Moving to Edinburgh

[hermia]

Hi. We are moving to Edinburgh from the South East with modest budget for house buying. A recent visit has given us some ideas of where to start looking for nursery/primary schools and areas, but we'd love some local advice. Back home our search is confined to the internet for now and I have been looking at Corstorphine, Liberton and Barnton. Has anyone got any tips on moving to Scotland, Edinburgh, these areas, schools here or in any other area come to that?? Any related info would be gratefully recived.
Thanks.

Hello, good choice

Liberton High has been pretty dire; I think it's getting slightly better, but I still know lots of people moving out of the area purely to get out of the catchment area. Corstorphine schools are pretty good in general. Barnton I'm not sure about- I think the primaries are OK and it would be Royal High, would it? That would be good. The best schools generally (and I am being pretty sweeping here) are around Morningside/Grange/Bruntsfield area, but it's not that cheap for housing, as you'll have noticed. Presumably you've seen the ESPC website? I'll happily try and answer anything else, and there are a few of us from Edinburgh on here!

I agree with Tamum, although my daughter is not at school yet. I would lean towards Corstorphine in your situation I think. Nearby there is Roseburn which is nice and the primary school is good - I think!

Yes, good point LS (hello btw!)- I have friends in Corstorphine who send their dds to Roseburn (out of catchment for them) because the school is so good.

Hi! I mentioned Roseburn as my mum's boyfriend's daughters - phew - went there and they are very posh and now attend a very smart boarding school in Perthshire!

Thanks for that - what fast replies and great info!
..I have been using the ESPC website. Is there any other I should know about? Because funds are limited for a house (we are looking in the 200-250k band) we may be up for renovating again - although our flat has nearly finnished us off! We havn't come accross any places needing work so far however. We would love to be closer into the city but I think we are priced out.
I have so many things to find out and when my son is back in nursery I will have time to research. What age do children start nursery and primary school in Scotland? Am I right in thinking that the school year runs from March and not September?
Many thanks again.

Hi there. Moved from Scotland to USA here. Children start nursery school at 3 in Scotland and seem to remember that they start school in the term in which they are five (however as we didn't get that far could be wrong). As my ds1 is december birthday he would have been one of the youngest starting now. School year runs from August through to end of June - well it did in Fife. Does vary slightly throughout Scotland to stagger the end of school and start of holidays. Scottish Equivalent of Ofsted and very very useful for info on Schools etc etc. Trinity is also a nice area and more affordable than some. Have a friend who lives there and managed to get a fixed price property there.

I lived in Edinburgh for 11 years, moved out (but not too far away) 3 years ago. I didn't live in any of the areas you're interested in but do know them a bit. I think that a lot would depend on whether you intend to stay in the house you're moving to when your children go to Secondary school as some areas might have excellent primary schools but less than excellend secondaries.
We lived in Mountcastle area (East of Edinburgh. There are good primaries there - Duddingston and Royal High and the secondary school there (Portobello High) gets a reasonable name although I was never that impressed when dd was there
Also, as you say £200,000 - £250,00 isn't a huge budget for Edinburgh especially when you remember the offers over system that we have here. What looks affordable on paper may go for something like £50,000 over the asking price, so watch out for that.
Children start state nursery at 3 and have to start school, at the latest, on the starting date after their fifth birthday. There is however only one starting date in any year ie August. So children with January and February birthdays get the choice of starting when they are either 4 1/2 or 5 1/2.

Hi again hermia, The ESPC is the best site. There are some properties sold through estate agents but not that many, and I don't know if they're collected on a website in the same way. You are kind of right about the school year- as Alibaldi says, it actually runs from August to June, but March (well, the end of February) is the cut off point for the age of a child. If they are 4 by the end of February then they can start school that August. However, it's very flexible, so if the child is not yet 5 by the time the school year starts in August then they can wait a year if the parents want them to. In practice quite a few children with January/February birthdays wait a year, and the occasional November/December birthday, but I haven't come across any children staying back with birthdays earlier in the year. It seems confusing but in practice it means that children start school from about 4.5 to 6, which is good I think. Nursery starts at 3.

