Anyone have experience of applying to primary schools outside catchment area in Edinburgh?

[Bellebelle]

Hi, my dd is due to start primary school august 2010 and we want her to go to Gillespies or Sciennes primary as her childminder is based in Marchmont. However we live out of the catchment area and with the property market the way it is just now it looks unlikely that we will be able to move house. Does anyone have experience of applying to a school outside their catchment area and if so how easy/difficult is it to get places? Would really appreciate any experiences/advice on this as this is keeping me awake at night! Never thought I would be the type of mum who would get all uptight about such things but we're finding it impossible to come up with a solution which would make it possible to put her to our local school without putting her in breakfast and after school clubs 4 days a week which we really want to avoid.

tbh you are unlikely to get into gillespies or sciennes if you are outwith the catchment area. does she attend state nursery at all?

She has been on the list for Gillespies nursery since she was 2 and we're hoping for a place this August as they don't do nursery places on catchment area. However we're trying to get an idea of the likelihood of her going to one of those primaries now as would rather she goes to nursery with kids she'll go up to school with.

Hi 2010 is a long time away. I'm worried about DS starting school too as he has gone to a CM and we will have to change from that hom based care to breakfast club and after school club 4 days a week too.

I was talking to my friend about it as her daughter had recently started school and she said that her daughter wanted to go to the after school club because all her friends did, so I think once they get to that age they want to do the same of their friends.

As for getting an out of catchment place, hollow laugh, wouldn't want to bet on it. We are literally one street out of the catchment area for a decent primary within walking distance versus an ok one that is 2.2 miles away. Checked on this years places, out of 50 pupils 40 were from catchment, 8 were out of catchment siblings and 2 were from the out of catchment waiting lists.

Ring up the council, they are tremendously helpful and will send you maps with the catchment areas and the criteria for out of catchment decisions which is generally a) siblings first then b) distance but from stewies post sounds like some other factors are taken into account.

Thanks for all the advice, spoke to the council today and they were very helpful. Think I have a bit of a thing about trying to keep everything as stable as possible for my DD as I still remember going into P1 not knowing anyone and hating it. Think we're going to see if we can find a childminder near us who will do school drop off and pick up instead. Think that change is always hardest for parents but normally the kids adjust so quickly - think I was just a particularly sensitive child!