Relocating to south of Edinburgh - Midlothian/ East Lothian village primary school thoughts please!

[Wingingit44]

Hi,

Would love some thoughts on village/ small town Midlothian or East Lothian primary schools please (non denominational). At the moment I have done basic research on Roslin, Bilston and Rosewell, but happy to look up to about half an hour away from that area. Have found out bits and pieces through Google but would be great to get some opinions.

DS1 would be going into P2 and is Autistic. He needs a nurturing environment but also to be academically challenged. DS2 is Jan born and we would hope to get funding to defer P1 as we coming from England and he is due to go into reception here in a few weeks.

Thanks in advance, this is a really stressful time so any help is much appreciated!

You might get more local knowledge and advice if you post this question in the Scotsnet topic.

Good luck with the move - it must be stressful for you

You don't need funding to defer P1 in Scotland, it is your choice whether to send a January born child at 4.5 or 5.5 yrs old. If they don't go to school at 4.5yrs, they can stay in nursery until the following summer.

This is my area but I don't have any experience of SEN support in any schools. I would think you'd be better in a town rather than a village for SEN support though?

If your ds2 is only due to go into reception this year, I presume he only turns 4 in January. Therefore they'd just be entitled to their free hours in nursery (ds has just left S6, so I can't remember how many hours ).

He'd only be due to start P1 in 2020 - and even then, as a January birthday, you could choose to defer entry into P1 until 2021 and should still get nursery funding. (not sure how it works over in Midlothian/East Lothian - it might be that the nursery has to support deferral to get the funding; in Glasgow January and February birthdays get the funding pretty much automatically but earlier birthdays depend on a case being made).

When is your ds1's birthday? Was he due to go into Y2?

A colleague of mine has two DC at Dunbar Primary, one of them in a specialist unit for autistic children. I don't know whether your child's needs would be sufficient for him to qualify, OP, and I don't know how these things are worked out, but perhaps even if not, I gather the mainstream school is an autism-friendly environment as well because the children do some things together. My colleague speaks highly of the school for both her DC, and Dunbar is lovely, right on the coast, though it might be a bit further to the east of where you're looking.

I don't know anything about how the free hours work as mine were both mid-primary-school age when we moved up from England!

Thanks everyone!

@prettybird ds1 is due to start year 2, he's 6 and a little bit. Ds2 is 4 1/2 already and due to start reception.

@morningtoncrescent62 that's very interesting thanks. Do you know what high school the unit for autistic kids feeds into and does that cater for them too?

Judging by their birthdays, your ds would go into P2 - but go from being very much at the young end of their year/cohort to being one of the older children, while your ds2 could start P1 in August 2019 as one of the youngest, or leave it to 2020 and be one of the oldest.

Thanks @prettybird. It's all a bit overwhelming!