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scottish mumsnetters please

69 replies

hercules · 31/05/2004 18:03

we currently live in outer london and will needto buy a 3 bed place in the next 2-3 years and there is no way we can do this.
I'm a secondary re teacher and dh is a supermarket manager.
Someone recommended Glasgow. What is it like and is it multicultural as we are a mixed family and dont want ds and dd to be the odd ones out.

How easy is it to teach in scotland?

tia

OP posts:
Toothache · 01/06/2004 13:48

Poppyknot - Or... perhaps you fancy the attractive Scouse trainee Manager??

We used to live in Dunblane (hence why DH still works there). We lived in Millrow.... it was gorgeous, but rented and we couldn't afford to buy a bigger place when ds was conceived. Would LOVE to move back there one day, but my sister lives there and she's a lunatic!

Soozi · 01/06/2004 14:35

Like the ned site. Does every big town have neds?

Know what you mean Spots about southside being more stable - I live in one of the great catchment areas so from a parents' point of view its great. I just miss the cosmopolitan side of it all. For years the southside was a dry area ie it had no pubs. Not that I go very often now anyway but sometimes it seems like one large housing scheme with little heart. Especially Newton Mearns (no offence to any residents from NM please)

Demented · 01/06/2004 15:14

Hello Spots!

Whereabouts in Fife?

susanmt · 01/06/2004 15:16

Soozi - where in Perth is your husband from? I'm from Perth but wouldn't choose to go back there now, don't know why, just its where I grew up I think! Aargh maybe we were at school together or something!
Spots - my Dad is from Fife and we spent summer holidays as a kid at my Grandma's in the East Neuk - and my first teaching job was in Anstruther.
I must be the North-westiest Mumsnetter? Whose the most northerly then?

Toothache · 01/06/2004 15:17

Soozi - Falkirk certainly does! White tracksuits, burberry baseball caps galore!!

The rrrrrreally classy ones have a bottle of Buckfast hanging out of their back pocket.

susanmt · 01/06/2004 15:26

toothache

My brother lives in Falkirk and you could be quoting him talking about the place!

xoz · 01/06/2004 15:33

I moved 'doon sooth' from Glasgow 6 months ago.
I miss it dreadfully. We only lived there for 2 years but it was probably the best 2 years of my life!! We lived on the Southside (Pollokshields to be precise) which has the biggest Asian community in Scotland (so I'm told) and we had no problems whatsoever (being Aussies) and in fact found the Scottish people to be the most friendly hospitable types we've ever met in the English speaking world. There wasn't too many neds around there either
Best of luck Hercules, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Toothache · 01/06/2004 15:35

Susanmt - I think Falkirk has a particularly large share of them!! Full of things like:

"Aw rite big man, got a spare fag?"

Much the same as the Glasgow ned. I think they are closely related. They must filter here via Cumbernauld.

muddaofsuburbia · 01/06/2004 15:38

Susanmt - I'm not sure of my geography - but Miaou (not Miaow) is on Muck.

btw am in exile for the moment but hoping to return to the homeland soon.

muddaofsuburbia · 01/06/2004 15:45

This has been posted before, but for Glasgae patter ye cannae beat Chewing the Fat . Also has extensive information on how to speak ned.

Toothache · 01/06/2004 15:49

ROFL! My DH loves Chewing the Fat.

Don't you jee-ust love the Glesgae banter?

muddaofsuburbia · 01/06/2004 15:56

When dh (pretend scouser ) switches on his PC he's downloaded loads of CTF soundfiles so it says "Oh hang the suppers, we're only here for the banter" - cracks him up every time.

Toothache · 01/06/2004 16:02

MuddaofSuburbia - My DH is a Scouser! What d'you think they find so funny about the Glasgow banter? Could it be it's one of the few that sounds funnier than theirs??

Soozi · 01/06/2004 16:12

He stayed near Cleeve Caravan site (which sadly closed down last year and has been sold to developers for housing). Perhaps I'd better not say exactly who he is in case you do know him - anonimity here can be a good thing

JanZ · 01/06/2004 16:16

Hercules - I live in one of the "multi-cultural" areas in the south side of Glasgow that has been metioned by others.

We're in Pollokshields, which is a mix of ultra posh and then, in East Pollokshileds, very Asian. We live right on the cusp, ie one end of our street is more "asian" than the other - and we're half way along the street.

It doesn't bother us - the up-side is that we are very close to a fantastic shopping street with loads of greengrocers! (Whereas further into the original garden suburb, there are no shops whatsoever).

All the housing is beautiful Victorian - from tenements in East Pollokshields to beautiful big Victorian stone villas. The streets are all extremely wide - this was a planned suburb that pre-dates Hampstead Garden Village.

We live in the top half (my dh calls it a horizontal semi) of a big Vicotrian villa - the first floor and attic floors, which consists of (on the first floor) a large dining kitchen, large dining room/study, enormous living room (complete with orignal plaster friese), large bedroom and a dressing room/playroom/wahtever we decide once we've ripped out the old (small) kitchen and bathroom and then on the attic floor, a large room with a dormer window (currently ds's), another decent sized double bedroom with a velux, a large landing area which we intend to turn into a snug and a second bathrrom, plus an airing/junk area where the boiler is. We also have an enromous garden. We reckon the house is currently worth about £280,000 maybe £300,000 - but tihs is a LOT less than you would pay in the West End or in Bearsden/Milngavie.

