Oversubscribed primary schools:Your opinions please

[kontactme30]

Hi all lovely mummies,

We have lived in Edinburgh for 3 yrs now and still am unable to choose a decent primary for my son.DS will start school next Aug and this year have to apply for a P1 place.Some of our friends have suggested Flora Stevenson,James Gillespie,Costorphine primary, Sciences as the best primary schools.

Our catchment school is Roseburn primary and my son does not have friends in our area.The above mentioned schools are oversubscribed and I wonder if teachers will pay attention to all children.Looking for a good primary which is small with friendly staff and where my son can make friends easily.

Visited Flora Stevenson recently and it was certainly better than James & Sciences.But this is my opinion.Looking fwd to hear your views about these schools and Roseburn primary too.Or any other primary suggestions.

Thanks for reading this post and your comments.

Places for primary one in the city are under pressure. See this link on the Council website for information on "out of catchment" requests and the likelihood (or not) of there being any spaces. www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/879/school_and_nursery_places/937/school_places/5
Whilst your child may not have friends in the area at the moment, is it not better that he go to the local school and get to know some local children (and you get to know some local parents) which will make it a lot easier to socialise with kids down the road as he grows up. I don't know the Roseburn area in particular to make a comment on the relative performance of the primary there - just a general comment from experience of my own 2 (now at High school)

Roseburn is a lovely school. I've visited it a few times in my line of work and have found it to have lovely staff and well mannered children. The head listens to the children too.

You may not have friends in your catchment at the moment, but you will make them once they are at school or nursery.

Corstorphine is a very popular school where even catchment children struggle to get in. But I would definitely give Roseburn a chance.

Give Roseburn a chance. I have a friend who used to work there and loved it.

I know nothing about Roseburn, but him not having friends in the area is irrelevant - as others have said, he will soon make friends and will benefit from having them nearby after school and at weekends.

I'm surprised to be honest that you seem to be looking at primaries all over the city! Do you really want to be driving him to and from school every day?

Floras and Corstorphine are not the small schools you are looking for. They each have 3 p1 classes and are crammed to the rafters. As is Sciences I believe. Floras also seem to have a problem with bullying. I've heard of two children bullied there who had to leave the school because it wasnt dealt with.

Personally if you're prepared to drive, I'd recommend renting somewhere v cheap in the
catcement for blackhall primary for 6 months so you can use the address to get a place.

my kids went to Sciennes which was out of catchment for us. In retrospect, I wish I had put the little one in the catchment area school.

Roseburn is a great school. You are lucky to have it as a catchment school.

It is part of the same cluster as Corstorphine School that all feed into the same catchment high school. Your son could walk there every day, meet local friends, have local play dates after school and you would meet local parents. He may even have the same friends throughout his school life.

Don't underestimate the value of community in your child's development!
Don't underestimate the stress of driving and parking every day!

My choice would be to go to roseburn and make friends in the area...

I've got kids at Blackhall - and we've just had a squabble with the council about them insisting a P2/P1 composite class with 5 P2s and 20 P1s.

Some of the affected parents (I'm one) complained about the whole process - and to cut a long story short, the school roll has dropped from 87 P1s to 75, so there is no need to have a composite class. Which neatly means the council doesn't need to address any of the issues we raised with them...

Essentially, there is a crisis in the whole of the West of Edinburgh. All the schools are full to bursting. Now. As is the Royal High, so who knows where all these catchment kids are going to go to once they get to P7.

OP, my advice would be to go to your local primary. If you don't, and you have more children they will not be guaranteed a place, even with older siblings in the school.

Roseburn's a great wee school. And, you can always go on the PTA and school council to lead improvements where you want!

Truly, I know of three families last year who had older siblings in Blackhall school, lived millimetres out of catchment and did not get a P1 place. Nightmare.

Go local. It will enhance your quality of life in ways you cannot imagine right now.

