P1 and P4 Places in Central Edinburgh. Advice/opinions needed. Thanks!

[EmJRoll]

Hello Edinburgh Mums! My family and I are moving to Edinburgh from Minnesota this July. I am so excited to be your neighbor.

I have read the Edinburgh Primary Schools policies regarding late-applications for spaces and am aware that I need to contact the schools directly to ask if they will have places for my children. I think it is too early to do that now but wonder if anyone knows schools that are typically undersubscribed? Most of the rental housing I see is near to Preston Street, Broughton, Tollcross, Stockbridge or Royal Mile primaries. Thanks a million!

Stockbridge is over-subscribed for sure, has been for at least the last few years. It's a lovely area to have children in though. The advice is usually to ring the schools you're interested in, explain the situation and go from there, no experience of any of the other schools or areas unfortunately.

I think you might be ok at tollcross.

Thank you so much! This is exactly the sort of information I am looking for (i.e. which schools are always full, which schools are more likely to have spaces, etc. etc. ). Broughton and Preston Street look the most appealing to me but this is all based on reading past comment threads and the school websites, I don't have any local knowledge.

My friend's children were at Broughton before they moved and she highly rated it.

Tollcross tends to be undersubscribed and it's well liked by the children and parents.

Thanks, KingLC and LVWF! That's exactly what I wanted/needed to hear. My daughter is in a Spanish immersion here in the US and it looks like Tollcross has a strong Spanish program so I will call that head teacher the minute our visas come through.

Quite a few Spanish parents at Tollcross with bilingual children.

Oh wow! That is excellent news.

Stockbridge is very full, but they have too many catchment children coming in this August to do a single p1 class so will be doing team teaching - 2 teachers in one large class. Bizarrely this might mean spaces. They also tend to get a few drifting away from about p4 to the private schools. It's probably worth calling them, it's a small school so very friendly.

Preston Street is a lovely school and I gather places are looking just about OK for next year, but I'd contact them as soon as possible if you want to try for places there.

I'm sure you'll love Edinburgh - it's a fantastic place to bring up a family.

My kids went to Tollx before we moved away. It tends to be under subscribed because its catchment is smack in the middle of the business district with not much residential housing. It's a lovely little school. Incidentally I have p4 and p1 and I can attest that they're both lovely year groups. In a small school like tollx I find your experience can be different depending on the particular year. Good luck with your move and pm me if you have any specific questions x

Dear FurryMouse and hapagirl,
Thanks for your notes! I'll let you all know what happens or when we actually have an address...
E.

EmJRoll, I'm moving to the city next week, my son will be in P1 at Flora Stevenson Scool. If you fancy a meet up when you arrive please drop me a line, I'm sure I'll still feel new by then!

Flora Stevenson is a lively friendly school beans, I'm sure he'll settle right in.

Thanks Stat, that's really good to know!

Hi Beans - you bet! I will be in touch! E.

Royal Mile is also really undersubscribed. It received a bad report a few years ago which turned a lot of parents off but it has really picked up. I've got a friend with a child there in P4 and she really likes it. It's quite mixed in terms of social background with a lot of international/bilingual children. The class sizes tend to be smaller than usual and the wrap-around care is good, which will be a big factor if you and your partner will both be working.

If you're thinking long-term, Royal Mile, Preston St and Tollcross all feed into James Gillespies High School, which is the best in Edinburgh (probably Boroughmuir and Royal High are up there too).

Thanks, iismum. I've checked out Royal Mile and it looks lovely; we are very easy going parents when it comes to public education and value diversity and friendliness over a lot of other things. We can't put our school applications in until we have our visas and first council tax bill which likely won't be until mid-July. It will be a tight squeeze!

And thanks for the heads up about James Gillespies HS. We don't know how long we are going to stay but the political situation in the US makes Scotland look more and more appealing as a new home.

Hi Folks! I've got several emails out to schools inquiring about places but no responses yet. I suspect a phone call will be better but I let the emails sit for a while before bothering people.

Does anyone have thoughts on Lorne Primary and Leith Walk Primary schools both in terms of quality and spaces available?

Thanks for your help!

I just noticed I am writing people smack in the middle of the April holiday. Sigh. I hope you all are having a wonderful break!

I'm afraid I don't know anything about those two schools, but as a side note - we were able to confirm the school place once we had a signed tenancy agreement so you might not need to wait for a council tax bill to do that

@BeansMcCready - Good to know! Were you physically in Edinburgh at the time?

Schools go back April 18th.

Schools return on the 18th and it may take a few days to get through the email inbox.

We sent a copy of the tenancy agreement by email, and then took in the signed copy on his first day