Edinburgh is fab, though I am saying that fromthe point of view of a student, as I was at Uni there and then for a couple of years afterwards.
ESPC is really the only website/place for buying property in Edinburgh, its sort of an institution. If you are thinking about viewing you should know that Thursday evenings and Sun afternoons are the time when there is open viewing on most ESPC properties, but it can get really busy - we nearly bought there before moving away and sometimes there would be a queue to view a flat.
Schools wise, Edinburgh has a lot of private schools abd house prices in the catchment for good state secondaries in particular can be a lot higher - I know people who recently bought in the James Gillespie HS catchment area (Bruntsfield/Morningside) and they paid a huge premium for their house - and their oldest kid is in P3!
The school intake year is the same as the calender year, anyone turning 5 after Jan1st can go into school in the following August, up to birthday at the end of december. But like someone else said, if a child turns 5 after august, then they can wait until the following Aug. More and more people are keeping their children born Jan/Feb, and even Nov/Dec, until they are 51/2 to enter school - we have done that and are really delighted with how our kids have done. There is no problem with staying in state nursery provision for the extra year. You get your 2.5 hours (but in practice a lot of places offer 3-3.5 hours) free nursery provision from the term after your child turns 3 until they go to school, regardless of when they go to school.
This is one of my hobby horses, but if you are moving to Edinburgh with preschool age children there would be the option to have them educated bilingually in Gaelic/English, which is what we are doing. There is a gaelic primary in Tollcross (to which you would get free transport from wherever you arein the city) and it has a fabulous reputation. You also get direct entry into a very goos secondary, no matter where you live, if you are planning to live there that long. There are a number of threads on bilingual education in the language/bilingualism topic if you are interested.
You will have a great time in Edinburgh, I am sure of that. Its a fab fab place (says the woman who has just chosen to move to Glasgow!!!!). But a years membership to the zoo, would be my big tip. It is always great, there's lots to see and its one of the best spots in Edinburgh to go for a picnic on the top of Corstorphine Hill and look out at the country. You will love it.

Expect to bid roughly 30% over the 'Offers Over' price.

We're making serious plans to leave Edinburgh for good in the next two years. It's too expensive and socially polarised, we feel.

But w/your budget you should do all right. Well, think you might be hard-pressed in Corstophine or Barnton, but good luck!

Thanks everyone! My son has a sept birthday so he could start school when he is nearly 6?! Have I got that right?
..I was thinking 15-20% for the offers over. 50k- wow! Thanks for the warning. Perhaps Corstorphine is off limits too.

Hi Hermia, in Scotland you are not legally obliged to send your child to school until the August entry date following their fifth birthday. So yes, if you wanted, your son wouldn't need to go to school until he was 5 years 11 months old.
As I think someone has said, you might be best looking at High Schools rather than Primary schools. It maybe feels like a long time away, but soon comes around! Generally the primaries for 'good' secondaries will be OK. (You may be interested to know that a quarter of the secondary school population in Edinburgh go to independent (ie public) schools. No wonder there is a traffic problem with them and placing request children criss-crossing the city every am and pm.)
Edinburgh is a big place. If you do narrow down your search areas, ask again and I could maybe give more advice re specific schools.
Re the house buying, you need a local solicitor who knows the market to advise you.
Good luck!

Just had a thought....if you put egfl (for Edinburgh Grid for Learning) into google, you will be able to find school contact details and individual school websites.
(Never done a link yet and sure as fate would get it wrong!)

Thanks merlotmama! Great tip. I'll definately do that.
As for areas, I'm back to looking out of town at the moment and Dalkeith keeps comming up. We drove through on our last visit - and most other towns on the outskirts - and it looked good. We will be comming up again in Oct to get a better idea. I understand a new rail link is proposed here. Is this a good place to go?
Also I have seen details for a house to do up in Murrayfield today so apparently they are out there in our price range..just. (I must be mad after the last 6 years of DIY!)

Murrayfield = very nice!

Hi again- here we are in Edinburgh looking at various places we've researched on the net.. and yes we are finding that corstorphine is a bit beyond our means - but we are interested in Willowbrae. We looked at houes in Northfield on Sun. It's cheaper and close to lots of great amennities. The housing is small in our budget but we get away from being in a flat at last. So does any one have any ideas about the area and schools?.. I know Duddingston has a great reputation but what about Royal High and Parsons Green. I didn't find league tables for one of them - although I know that they are not the best way to rate a school. Also what about Portobello High. All I know is that it is going to a new site soon.
Thanks again.

Not too sure about league table etc. I would check out the schools close to Duddingston, you have to be careful as it is right next to Niddrie which is a little bit rough.

Hermia do I know you? You sound very like a friend of mine who's about to move to Edinburgh?

if so, hello

Thanks for that i didnt know about Niddrie.. Fennel -are you in Edinburgh or London?

Hermia I'm in Exeter but wondering if your DH and I did an MSc together in Manchester at one point?

I'm in Edinburgh.

Desperately seeking to move out.

Good luck w/your move!

Hi Fennel!! What a small world in cyber space! Hope your move went well. The houses we're looking at would fit into your lounge. We have the sea close by though - hopefully.
Hello again expat.. I know a great 2 bed maisonette in n. london you could move to..
Hx.

hi Hermia it is you then

our move went well but we're living in chaos, boxes everywhere, no home internet for the last 7 weeks (disaster!) and lots to do on the house.

living room is indeed cavernous, we have to buy a big tv etc now to fit it.

I'd happily move to hell than London!

Loads of Londoners in Edinburgh, though! No lack of company there.