Shawlands Primary or St Conval's Primary. Any advice on which is best?

[tracyandcalum]

I live in Shawlands, Glasgow and have a three year old boy who will be starting primary school next year. I am undecided which primary school he should go to. Does anyone have any advice as to which is the best primary school in Shawlands? I have heard that St Conval's has a good reputation and the Government report seems slightly better than the report for Shawlands Primary. Also, which is the better secondary Shawlands or Holyrood? Any advice will be much appreciated. thank you

My dd goes to Tinto as it is our catchment school but some of her friends go to both shawlands and st convals. I have heard good things about both. I believe that St Convals is a smaller school with smaller class sizes. This may have changed however since they shut Sir John Maxwells as many of the non-Catholic children from Pollokshaws now go to St Convals as it is closer than Tinto.

Have you considered Langside? It is a very good school and it seems to have a better reputation than either Shawlands or St Convals. Not sure where you live in Shawlands but it can't be far from you.

Thank you very much, nulgirl, for your reply. I have thought about Langside but would have to do a placing request and no idea how likely it is to be accepted. Maybe this would be the best option for me. Are you happy with Tinto?

Can't comment on Shawlands Primary from personal experience (ds goes to Glendale which I have been extremely happy with) but can say that I did a lot of research on Shawlands Academy and am pleased that ds has had his placing request accepted to go there in August.

Lots of things - a good range of subjects, encouragement of academic excellence, (reminding kids that they need to get the results they need at first sitting in S5) lots of international activities - and last, but not least, the fact that it plays rugby from S1 and next year will be an SRU funded Rugby Academy (dh believes that rugby demonstrates a good ethos).

I do know lots of kids that go to Shawlands Primary ('cos of Minis' Rugby) and they seem like good, motivated kids.

Well with regard to Langside placement requests, I've several friends who successfully got their dc into Langside this year. Most of them were in the catchment area of Pollokshields primary. No guarantees that you'd get a place but it wouldn't really be a problem if you weren't successful as you would have already enrolled him at either of your catchment schools. On a personal basis I would choose Shawlands over St Convals but that is because I have a personal antipathy to the Catholic church and therefore wouldn't want my dc to be exposed to the religious side of things.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

By the way Prettybird, I saw you mentioned mini rugby. Could I be nosy and ask which club your son plays for? I think rugby would be perfect for my son who is 3.5 and was thinking of starting him at minis when he's 4 or 5. I know Whitecraigs take them from that age but would like to be closer to home.

CarthaQP takes them from P1 and will be closer than Whitecraigs Not sure if there is anywhere that takes them earlier than that.

It has a very good Minis section (and a good Registration person ). The Micros (p1-p3) are very well run, with lots of compliments from the parents about the coaches ability to herd cats teach the children. Micros is all touch rugby - they only start full contact in P4 and refuse to play any clubs that don't follow the. age Grade Law Variations (which say no contact until P4).

nulgirl - if your dd is interested, there are also quite a few girls in the Cartha Minis section.

Landside may well be getting more placing requests from the Pollokshields Primary catchment as Glendale Primary is now chockablock. I know that this coming intake, the head teacher was only a couple of kids away from not being able to accept siblings - and even that was only by re-jigging composite and single year classes throughout the school so as to maximise numbers.

(Btw -Whitecraigs are on the "good" list, in fact we're playing T their Minis' Festival on Sunday)

If it were me I would be doing a placement request to Langside and enrolling at my catchment school as back up incase I didn't get in. Good luck with it.

Sorry for totally hijacking your thread Tracy but wanted to thank Prettybird for the advice. My family have got close ish links to Cartha (my parents met there 40 years ago and still go to the supper nights there. Think I'll wait until next winter and sign him up. Unfortunately my dd would be horrified at the thought of rugby. She's much more into ballet ... Sigh.

Dh says they're not supposed to start until they're P1, but if you were to come along about this time next year, then he could get a wee feel before he starts P1 in August.

We play "better weather rugby" which means that we continue to play until the end of June, stop in July and then start again at the beginning of August and then stopping in November and then re-starting mid February, weather permitting.

Have a look at Carthakids.com

Thank you to you all for the advice. It is great to hear such positive things about the schools in Shawlands. I will find out more about Langside. And it is great to hear that Shawlands Academy is such a good school. I was not sure what kind of reputation it had because of the troubles it had in the past.

I am glad about the hijack, nulgirl as I am interested in Rugby for my DS too. He is 3.5 and just started football lessons at Shawlands Academy but I have always thought that I would like him to learn Rugby.

Year before last it had 5 kids who got 5As at Higher and one kid who had just been accepted unconditionally to do Medicine at St Andrews ( was doing the research when ds was in P6)

I used to live in Shawlands too at the time the school was having its problems. The new head teacher seems to have made a difference - she's been there about 7(?) years.

