Fox Glove Primary and Craigmount High School - Thoughts?

[tyketyler]

Hi all. We are looking to move, but we've a limited knowledge of Edinburgh outwith the city centre!

DS is 2yrs. Is Fox Glove Primary any good? I can see mention of overcrowding and some building work via google, but that's it.

What about Craigmount High School for that matter?

Thanks all.

Craigmount is very well regarded and has a good mixed catchment so kids of all abilities and interests are catered for. Can't comment on Foxglove primary personally as I am from a different part of the city and don't have direct knowledge of it.

Fox Covert? Well regarded by a lot and a lot want into the RC side too. They had an early centre open which has been quite good for the area.

Fox Covert Nd is going through a major change from being a very small school to a much bigger one. This is due to a new estate of mostly family homes being built on the doorstep. The school has been through a lot of change in the past 5 / 6 years. Kids in P6 are on their 5th head teacher because permanent heads left and their temporary replacements didn't get the permanent job. There is a new Nursery on site and an annexe made up of 6 new classrooms (4 for the ND,2 for the RC). Plus an all weather astro pitch. So it has been a building site for two years abd will probably be one for a bit longer

But the Head is now in her third year and is very good. It's a nice school and though it is much bigger than it was it is still smaller than a lot of other schools. Because of the location on top of the hill it does still feel a bit like a village school. Downside of this is that kids only have one class to find mates in (although P1 has two classes this year and there is a composite class working up through the school). This year some gripes about volume of homework - they seem to have a lot and some teachers are better than others. But you'll get that anywhere. Shared campus with the RC school but schools are separate.

So yes, bit overcrowded but still small enough and real sense that the Head has ambitions for the place. It's friendly, the kids are great and worth considering if you're looking to move. Also most of the kids go to Craigmount with maybe a dozen going to Royal High because it is closer than Craigmount for some people. Surprisingly few go private after P7, which is unusual I gather from other posts here.

It's lovely being up the hill - lots of trees! Very suburban though and depending on where you live, a bit of a walk down to Corstorphine. And a very steep walk back up! So a bit of a shift if you're used to being in town. But nice place, lots of kids, lots of trees and school with ambitions. You could do a lot worse.

thanks all, and thanks stayinginmum. Random question, thinking about my commute, do you know how long it'd take, in rush hour, to get from Fox Glove Pri to Ocean Terminal? Someone said it could take an hour, but google suggests more like 20 minutes.

Thanks.

It should technically take around 10-15 minutes, in reality at rush hour you never can tell... Both queensferry road and ferry road can run reasonable smoothly or can be a complete nightmare! Should never take an hour though, maybe 35 minutes max.

thanks, I thought an hour was an exaggeration!

It takes me about 40 minutes from Corstorphine to Leith Links in the morning and at the end of the day.

Also worth keeping in mind the 21 bus will take you to leith from Clermiston Road.

Maybe that's what the person was referring to when talking about it taking an hour... It probably would take an hour on the bus then walking to OT from the stop at rush hour.

yeah - you're right, I don't have a car at the moment and the must have assumed I was talking about the bus. :-)