Broughton Primary / Drummond Community High

[MaderiaCycle]

Hi all,

Anyone with any experience of these two schools? We have just had an offer accepted on a house and I should probably have looked at it before hand!

Sorry a bit late - my DD went to Broughton for 6 months last year and you couldn't pay me to send her back there. Absolutely awful.

Hi MaderiaCycle, I don't have experience of Broughton but my son is starting S1 at Drummond in August. Currently he is in a feeder school for Portobello, but we are out of catchment so initially I was upset that he wouldn't get into Porty. Drummond is our catchment school, and I thought it had a bad rep but this is historical. There are always going to be disruptive kids, but it's the same in every school. My reasoning is that the smaller the school, the more obvious the issues and the easier it is to deal with. Having said that, it's important to stress that I haven't heard of any issues. By the by, my friend's son went there and is now a doctor/consultant – kids are individuals and there will always be wide ranging abilities in every school. Anyhow, having been less than keen because all my son's friends are going to Porty, we went to an open day and were really impressed – in fact, we came away really excited about Drummond. They have had a new head there for a few years and the results are improving. A helpful person on mumsnet who is in education (see below) says results are likely to be skewed because they are a community school and set up to also take in kids who have learning disabilities/difficulties city-wide. This means they have a really strong learning support department, which is a bonus for us as my son is dyslexic. The teachers seem really great and the kids we met were wonderful. The building and facilities are old, unlike brand new Porty but they do their best with what they've got. It's small (soon to be 470 kids in total) and feels really friendly. I have a friend who sent her son there last year, when all her friends were sending theirs to Trinity and couldn't understand why. However, she is what I call a mummy oracle, does her research and knows her stuff, so if it's good enough for her son, I'm happy. She said, "Drummond is like a secret that nobody knows about..." and that's exactly how I felt when I visited it. The Gaelic school wanted to take it over a year or so ago but the parents /teachers fought back and it's really brought the community together – so much so, that there's a really strong PTA now and they have actually received out-of-catchment requests this year. Anecdotally, I've heard that staff-wise it's a happy ship, which is really important. So all in all, we are feeling happy and positive about Drummond and glad it's our catchment school. The helpful person Cornopean posted a really interesting look at school results a few years ago which mentions Drummond and a theory about its place in the tables – search for the thread entitled –Edinburgh secondary schools: some alternative ratings. Hope this is useful.

Hi 25Years, we are thinking about Drummond for our very dyslexic DD for all the same reasons. It’s a big deal for her as all her friends going elsewhere, but we were really impressed at open day and think it’s the best place for her. She’s p6 so I think you’re ahead of us. Would love to hear how you get on. PM me?