Plus it only takes me 15 minutes in rush hour to drive into the city centre and a bit more to get home - which is actually why I prefer to cyle as it is only 3 miles!

The down side is the schooling - unusually for Glasgow. The local primary school is almost totally Asian - which in itself is not a problem - but the fact that for 98% of the children, English is an additional language IS a problem - which by all accounts, is not particularly well dealt with. We want to try to get ds into the school that is a wee bit further away (still less than 2 miles), which may well have similar proportions, but apparently has a fantastic headmistress. (I'd actually quite like ds to be exposed to different cultures rather than have to resort to a private school, which I have issues with).

I love it in Glasgow - plenty of culture, theatre, museums, parks, fantastic shopping and the country side on your door step. And when Scots complain about rush hours - it is nothing compared to what the English are used to! (I have lived in the South East, and in Bolton and at one point was commuting between Bolton and Leeds!).

Someone has suggested talking to the GTC in Scotland, which is good advice. From memory, in Scotland, at least in the State system, you are only allowed to teach what you got your degree in AND what you did your teacher training in - but that may have changed (that's my recollection from Uni 20 years ago!).

I've been in Glasgow since I was 3 - we came here from South Africa, which Mum and Dad left because of the politics. Although we emigrated to NZ in my teens, we came back because Mum & Dad were homesick for Scotland - the culture and the open mindedness!

If you want to talk more, get in touch via "Contact another talker" - I'd be happy to wax on at length!

suedonim · 01/06/2004 16:47

I can't claim to be Scottish but am another M/Netter living in Scotland! I'm near Aberdeen, but in the countryside, which we love. I think Eulalia might be further north than me, Susanmt. I like all the Scottish cities, although I haven't been to Inverness for many years - it's huge now. We lived for 12yrs in Scone, nr Perth - my ds's went to Perth Academy, Soozie!

JanZ · 01/06/2004 17:10

Xoz - our posts must have crossed. Whereabouts in Pollokshields were you?

My dad hosted a European medical conference once and go a "complaint" on the 3rd day.... "no-one here will give you directions.... they always insist on taking you there themselves!!.."

We do pride ourselves in being friendly!

Paula71 · 01/06/2004 21:10

On one thing you mentioned Hercules, about not wanting to live in an all white area. I don't think you would have a problem, there are plenty of mixed areas, in fact it would be hard to pinpoint a white area! That is no bad thing, really.

In the village I grew up in (near Kirkintilloch) we had a family from South Africa move there for 6 months, they were the only black family and when their time was up nearly everyone was upset to see them go. I went to school with their eldest son and he did get some stick from the neds but no more than the rest of us and we defended him (cause he was cute and had lovely manner, unlike those oiks!)

Anyway, there will be people who gripe and moan about you, it doesn't matter your colour or country of birth. That is just how folk are, right moany. Glasgow is more sectarian than anything else, I moved east to escape it but unfortunately not east enough!

And I live near Bathgate now, that is a nice town. Quota of neds just like everywhere else.

muddaofsuburbia · 01/06/2004 21:29

Paula - my best friend is from Milton of Campsie and I went to shool with folks from Lenzie/Lennoxtown/Kilsyth etc whereabouts did you grow up?!

susanmt · 02/06/2004 06:57

soozi - I used to be very good friends with a girl who lived in Cleeve Drive (didn't realise it had been sold, we don't drive into Perth that way any more since my parents moved to Balbeggie), and also knew another family there who went to our church. Help, maybe I do know your dh. Did he go to the Academy or the High School? Suedonim and I already worked out once that we think her ds's went to school with my brothers.

The teasching regs haven't changed from 20 years ago, like JanZ said. You can only teach in secondary what you did at uni and IIRC, you need to have done it to 2nd yr level at ubi, and then converted it to a teaching qualification. I love the scottish education system, its so broad, you can take such a wide variety of subjects, they positively encourage it. I'm sure you know hercules but the exam system is different and the basic uni entrance qualification is highers, which would come in somewhere around AS level. I was fairly average for my school and have 6 - in Eng, Maths, French, Physics, Geog and (now sadly discontinued) Geology. Wondrously broad!!! They encourage that at Scottish Unis too - in my Geog degree I was able to take courses in, for example, sociology, social anthropology, geology and oceanography. Most educators of any kind in scotland are pretty proud and also fiercely defensive of our system!

JanZ · 02/06/2004 11:10

Thought I should make it clear that because I said we lived on the "cusp" of the more Asian area - it doesn't mean that there are no white people further along the road - there are plenty! Likewise, there are plenty of Asians who live in the "posher" end of Pollokshields!

spots · 02/06/2004 12:44

am in Kinghorn, demented... moved from Ed'burgh at xmas to make space for baby. Dunfermline seems to be my nearest stop for cinema, NCT and all sorts... seems nice place...

There are Loads of scottish mumsnetters here! does everyone know about the poss. meetup in June?

Demented · 02/06/2004 13:59

Very nice Spots, that's near Pettycur (sp?) Bay isn't it? It's lovely round about there.

spots · 02/06/2004 18:46

totally near there - just got back from beach!

muddaofsuburbia · 02/06/2004 20:10

Oh Susan! - our twin-ness continues - my degree is in Geography too!