North Edinburgh schools

[QueenImprov]

I am looking for some advice on primary schools in north edinburgh, specifically Trinity area. Does anyone know how Victoria and Trinity Primary compared to Wardie? I know Wardie is really popular and well thought of but found a property in Victoria catchment that we love. Also any thoughts on Trinity Academy- I know how it is doing in terms of league tables, but does it seem to be good, supportive school? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Victoria is also well regarded however I think there are plans to close it in the next few years and a new (bigger) one to be built as the population is increasing rapidly in the area.

That’s really helpful thank you!

Trinity is a fabulous school. Great ethos and sense of belonging - really forward thinking staff but is very over subscribed so space is an issue. An out of catchment place might be a struggle but they are still awarding some. Would depend on the the age of your child how likely that would be - I know Kerr is already a waiting list for p1 August starts

Our catchment school is Trinity and when we went to look around it (granted this was 4 years ago for our then due to start P1 child), we weren't impressed. We were told categorically that there was a very high chance our child would go into a composite class of P1 and P2s, due to lack of space. The teacher who we met was rude and didn't want to be challenged on this at all. Whether that was down to frustration or just her manner, I don't know. During the tour, we were taken into the new build section of the school, to find a French class being taken in the corridor (desks and chairs), right outside the loos. The P6 girl who took us round was lovely, but, perhaps mistakenly, waxed lyrical about the fact that she was so excited to be leaving as she was off to Heriots.

At the time, the playground was a mess - dangerously so, rubble and wire fencing left lying in the playground for many months. The playground has since been done up.

Our overall impression was not great, and hopefully things will have changed in the last 4 years. We made the big decision to send our child elsewhere.

There aren’t composite classes for p1 at trinity. P1 is based on a Scandinavian model where the children move round through the day to different stations e.g science area, home corner, reading, outdoor classroom etc - there is a huge emphasis on outdoor learning, this is setting a precedent for the rest of Scotland and has been highly praised. The playground is fab, it’s talked about all over Edinburgh there is currently a new block of classrooms in construction backing on to Victoria Park as like most other schools in the area it is a bit of a squeeze due to ever growing population. My child is the same year as yours though and has not been affected by this as they moved to the modern chalet from the infant department. It’s true that trinity is often used as a prep for private as education standards are high. This is not a negative, it’s normal
for pupils to move on after p5 or 6 due to how private intakes work. This is why the high school suffers a little and I have concerns about that. I’d be interested too to hear from parents of trinity academy pupils.