Schools and areas --- again!

[pina]

So sorry to ask probably the same question as many others before me have asked. I have trawled through the old messages.

Basically, we are moving to Edinburgh (probably; Glasgow is under occasional consideration too, mainly because of the property prices) and looking for a house. Very linked to this of course are schools, because we have 2 DC, aged 8 and 9. Likely eta will be January, but we'd like to get the house/area question sorted before we move. Moving from London, and very much looking forward to it.

We have lots of friends, who live all over Edb, but the only ones with children are at Gillespies or Bruntsfield / Boroughmuir. We will initially probably go to the Edb Steiner school, because our kids are used to the Steiner approach, but then want to move them to state by the time they get to secondary. (Or earlier; but my DD has some dyslexia issues and the Steiner approach is at this point better for her).

My main question I guess is this : are there any good primary / secondary state schools in areas like Trinity, Stockbridge, West End or Leith? Really good ones? In all of what I have read, the top schools seem to be the marchmont/bruntsfield ones, but the house prices in Trinity and Leith are much more affordable. (I am guessing these two are linked!),

Any pointers please, would be much appreciated. We know Edb well, having lived there for many years, but this was pre-kids. We'd love to live city centre / New Town, but I suspect will be better off a bit further out.

Would love to hear any views.

Cannot help you much with Trinity or Leith, we are in Morningside and love it (no house, since too expensive, but walking distance to Boroughmuir). The Edinburgh Steiner school has not been getting very good press on this board (see eg here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/local_edinburgh/1590075-Edinburgh-Steiner), hope all will work out for you.

If you are thinking of the Steiner school then Trinity or Leith would be way too far the wrong side of town as it is in Polwarth, not far from George Watsons.
For secondary remember that in Edinburgh 25% of pupils go to private school which does sweep up a big cohort of pupils across the city.
For State schools, places are allocated on the basis of where you live, so getting in the right catchment is key. Obviously with your children joining at this age, it may be that the local catchment school has no spaces, but you would need to contact the Council education department to discuss. See here for all you need to know about the process/ catchment maps etc.

George Watsons have a very good unit for dyslexia. At one point it was considered the best in the country (UK!), maybe still is but don't know for sure.
Edinburgh Steiner doesn't have a very good reputation.

Thank you all, much appreciated! Yep, getting the right catchment is the key, I know, which is why we do want to sort out where we live first.

I know that Steiner is in Merchiston, which is the opposite side of town from Trinity / Leith, but does anyone have any pointers to good schools in Trinity or in Leith? Or should we simply go for Marchmont/Bruntsfield/Morningside ... given there are known good state schools there?

I have read some of the threads about Edb Steiner, thanks Catherineathome, and of course am concerned. I did pm some of the posters but got no response, so am still trying to find out more.

Thank you very much Tribal for the Watsons dyslexia pointer, that is extremely helpful! I will check that out. Would prefer not to be at private, which is why we are hoping to move to state as soon as we can, but if we need to support DD in this way then we will, of course.

Hi Pina
I appreciate you don't want to go down the private route. Watsons is very good at support, especially for Dyslexia. In terms of state schools I believe Sciennes is considered very good at supporting dyslexia, but as you've discovered house prices round there are high. Also, it's worth remembering that schools are only obliged to take catchment children in P1, beyond that they have no legal obligation although they will try to accommodate children who move in to catchment.

Stockbridge Primary is great, and always has space in P5/6/7 as everyone goes private! My ds is in P3 there and they picked up and supported his visual processing disorder in early P2 - v on the case. Feeder high school is Broughton which has a mixed press, but i know several lovely families who have children there, I think with the recession times are a-changing and more people are being class warriors and supporting state ed! There are loads of good private tutoring options to support what they are doing at school, in fun after school/weekend programmes.

Oh that is extremely useful Chrysanth ---did not know about not being obliged past P1! And also the tip about Sciennes and dyslexia; I have friends whose children went there decades ago and speak highly of it so nice to know that it's still a good school.

fukkingup --- thank you for the info. Stockbridge itself is lovely; good to know that about primary. What are you going to do for high school? I guess it is a while away for you ... I guess that I am not keen to have to get private tutoring on top of school, because they spend so much time at school anyway, and I think they need their afternoons and weekends for downtime, but yes ... we do what we have to ...

Really looking forward to our move and getting out of London ... I have a brief visit up in a couple of weeks to start looking at flats/houses.

Thanks!!! :-)

I honestly don't know what I will do for high school. I have a P1 and P3 child at Stockbridge and am very happy with their academic and social education there, as well as the wraparound care and extra curricular programme. I think as long as they are happy and progressing well, if they want to stay in state education I will stick with it. If they are struggling or had other issues for any reason, then I may consider a move to another school. I think Broughton, with it's new building and the students I know who are attending, may be fine. I don't mind a bit of tutoring at high school level in theory - I would balance it with term time holidays!! (That's a joke before anyone tells me off....)

I've also heard that Broughton is much avoided and would like to know more about this if possible.

And fukkingup, a few term-time holidays never hurt anyone

Also, I might be being naive, but tutoring seems to be talked about as something that's done all the time now. Is that true in people's experience? And if so, what is the feeling behind why it's necessary? Do most people seem to think that in school teaching is considerably worse than it has been in the past? I wasn't aware of a single person in my high school getting tutored out of school in the early 1990s. Genuinely interested to know.

My old boss's son was tutored in senior school. He had dyslexia and did leave with excellent results. That was in the 90's.

If my dd was struggling with a subject, I genuinely cannot help with her chosen subjects she has taken and therefore I would organise tutoring. Though I don't know anyone at her school who has tutoring.

I know my friend is considering it again for her dd. She has been tutored in maths before and is starting to struggle again. She just needs a bit longer to grasp the theories. Where as my dd you only need to explain it once and she gets it. Usually though if she asks for help I need to google it for maths.

A number of the girls dd used to go to Dancing with are at Broughton and it seems to be a pretty good school from what they say. It all comes down to personal preference. There is a school in Edinburgh which my children will NEVER be pupils at while the head who was my head is there. He's got worse over the years and I wouldn't put my children through his horrific regimes.

I don't know why the increase in tutoring, but yeh it is common now. Particularly with Kip McGrath, Kumon etc tutoring centres, even Sainsburys offer some programme don't they?
I guess in Edinburgh, if you're aware over a quarter of the city are forking out (how?! how!?) for private school, you feel motivated to pay £40 a week to get your own dc a wee bit ahead of the game.
Perhaps it's down to there being more working parents, more single parents, and more extra curricular activities - all leading to less family time round the kitchen table doing homework?

I think it may be linked to Learning Support being cut in schools.

I live in Newhaven (near Leith) and my cousins went to Trinity Academy. One of them got 5As at Higher and is now studying medicine and the other has secured a place to study nursing. They both loved the school too so I have only heard good things about it. Good luck with your decision!

In Trinity both Wardie and Trinity primary schools seem to get good press, however both are oversubscribed so probably worth checking on that when considering areas. Trinity Academy also seems to get fairly good press though as has already been mentioned a large percentage of the primary kids go to private schools for secondary.

Don't have much experience of Broughton, though it does have a whole host of specialist schools within - dance (already mentioned), music, football are the ones I know of though there may be more which all get very good press