Belmont House School

[evansgal]

Does anyone have recent experience with Belmont House School - small classes, individualised attention all sounds great - but hands on experience would be really helpful.

We are possibly moving to Glasgow with a US educated (strong American accent) child who would be going into 1st or 2nd year of secondary school and I'm concerned about fitting in and any gaps in learning.

Thanks for any opinions on this school or other private or state secondary schools in Glasgow.

I have one friend whose middle one of her three sons goes there and she seems to be happy with the place. Her oldest and youngest went to/will be going to Shawlands Academy (which is where my 13 year old ds is and I'm very happy with the school) but she felt her quieter, less outgoing middle son would be better at Belmont.

thanks so much for the info. It's very hard to get a picture from a distance so your message helps a lot!

If you want a state school, both Hyndland and Shawlands get good results with very mixed demographics.

I'm quite evangelical about Shawlands - despite having a demographic mix going from itinerant Roma community members to kids who don't know where the next meal is coming from to millionaires, it has good exam results with many kids going to the best universities. The head teacher is really keen on sport: it is now one of the SRU (Scottish Rugby Union) funded "Schools of Rugby" and she is looking to get funding from other sports.

It has lots of international links (calls itself an international school, with links to the British council I think). Trips to France, Italy, Germany, Italy, Poland, Iceland, South Africa. Iirc, some pupils are currently fundraising to go to Peru.

Thanks for the extra info. We certainly NOT dismissing state schools - I had understood that the good ones (of which there seem to be many) don't have many spaces and that they only take kids from their catchment areas. We have no idea where we'll be living (dh will work in the centre so I have hopes to find somewhere in the west end like everyone else (it seems). We'd rent to begin with and it seems that there's not so much choice. Are there tricks I haven't figured out yet?
What neighbourhoods does Shawlands draw from?
Thanks again for your help!

Don't know so much about Hyndland but Shawlands usually has space (even though when you look at the handbook, they say that they are at capacity - apparently that "capacity" is fairly fluid). It draws from Pollokshields, Strathbungo, Shawlands, Newlands (all areas with lots of gorgeous Victorian stone built villas with gardens - and much more reasonably priced than the West End), as well as Govanhill and the Gorbals (quite a lot of social housing).

Ds is himself a placing request: the bit of Pollokshields we live in (and the primary school he went to) means that he should have gone to Bellahouston but Shawlands is only a few minutes walk further away.

I've never heard of a placing request for Shawlands being turned down - although "in year" requests might be more difficult.