Moving to Edinburgh from Germany?

[Loki3]

My wife and I are probably be going to move to Edinburgh/East Lothian next summer from the northern German coast. We've only been living here for a year, and were living in Sweden for almost 10 years before that, so our daughters, currently aged 6 and 4, speak, read and write German and Swedish fluently, but only speak English, and speak it with a heavy accent.

My wife is actually an East Lothian native, and really wants to live somewhere on the East Lothian/Edinburgh coast, but isn't sure which areas are still nice (she moved away 16 years ago).

We are also pretty certain we want to send our daughters to a private school, purely because we can afford it for the short time we will be there (up to two years), but doesn't like George Watsons, from her cousins' expierence there (again, 15+ years ago). What are the other private schools? Are there any non-religious ones?

We will also be joined by a third baby in February, and I plan to be a stay at home dad for the time we spend here; how common are sat at home parents in the area, and are there lots of parents & baby/toddler groups?

Hello!
portobello is on the Edinburgh coast, also there is Gullane which is lovely. However going as far out as East Lothian obviously makes you further away from the main private schools. Loretto is in Musselburgh which would be close. Don't know much about this school.
George Heriot's is in the centre of town and has a wonderful name, although very competitive and hard to get a place.
Edinburgh academy is also a great school and I have heard great things about it.
In Edinburgh we have such a wonderful choice of private schools so it's worth getting prospectuses and also visiting in person to decide what you like.

Hi there, I know of some parents who live in north berwick who send their kids to heriots, but state schools are great there so most choose law primary. In portobello heriots is also popular, and there are a lot of activities for children there, very family orientated and a fair few stay at home dads I know, mostly artists. Good luck in your search. Loretta would be your closest private school, but heriots, the academy, and esms all within reach.

Edinburgh has a group called dads rock that might be worth a Google

Not sure what age your girls are but esms is three schools within one. Primary (ages roughly 5-11) is coeducational then the girls go off to Mary erskines a do the boys to Stewart melvilles for s1 to s5 coming back together for their final year in s6. They run coaches which pick up from a number of places in East Lothian including North Berwick and longniddry.
Hope the move goes well.

Sorry just realised you actually said what age they were - daft me!

I commuted into Edinburgh for school from 8-10miles away and hated it.
My advice would be to live in East Lothian and use a state school or live in Edinburgh itself if you want to go private (of which there's lots of choice - watsons is seen as sporty, while Mary Erskine / Stewart Melville is good for music. George Heriots is a "merchants school" like Watsons, Edinburgh Academy junior school seems a lovely place)...
All of these schools are more or less central.

Besides the central Edinburgh schools mentioned above, you might like to consider two traditional prep schools, Cargilfield just out of Edinburgh at Cramond/Barnton, and Belhaven at Dunbar. Cargilfield has many year groups full at present, but it's worth a try for a lovely school; don't know Belhaven so well but have heard good things, and if you didn't want to live in Edinburgh itself it might suit.

(Usually "because we can afford it" is not such a great reason to choose private school... but using a private school would undoubtedly simplify matters eg loosen the coupling between where you live and which school; many of the good Edinburgh state primaries are very full. Should also get you smaller class sizes which might help your DDs with the English improvement.)