church of Scotland? school somewhere). The RC schools also have catchments, so if you are in the catchment, you are entitled to go to the school.

Catchments are pretty strict - and don't change on a yearly basis according to demand (like they do in England), so you can ring the council and ask them to tell you the catchment school for the post code of any house you are interested in. There are catchment post code maps - but they are often closely guarded secrets at least they are in Glasgow

You can do a placing request to go to a different school, but it will only be accepted if there is sufficient space, so no guarantee. However, I think it is the case that once a child is at an "out of catchment" school, they would then automatically go to its associated secondary school.

In Aberdeen it is absolutely not the case that a child will go to the associated secondary once at an out of catchment primary. Many, many parents have been caught out with this in Aberdeen so please don't try it or you will be very disappointed.

Didn't know it was different inn Aberdeen: just knew that the "placing request" kids at ds' school (in Glasgow) appeared to automatically go to its associated secondary.

Can anyone tell me which is the better primary school, St Joseph's RC or Airyhall primary? Also what is the feeder secondary for St Joseph's? Lots of friends of min are saying Hazelhead Academy isn't the greatest of schools. Not been living in Aberdeen long so I have no personal knowledge to go by. Thanks