Recommendations for school and home for mixed race family in the Scottish central belt?

[InkyPaperblanks]

Hey everyone!
Looking for a little help, we currently live in Edinburgh and have found ourselves having to move for a couple of reasons , the main one being a school merger which has swelled numbers at the local primary school and left us feeling very uncertain about sending our 5yr old DS there.
We would ideally like to move to an area with a good school that is ethnically diverse.We are looking for ANYWHERE in central Scotland.
Any recommendations would be most welcome - the research I have done in the past 3 days is insane! but we still aren't any closer to working out where to go.

Thank everyone !

Sounds great Prettybird , will definitely keep that in mind if we do manage to move.

Positive news today is I spoke to Langside Primary and they said to go ahead and put a placing request and while they can not guarantee a place at this stage ,they were positive about availability of a place for DS.

.... now just need to sort out the place to live !

I know it's a tangent but you did originally say anywhere in the Central area - have you thought about moving just north of the river, in Fife? It's much cheaper than Edinburgh and very family-friendly, and I know quite a few mixed-race couples locally - it wouldn't be unusual here. Beautiful countryside, and close to Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth, the East Neuk, and only 40 mins away from Glasgow. Schools here are good, too, although you could still send your kids over the bridge to be schooled in Edinburgh if you want.

Hi Caralena , thanks for the suggestion- mind me asking where you are?

I have to say, I do love the Fife countryside, coincidentally I was up around Falkland at the weekend,it IS lovely!

Hi inky how did you get on with your placing request?
Ds is starting langside in August so if you want a buddy for your ds pm me.:)

Hey Fanny :-) just got confirmation today that he's got a place at Langside primary ,phew !! We are moving in 2-3 weeks and we would definitely love for him to make a few friends before he starts school,will pm you.

Thanks so much everyone for all the info, you have been great. Next step is to get cracking with all the packing and organising!

Fantastic. Hope the move goes well.

One way for him to make new friends would be to bring him along to rugby. Carthakids will be re-starting at the beginning of August. I'm sure some of the kids there go to Langside - but it also gives him (and you ) a chance to meet other people :)

Move done , next issue to resolve , childcare over the next few weeks ..any recommendations for a good childminder?

Thanks everyone.

Try asking on Mumsnet Local - Glasgow. Can't help as my wonderful childminder from 7 years ago (house next door - how jammy can you get!) is no longer childminding.

That WAS indeed rather jammy , lucky you ! :-)

Thanks for the tip , I've posted on the local forum.

Oh I know I am very late in finding this thread, but I thought I might leave a reply which could be helpful for anyone seeing it after me.

You need to look at various aspects of a town or city rather than just how diverse it is. I am the mother of a mixed race 12 year old who had terrible issues in primary school - so much so, we almost moved house to get in to a 'better' cachment area. Since going off to high school in the same area, my daughter has had no problems.

Kids can be cruel, but its the adults you need to watch! My daughter suffered a full year of racial abuse in primary school and all of my attempts were thwarted in dealing with this. The problem was not the kids, it was the teachers and school staff.

I am a photographer and have been exploring the issues which we faced in my project called Exottish which has been well received. My current exhibition run 'Girls and their Mothers' is a 5 month touring show of 48 images of girls and women of mixed race with their mothers which celebrate diversity within families, and in turn, within communities.

As I expand this project, I will be looking at areas outside of Glasgow, so if there are any multiracial families who live in Scotland (outwith Glasgow and surrounding would be ideal) please get in touch with me. Best thing to do is google 'exottish' or Kim Simpson Exottish, and you'll find me :)

If anyone needs any advice or support please feel free to add yourselves to my facebook community group Mixed Race Families Scotland which is only for members of mixed race families.

Best wishes

Kim