My DH has just been offered a job in Edinburgh - waiting to hear start date but is likely to be next April at the latest. V excited but my head is spinning trying to figure out schools and housing options.
I have two DDs, age 5 (6 in Dec) and 2 and, having already moved our bigger girl around quite a lot I'm keen to minimise further disruption for her.
We had thought that we would probably want to send her privately for secondary but would like to stay in a state school for primary. However, from reading through old posts it seems that a lot of children move to private schools in P6/P7 rather than finishing primary and then moving at S1 - is that right? Because if so then maybe stumping up for the 3yrs or so in between is worth it to reduce the number of changes? She's shy and finds it hard to settle, needs a lot of support and encouragement from her teachers to mix with others in the class and has been totally overwhelmed with the move from her class of 25 last year to 30 this year, most of whom she doesn't know well.
If we were to go to private school then colleagues of my DH have suggested MESM but she would have to change campus a year after she starts? Alternatives would be GW (but huge?) or GH (is central location tricky for drop offs/pick ups by car) or St George's (wary of fully single sex school). I know I probably need to visit them all to get a feel but would be very grateful for any thoughts on those options.
And then if we did go down the state school route, where?! Our old stomping ground was Bruntsfield pre kids, I know schools in the area are thought to be good but over subscribed, and house prices high - for work south/west would be best, and I loved having such a thriving area on our doorstep. Are there any good but smaller schools in a similarish area - shops, cafes etc? By good I am not so focussed on results, just on her being happy, making friends and just setting down roots.
Sorry, this is a bit of a ramble and the questions have been asked before but my head fuzz is not clearing!
thanks :)