But, if it's small class sizes you want - you'll have to pay. State schools are all going to be maxed out for the next few years.

Inclined to agree with your GussetGripper re going local - our DD is only 3 at the moment and we had been debating an out of catchment request for her but realistically even if she got in, and subsequent children probably won't.

We're zoned for Stockbridge, but right on the boundary and Flora Stevensons would be slightly easier to get to. Plus DH is a new childminder and Flora is a bigger school and more accessible so would have made sense from that perspective.

Well, Blackhall's just had word that the composite's to go ahead after all. Quelle surprise.

Story is a bit mixed, just heard today, so details are a bit thin on the ground. Seems that the "independent body" who hear appeals have forced the school to accept kids from out of catchment, which means having 3 classes in P1 and P2 and a composite. Which means the school is going to run out of space in 12 months.

Anyone else having similar ishoos in your school? Just wondering whether the baby bulge is having an impact elsewhere - and whether all these kids were found under gooseberry bushes seeing as how the council have missed that they'd need educating round about now...

Statistically - you'll be the most popular people in Stockbridge is your DH is a childminder. Like hens' teeth. Please expand to Blackhall too or move there's one childminder at our school gate!

Funnily enough GussetGripper the only after school enquiry we have had is for Blackhall so far. We've only been up and running for a month or so though. Given that DD won't be going to school for another 2 years we're considering doing Blackhall or Floras for now - see what happens when a bunch of people go to start school in August and realise the after school clubs are F U L L to breaking point!

Apparently Flora and Stockbridge have the baby boom issues - glad that they didn't get away with closing Stockbridge a few years ago or it would be utter mayhem. Stockbridge isn't taking any out of catchments and Floras only a very limited number.

Fox Covert up the hill has similar problems. 37-39 kids for P1 next year and also a waiting list for people who have moved into the catchment area since March\April. Fox Covert RC apparently also has a waiting list and required parents to prove children were baptised Catholics for the first time this year. After School Club only has places for kids who already have siblings there. A friend whose daughter should be going to Roseburn as they are in catchment tells me that they have had a ballot just to get on the waiting list for After School Club there and 4 kids in catchment haven't got places. Guess they are hoping some of the catchment kids will go private before term begins.

We are particularly hacked off up the hill because they closed Drumbrae school, flattened the Queen Margaret Uni site and built a whole estate of houses. Guess what? Lots of the people who moved in have kids. Fox Covert's roll was 141 kids 3 years ago. It will be over 200 this year. Fortunately the classrooms are very large. Fox Covert on the list of 10 schools that are going to be redesigned next year (ie August 2014) to try and make room for all the kids. Plus the council are planning to build a new nursery on the same site with 40 morning and 40 afternoon places. Current nursery run by parents.

It's getting very crowded up the hill.

Stick to your catchment school. You have some chance of getting in.

I believe some of the problems in town are similar Stayinginmum - there is a shortage of schools anyway as there isn't really one actually in the New Town, just ones on the fringes.

But they closed Bonnington, which means Broughton is now full. Stockbridge is full - but they can't really redraw it's boundaries as on one side it's Broughton and the other is Flora Stevensons (also pretty much full.) Flora borders Stockbridge (full), Blackhall (full), Roseburn (full), Ferryhill (Fairly full and whilst nothing wrong with it, don't see Flora parents taking kindly to the move!) and Wardie (full!)

And most of these schools are old buildings on restricted sites with no room to expand.

It's a corker, isn't it?

I don't really understand why schools which are at, or over capacity, are being forced to take out of catchment kids.

Apparently, there's a primary in Leith in the same situation as us - kids on appeal getting in (fair enough, there's a family out of catchment for us with older siblings and family drama - it would be unreasonable to have kids going to 2 different schools) but also a bunch of out of catchment placement requests who DID NOT appeal.

About 9 in Blackhall. So, that's forcing 2 extra classes (what will be P2 is over numbers already) and a composite class.

