Moving to Edinburgh from Ca

[kathwill60]

We are moving to Edinburgh this summer with our 4 year old son. We'll be living with family in the James Gillespie's catchment. We are waiting to find out if he gets a space to start in P1 this Aug. Does anyone know if JGPS typically has spaces left after all the catchment kids (we can't register as catchment as we are not yet resident in Edinburgh yet). Also, does anyone in the local area know of summer activities for 4 year old's?

For p1 it is unlikely that there will be spaces as there will be out of catchment requests granted if there are any spaces after catchment allocations and this is a popular school so will receive many such requests. There may be s requirement to hold back one or two places for late arriving catchment children but I suggest you contact the school or the Edinburgh council education department to check.

Summer activities for pre school children are harder to find than for older children but a recent post on here on this topic had a few suggestions.

Thanks for your swift response. We have been in touch with the council who are letting me know which local schools have spaces . We are hoping for JGPS as it is the closest (and where I went) but Sciennes and Bruntsfield would be great also. I just want to be able to walk to pick him up.

Where will you be staying? You may get a place at tollcross. It's had capacity in recent years and is a nice school not very far from Gillespies.

I'm pretty sure sciennes and bruintsfield are almost always at capacity.

Hi KathWill! We're in a similar boat! We are moving from the US (but we're originally Canadian) with our 8 and 4 year old. Would love to catch up with you when we arrive (July).

We were look at James Gillespie for our son to start in P1 this February and they did have a space for an in catchment child (we went with another part of town in the end). Not sure that that has any bearing on what will happen next year though! Sciennes and Brunstfield were both full with waiting lists for in catchment children.

We'll be staying in Marchmont. I don't know much about Tollcross Primary. I know it's a small school and walking distance from Marchmont. Does anyone know anything about it?

Helllo EmjRoll, we would love to connect with you in Edinburgh. We are arriving in July also, I am from Edinburgh but have been living in Canada for almost 20 years.

My friend moved her children to Tollcross after a horrific bullying incident where the headteacher completely failed the child.

She loves it. She said it's been really welcoming and her children settled quickly and easily.

I've heard good things. It's not got space because it's not good - it's because it's catchment just doesn't have a lot of families living in it.

Also because the Gaelic side moved out of Tollcross not very long ago, leaving space? I too have heard only good things about Tollcross.

I have one at Tollcross. We love it, great wee school. It tends to have space as PP said as the Gaelic side moved out and left space and the catchment didn't change. It is getting busier, with new housing in catchment but definitely worth looking into.

Contact the school and make them aware you will be moving to that catchment area. I did this and the very helpful admistrator at my daughters school told me I was unable to apply bit that she would flag it with the council that I would be living there come school starting time. They can't reserve it over catchment kids but may take it in to account when allocating out of catchment as they did with our place!