Relocating to Edinburgh from New Zealand

[fishyscott]

Hiya lovely mums - help please!! We are moving to Edinburgh in Dec; we have 3 primary school aged kids. We need to advice on where to base our search for a nice family friendly neighbourhood with a good primary school (which has spaces for all 3 kids). West side of the city would be good for an easy commute to work. We plan to arrive early Dec, house hunt, enrol kids before the end of term - is this at all feasible? I've seen a few nice looking houses in Balerno to rent with local schools being either Dean Park or Currie - are these good schools?

I live out that side of the city and what I would say is that if you are commuting in to the city centre for work it is a LONG way out- about 50-60 minutes on the bus. With 3 children looking for primary places, you really need to check with the council as to where has places in the area as some of the local schools are already oversubscribed and arriving mid year as you are may cause issues. This is the information for the relevant council department moving to Edinburgh. They will not allocate a place until you have an address but at least you can see if there are catchment areas where you have no chance of getting them in to school to focus your search on areas where there are places. My DC went to Juniper Green primary which is the best in that area but very oversubscribed- Currie and Dean Park are both good and the high schools Currie and Balerno are both very good (would rank Currie over Balerno due to Head teacher and falling rolls at Balerno leading to limited course choices)

Sorry- to be clear - the journey from Balerno is 50+ minutes, take off 5 minutes to Currie and another 5 to Juniper Green.

Where do you need to commute to? That may be an easier place to start looking for working.

commute would be to South Gyle; am open to suggestions as we're new to Edinburgh. Only really concerned with primary schools as eldest is only 9

We live in Corstorphine. Used to live at the Gyle. You'd have the choices of Gylemuir and Corstorphine over this way. East Craigs would be a consideration for me too.

I would also suggest you call the schools (rather than just the council). When we moved to Edinburgh from Germany with a 9 and a 4 year old, the school could place the 9 year old (since some kids move to private school at that age) and that gave the little one "sibling priority" for the oversubscribed first grade. In any case: good luck!

Thank you for advice so far - all good. It is helping me refine my search; I think OH could manage a 30 min commute to work which is located a little west of South Gyle (close to airport). We are moving from NZ so a smaller, more rural location might suit us better - with a great school - of course! Am I asking too much?!

I'd look out at Dalmeny and Queensferry way, if you want more rural. I'd love to move to Dalmeny but dh says no.

Or Ratho could be a consideration.

Looking on RightMove; there doesn't seem to be many rentals in those suggested areas; Kirkliston and Balerno come up as the nearest. What do you estimate the commute time for these places to be. Anywhere suggestions for south of the city; someone has suggested The Borders as it is an easy drive - is this correct?

I take around 20 minutes to drive to Kirkliston but that's going against the traffic both ways. I can time it for you tomorrow as I'm working there tomorrow.

I'd also google "houses to rent in..." There are a lot of letting agencies in Edinburgh, who have their own websites. Also try ESPC which is where people would mainly sell through but they also advertise rentals.

Can't advise on the borders as the only place I've ever driven to is Peebles. Would be fine as long as we don't get a heavy snow and you get stuck down there unable to get in for a few days. A few friends who have family down there were putting the stranded husbands up in 2010 when we had horrific snow.

Citylets is the site which brings nearly all of the letting agents together in one search engine. It's the only place you should look for rentals. HTH

My DH works in the Gyle sometimes. We live in Dunfermline which is a 25 min rail commute. Housing is far less expensive. I was brought up in Queensferry and it is lovely, but was very dull as a child.

Thanks so much for advice so far...I have yet more questions! I've been trying to put together a time-distance commuting map; using aa and rac travel times; but I'm not sure whether these websites take into account peak time traffic. Can anyone confirm these drive times-thx. Travel time to EH28; Kirkliston 10 min, Livingston 15 min, Linlithgo 20min, Bathgate 20min, Dalmeny 20min, Balerno 30min, Penicuik 30min, Pathhead 35min.