When the policies state that composite classes should not be formed to accommodate out of catchment kids.

Besides which, the 9 families requesting out of catchment places are unlikely to have subsequent kids get places in the school. Indeed, the 9 out of catchments will mean that kids moving into catchment mid-year will be told "sorry, no space". Mental.

I have a bad feeling about this. There's going to be a real crisis in the next couple of years.

I presume that whoever it is who's making these decisions simply doesn't want to have to re-draw the boundaries as it's political suicide. Though, I do keep thinking "well, the housing department has been found to be inherently fraudulent...hmmm...is that an infectious thing?" But, that's because I've read too much Private Eye.

Our parent council AGM is on Monday. The councillors might need flak jackets...feelings are running high.

Statistically if you want help spreading the word at our gate then PM me.

You'll be busy. There's one childminder, who's very nice, but full. Oscars is full to the gunnels. And, ehm, that's it. Lots of panicked parents for after the summer.

I looked at getting registered a few years ago - and then realised that seeing as how I can't keep my house tidy and my own kids look like urchins that I probably wasn't suited...

Oh thank you Gusset that's very kind. We're a bit torn - there seems to be demand at Blackhall but our own DD will probably be at Stockbridge, although not for 2 years. So do we do Blackhall for a wee while, then switch, or just do Blackhall and get DD in to the Stockbridge after school for a short period to cover pick ups...madness. But it sounds like you guys are crying out for help - we heard from someone who has been on the after school club list for 2 years and just been told there are no spaces for them.

Don't rule out being registered - the biggest hold up we had was the SCSWIS being unable to understand that no, I wasn't applying, no I wasn't an assistant either, yes the main applicant is a man and yes his wife works full time. Once they managed to actually get the paperwork right it was fine. We are right in the city centre so no garden and we have cats too but we do have a big playroom.

They redrew the Stockbridge/Flora boundary in 2009 after Stockbridge was saved from closure. It used to have a tiny catchment with children who lived practically on top of it being streamed for Floras so their excuse for trying to close it was that it had lots of out of catchment kids. When they tried to close SB they said Flora had about 120 spaces available - yet despite taking a chunk out of its catchment Flora is now pretty much full. Idiots.

Your parent council AGM sounds a hoot! I do see things getting worse in the next few years as the Edinburgh birth rate has been increasing since about 2007. That spike is only just making its way into the system.God help us once that makes its way up the secondary schools though - there will be outright fights for places at Boroughmuir (which is closest to us but not our catchment school...ffs!)

They closed all these schools at the time the baby boom was happening and they wouldn't listen. Schools everywhere are now overflowing. Catchment parents are stressing about missing out on places too if schools are too crowded.

Another article in the evening news today about how many children will be taught by team teaching in schools this year.

ARGH, I didn't realise Stockbridge was that bad. I'm really not happy about the team teaching idea TBH.

The north of the city is really bad, they are putting prefab buildings into playgrounds. Strangely enough, near to schools they closed for being under-occupied. The council have lots of lovely graphs showing birth rates but are strangely blind to the fact that they closed schools at the same time as allowing loads of new housing to go up (and they seem to have done this in several areas of the city).

OP - go local and hope you get in, P1 applications look like a nightmare just now. Trinity is apparently taking in 80 P1s - they've taken massive intakes for several years, so the 4 extra classrooms they're getting aren't going to go far as the children move up the school. Stockbridge is apparently going to have 46 P1s in a team-taught class. It is insane.

We used to live opposite Wardie primary and there were a lot of worried people there when other schools were being closed. I believe it's now over capacity.

I suppose there is nothing to stop OP applying elsewhere as in theory you would still get the local place anyway (I know there have been a few cases of this not happening but IME it's very rare still)

Sorry this is off thread, Statistically, can you or your DH PM me with details of your childminding please?

Dreading this when DC gets to school age.

Have PM'd you RUckandRoll

If you have girls- st George's have bursaries available at the moment and it is a great school.