Advice on Glasgow

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We am looking for some advice about the Glasgow area. We will be relocating from Aberdeenshire and looking for what could be good areas to live. Starting to look, but a bit lost at the moment!

I will be working in the city centre so train is the obvious solution for travel (recommended? I have heard some horror stories about reliability?) we are ideally looking for a countryside/ village setting within 30 mins of the city centre by train. (Possible?) Of equal importance is good schools for the kids (Primary and secondary) as well as affordability - decent 4 bed detached for £350k if possible???? although could stretch.....

Already know about East Renfrewshire and Jordanhill but not sure about other areas (Heard about Lenzie) but as I know from experience you cannot base a good school on performance alone and not sure about how to get better info. What is the best way to find out about good schools in Glasgow area?
Thanks!!!

I was going to say Bearsden (15/20 minutes by train), good schools - but not sure you'll get a 4 bed detached for £350k.
Not many 4 beds in the area as they are high in demand - there is one on the main street at the mo, just over £500k I believe (v big semi).

lenzie academy is very good and 10 mins to city centre on the train. (less than an hour to Edinburgh too if you fancy a change) not great restaurants etc . ots of new houses being built. its not quite as middle class as Bearsden but house prices much more reasonable

Milngavie and Bearsden would be good for countryside, trains to Glasgow and schooling.. But as said above it's harder to get 4 bed.. If you'd consider a 3 bed you could extend there are often bungalows in the area..

I'd suggest Southside - Shawlands Academy and feeder schools (Shawlands, Glendale) are good, you are on several bus and train routes to the centre, close to Pollok Park for countryside. I'm sure @prettybird will be along to sing south sides praises!

Many thanks for all the suggestions. I would like to ask what is the best way to find out about schools in the Glasgow area? Looking at School Checker is limited and there does not seem to be any consistent sites. Is there any websites/information sources you would recommend?

A really quick way of getting a sense of the good, the bad and the up and upcoming.. is to check out the SIMD (Scottish index of Multiple Deprivation).

There is a really cool website that has a very detailed color coded website of Glasgow showing you levels of Deprivation across the city via a Deprivation Index score.

Glasgow is a fantastic city, but with historically high levels of deprivation. While a lot has been done to improve the city, the recommendations you'll generally find people make, map quite closely to the Deprivation Scores across the city. Unfortunately this is also true of schools. In other words those schools that score higher on the Deprivation Index - score lower in the league tables etc. Very high correlation unfortunately. Sad but true.

PS As someone who grew up in the East End, I think it's a fantastic part of the city - especially the people - and there is good and bad everywhere frankly. However, it's a sad fact that most of the so-called 'desirable' areas (like those mentioned above) map pretty closely to the low DI scores of the area. Hope helps.

Thanks Weegiemum - I will indeed sing Shawlands Adademy's praises. It has served my ds well (he is now in S6).

The school itself serves a very mixed demographic: as the headteacher herself says, it has young people that range from the children of literally millionaires to those that literally don't know where their next meal is coming from.

It does have a high proportion of its catchment which is SIMD1 & 2 - but it also includes part of Pollokshields (ds is actually a placing request as we are in the part for which the catchment is Bellahouston), Shawlands, Strathbungo and Newlands. Given the proportion of SIMD1 & 2 within the catchment, its results are significantly above what would be "expected", given its demographic, ie it provides good added value.

The school has high academic expectations, but also encourages and celebrates sporting, artistic and musical endeavours and successes. Its pastoral care seems to be good; ds got good support for his UCAS application (already has an Unconditional for Strathclyde, for what is a high tariff course still waiting to hear from the other 4 )

You'll get a good "bang for your buck" for houses in Shawlands, Shawlands (look at High Shawlands), Strathbungo and Newlands compared to Bearsden, Milngavie and the West End (and I say that as someone who was brought up in Bearsden/Milngavie and went to Bearsden Academy! )

There are good transport links into the city centre, Maxwell, Queens and Pollok Park on your doorstep and easy access to "full" countryside via the M77/M8.