I would add 10-15 minutes to the times from anywhere west- i.e Livingston, Linlithgow, Bathgate. Penicuik and Pathead are too far around the bypass so add another 10 mins also- in snowy weather Penicuik can get a bit cut off. Kirkliston and Dalmeny are about right, and I would take off 10 mins from Balerno as there are cross country routes you can take which cut the journey and the traffic jams.

Thanks so much for the local info - what fabulous forum this is!

I worked at Kirkliston today and it took me 15 minutes from the Gogar Roundabout. When I work in Dalmeny it takes 12 minutes from my house to Dalmeny.

If leaving after 7.30am from any location I usually add about 10-15 minutes.

If you choose Linlithgow or Dalmeny or even Livingston you could get the train to South Gyle or Edinburgh Park.

Just heard back from Dean Park and Currie Schools; 1 school has space for 1 child only and the other for 2 of my 3. I really want the 3 of them to go to the same school. Guess those locations are out of contention. This may be trickier than I thought!

Have you tried Nether Currie which is in between those 2 schools?

Hi, I don't live in the Borders but have family and colleagues who do. Schools are very good but travel can be tough especially in the winter. They always get snow and it can be very severe. However, you may not know that a new railway line is currently being built that will take you from Edinburgh Waverley to the Borders via Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank. Gala has struggled economically, Stow is pretty and Tweedbank has lots of young families. Railway line supposed to be ready by 2015. Can't remember proposed journey lenght - 45 minutes perhaps? Peebles is commutable, very family-orientated and I'm told that a lot of people are into cycling because of the proximity of Glentress, the mountain bike centre. But the commute can be a tough one. Another option is to live somewhere like Lauder then drive up to Newcraighall in Edinburgh and get the train in. Friend of a friend does that. The Borders are beautiful and if you want small communities would be ideal. Good schools I gather, especially Peebles and Earlston. If you want west however, I hear Linlithgow is lovely.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll find somewhere that suits.

Thank for all the advice; I think I will contact some more schools to see if they have spaces in P1, P3 & P6 - at least I now know what years to request (the school year is a little different in NZ - so 1 child will have to repeat a year). Any thoughts on Whitburn and Bathgate?

Hi, in west Lothian Linlithgow is definitely the best place (and has good schools too). I would not consider living in Whitburn or Bathgate.

I would consider ratho which is a small village near Edinburgh airport and literally 10min max drive at peak time to the Gyle. Has a nice village primary which feeds into balerno at high school level. My husband works in the Gyle and we drive this everyday, ideal position if working in the Gyle. Prices cheaper than areas of Edinburgh that are closer to town.

Following a crazy month of research and contacting schools as well as selling our house and car in NZ; I am a little better informed but would appreciate some further advice.
To date NO schools in Edinburgh have all 3 places for my kids (P1,P3,P6) so we are now looking at Midlothian - any info on Rosewell and local schools would be appreciated. Apparently the local school has spaces - it's a small school with lots of composite classes - what's the general opinion on those - my kids currently attend a large primary school (500+) which offers lots of extra activities, clubs etc - will going to a small school be too much of a change for them (and me)!

news.stv.tv/east-central/215666-edinburgh-children-face-rejection-in-school-catchment-scramble-parents-told/

There is a map in this link which shows the schools which are refusing/accepting out of catchment requests. The blue markers are the ones which are apparently accepting out of catchment requests - it might be worth calling some of those as chances are that they are the schools who are more likely to have spaces.

I don't know about Midlothian specifically however the commute could be awful. The city bypass often gets extremely congested and you could easily triple the times google gives out during rush hour.

Also - if your oldest is going in to P6 I would be considering the high schools too unless you are planning another move pretty quickly as high school applications are done fairly early in the p7 year.

Just looking at that map - I believe Colinton primary school is pretty good it's certainly in a decent area and when that map was made it was well under its roll. Alternatively there are some areas where the primary schools are actually quite close together - if you could get your two younger ones in together your eldest might be ok walking himself. Or you could look at a childminder to collect? Unfortunately Edinburgh has some oversubscription issues just now - the stupid council closed schools when we had a birth rate spike - so getting 3 together will be tricky.