Moving to Edinburgh - insider tips from Edinburgh mums please!

[ChrisQuean]

I’m Scottish, DH English, 3xDCs (8,6 & 1) and for all the usual and numerous family reasons, we have decided to up sticks from Central London and move back to Edinburgh. We know the city well and we’ve pinned down the area (Murrayfield) and bought the house, jobs are sorted and we have the schools - hopefully - covered. BUT we’d love some of your insider tips for local things that will make our settling in easy and happy. I’m hoping you can help

Nursery - preferably close to EH12 and does full days.

Football teams - DS1 and DS2 are football daft and want to join a junior club to play matches and make friends. They are super keen and quite nifty wee players, but they’re not exactly headed for Chelsea youth squad, IYKWIM, so definitely focus on fun and friends.

Swimming club - same as above except DS1 is a really good swimmer and already competes.

Hairdresser - please help! Especially a hairdresser with a brilliant colourist (lowlights etc). Willing to pay

Doctor surgery and dentist - do I just rock up and automatically register at my nearest Dr surgery? Great dentist recommendations very welcome

A cleaner - how much an hour? Any recommendations? We’d like someone about 10-12hrs a week, willing to do some ironing and laundry, change beds and possibly take in the shopping delivery

After school childminder - how on earth do we go about finding someone reliable and long term? How much an hour?

Local gym?

Ideas of how to meet people - I will be ignoring my mum’s suggestion of joining the local Round Table

There is a busy bees nursery at the Gyle business park (eh12)

Hair colourist, I thoroughly recommend Gem at Myles East. She's really good with colour, check them out on Facebook

Edinburgh leisure is 52 a month for full membership, meaning you can use any of their venues for swim or gym etc.
Other hsn that it's the usual Nuffield Healths, pure gym etc etc

Erm I've forgotten your other questions now ha! Will the read and put thinking cap on !

Cleaner costs £10 to £12 per hour.

www.childcare.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI25Cmid-d4wIV1PZRCh1DLgQREAAYASAAEgIaPPD_BwE

I used this, admittedly 15 years ago, to find local childcare options

I'm on east side, but just in my local gp surgery and picked a dentist that took nhs, of which there were several in my area.

Amazing. Thanks so much. Keep them coming! I’m off to check out Gem the colourist right now.

I have friends who's sons play football in the primary school years so can help with that.
www.essda.co.uk/arrange.asp
Most youth clubs play in the essda friendly league ( Sunday am games).
The league starts at ~ p4 but most clubs will run things for younger dc too. The bigger clubs will have teams at all of the 4 different levels.
As a start I would search for clubs that have a pele or maradonna team and see which ones are local to you. I'm not sure what clubs are in your area.

For your older dc you may find you are on a wait list. Your older dc should have a school football team to join - these are Saturday am games.

Leggyfrog - thanks so much for that info on the football.

After school childminder - do you actually mean a childminder (works in their own home) or a nanny (works in yours.) Have you checked if there is an after school club covering the school?

Hairdresser - bruce masefield (Bruce for cuts, Lindsay for colour)

12 hours of cleaning per week or per month????

Red roses - per week. It’s more than cleaning. It’s help with changing beds, taking in a weekly shop, laundry, towels and ironing. It’s what we use now and suits us. Five of us, both of us working full time, DH often travelling, so it avoids his “share” of housework being dumped on me.

-statisticallychallenged - I mean an after school nanny probably. There are after school clubs but we need some flexibility.

David Lloyd gym near there. Has a nursery in it.
www.davidlloyd.co.uk/clubs/edinburgh-corstorphine?utm_source=google&utm_medium=places&utm_campaign=lpm_edinburgh

Indie or state schools? Reason for asking it affects after school care options.

With that amount of housekeeper hours you might have more luck combining after school care role with the housekeeping role. Would end up with about 28 hours in one which might also help with holidays.