The same advice goes to you too - you could bring your boy along about this time next year (check the web-site for when it's training and not a fixture)

Interesting to hear that there are football lessons which take them so young. Might see if he's interested in that for this year as he has so much energy to burn off. My ds is 3.5 as well and needs exercising like a puppy.

Prettybird- as you seem to be involved in Cartha, do you know the Gibbon family? They're old family friends of ours

No, don't know the Gibbon family. Only really know the Minis parents and some of the Midis parents and not really any of the BOFs "Big Club", with a few exceptions.

It's one of the things we're trying to address - the disjoint between the "Big" Club and the kids.

I did however go to the Cartha Ball last year and this year :) A nice chance to dress up!

prettybird - thank you I will have a look at the website and am definitely interested in bringing ds along next year. Sounds like Shawlands Academy is doing well. I was speaking to a former pupil today and he said he did well there and really enjoyed his time there. He started off at Hutchie but moved to Shawlands Academy and was much happier there.

nulgirl - I have taken ds to swimming and football lessons in Shawlands Academy. Not sure what other things are on for under 5s but there are always lots of parents with young children going in and out at weekends.

The other place that does "young" football is the Spiders (Queens Park). Think the 3-5 year olds are at Holyrood on Saturday mornings, older ones are at Lesser Hampden. Ds used to go there as well as his rugby until he eventually saw sense decided he preferred rugby.

Now he goes to Glasgow Riderz (cycling club) on a Saturday morning. They also start with really young kids - but think the young 'uns need their own bikes, and then they then do fun things in Bellahouston Park.

If it were me I would be doing a placement request to Langside and enrolling at my catchment school as back up incase I didn't get in.

Just to make you aware that you can't keep a catchment place as backup. As soon as you make a placing request, you give up all rights to your catchment place.

Thank you trixymalixy, I didnt know that. My mum has suggested I move in with her so he can go to school in Newton Mearns. Lots to think about.

Prettybird - I saw a cycling club at Bellahouston and was trying to find out about them. I will google Riderz club. I had a look at the Cartha wesite and it looks great. Hopefully i will be able to take ds along next year. Thanks for all the info.

My understading was that (at Primary level) you had to enrol at your catchment school and at the same time make your placing request to one or more other schools. So unless and until you have been offered a place at another school, your "catchment" school will still have a place for your child. h
However you are offered a place via the placing request, then your catchment school will no longer have a place for you.

So at the secondary level, the fact that ds has now been offered a place at Shawlands means that he no longer has a place at Bella, which is his catchment school.

In the OP's case, she has to decide whether she wants to enrol either in Shawlands Primary or St Convals, as I think they are her two "catchment" schools (non-denom and catholic respectively) and if she wants to, make a placing request to Langside - but she needs to recognise thar if her placing request is accepted, then she will no longer have a place at Shawlands/St Convals.

Tracyandcalum - you should go and visit the schools and get an idea of which ones "feel" right. HMI reports only tell you so much - the atmosphere in a place is just as (if not more) important.

Just had a gardening "party" at our primary school (organised by the parent council, with teachers, parents and kids clearing, painting, varnishing, tidying and planting the school grounds) and was talking to the head teacher. She says that Shawlands Primary has a good reputation and wouldn't have any issues about kids there.

I know that one of ds' rugby friends moved there when his primary closed and his parents are very happy there. There are also a few at Langside Primary kids at the rugby and they also well motivated, confident kids (and I know the parents wouldn't be happy if their kids weren't being stretched) - so I think you'd be OK at either school.

Found this on the Glasgow CC web-site:

"What if I do not wish my child to attend the local school ?
If you do not wish your child to attend the local school the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (as amended) allows parents/guardians to submit a placing request for a school of their choice. However, you MUST register your child for education at the local school before submitting a placing request.

How do I submit a placing request?
If you wish to submit a placing request for your child to attend a school other than the local school, you should register your child at your local school. Thereafter you can obtain an application form from:
Head teacher of the local school where you registered
Education Offices

Yes you have to register at your catchment school, but you give up all rights to your catchment place, if you make a placing request . If your placing request is unsuccessful you will be offered a place at the nearest school that had places, which may or may not be your catchment school.

I have just made a placing request for DS just starting school in August and this is made very clear on the form.

SL make it very clear that a place is not reserved at your catchment school

That's not the way I understood it from both talking to our headteacher (who was only able this year to accept a couple of non-sibling placing requests, so the rest will have reverted to their catchment primary - she is worried that next year she'll not be able to accommodate sibling placing requests) and when filling in the form for his placing request for Shawlands Academy (same form whether secondary or primary).

However, can't download the form anymore, as Glasgow CC are in the process of re-designing it

We had initially thought we would have to put in a placing request for ds to go to Glendale and thought we would have to enrol him initially at Pollokshields - but then we found out we were in the catchment anyway for Glendale which is further away