Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Unflip

Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

1 2 3 4

Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

Scotsnet

Scottish Primary Education

76 replies

Doublethecuddles · 21/04/2015 09:26

Is anybody else glad that they live in Scotland and don't have the stress and worry that those in England have in getting a primary school place? There whole system seems so complicated!

OP posts:

Report

roughtyping · 07/05/2015 17:27

happyelf saw upthread you were waiting to hear back and it sounded like a school close-ish to me - is it merging in the next couple of years? Did you manage to get a place?

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 30/04/2015 21:33

weird! probably need to post outside Scotsnet for some info on Reception :)

I think it is a bit more academic than pre school nursery year here in Scotland though.

Report

chickenschicken · 30/04/2015 21:21

Thanks OneM.
I'll need to figure out what they do in reception, only other option here is kindergarten as there's a law banning kids from nursery after their 4th birthday! Middle east...

Report

Ubik1 · 30/04/2015 21:09

GP spaces are not protected by law so it's very easy for them to become classrooms.

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 30/04/2015 21:07

technically she needn't go to reception at all and could simply start Yr1 in September 18. so not that much different. In practice though I think most children do reception year.

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 30/04/2015 21:05

Hmm sort of right, she would go into Reception in England in September 2017 but wouldn't start P1 in Scotland until August 2018. If you were still in England, she'd go into yr1 in September 2018 - I think!

Report

chickenschicken · 30/04/2015 20:57

I've just really confused myself.
I'm an expat, DD (b. June 2013) will be going into a school with English cut offs so turns 4 in june 2017 and starts school 3months later?! We move back to Scotland and she turns 5 in 2018 and would be in p1?
For some reason I thought she wouldn't be in wrong year. Eejit

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 30/04/2015 20:39

definitely chickens, that makes no sense at all - at least here no child should be starting till they are 4 and a half.

Report

chickenschicken · 30/04/2015 20:34

It's the August /September cut off that baffles me. Surely the Scottish system makes more sense?

Report

Doublethecuddles · 29/04/2015 16:59

We are at a rural school and have 5 classes which are all composite. Children out with catchment aren't guaranteed a place, but in 5 years no child hadn't got a space. Parents out with catchment choose our school as there local school only has 2 classes.

OP posts:

Report

blowinahoolie · 29/04/2015 14:22

Semi-rural seems to be the ideal and it's just been pot luck that we've ended up in our situation OOAOML as we moved to an area neither of us were familiar with and thankfully it's turned out brilliantly (so far!). Will see how secondary education is once I get to that stage with the DC....it may be a completely different story to nursery and primary education!

Report

OOAOML · 29/04/2015 14:12

I regularly clog up threads banging on about my husband's complete unwillingness to live outside Edinburgh so I shall try not to rehash it all.

I'd much rather be semi-rural, or small town. I don't want to move back to 'almost the middle of nowhere' because it isn't great when you're a teenager, but I'd prefer not to live here. And we could have so much more housewise for our money (he just bangs on about how we'd have to pay to commute - whereas I am more focussed on having a better place to live).

I'm glad mine aren't in the 50 children scenario! It is such a blatant misuse of the legislation setting out a ratio of 1:25.

Report

blowinahoolie · 29/04/2015 14:02

I wouldn't want them educated in Edinburgh due to the fact that class sizes are so big, and it's such a carry on getting a place at many of the state schools there. Semi-rural OOAOML. I understand why people want their DC educated there (DH wanted to raise them in south west of Edinburgh but we chose not to have a huge mortgage and moved outwith the cities).

"We have two primary 1 classes in one large room. The teachers seem quite enthusiastic about team-teaching. Personally the thought of almost 50 children in one room give me the shivers"

Good grief, I wouldn't be happy with that scenario I'm afraid! That's not a good way to teach with so many in one area at once.

Report

OOAOML · 29/04/2015 13:57

Are you urban or rural blowin? I'm assuming areas with few schools are much less likely to be run at absolute capacity. I don't know about other areas, but I think the main problem we've had in Edinburgh is that at various times there has been a fair amount of capacity in schools, but instead of leaving them (as would probably happen in a more rural area) the council have jumped on the chance to save money in one budget year, whilst ignoring the fact that in a few years they will have to spend much more money building extensions/reopening schools etc.

There seems to be nobody on the council taking a long term view of 'well this school has quite a lot of capacity at present, but we could cut a class now and then change back again in 3 years time because we have a lot of children who've been born in the last year or so'. Instead they seem to be trying to run all the schools as full as they can manage - I appreciate that this might make short-term financial sense, but the reality is pretty grim. So they think 'these three schools all have a little bit of capacity, we'll close one, take away a couple of meeting rooms and then we'll have two schools efficiently running at full capacity. Then they look confused in two years time when all the children who they already knew about apply for primary 1 places and they don't have anough room.

When I was at primary, it was a rural area and we had four teachers which went down to three when our year left. There was another school we knew of that only had two teachers. But these schools were kept open, there was no problem getting a place in them, and if another teacher was needed then another teacher was employed. Because it would have been too far to travel to go to another school. In the cities the councils can be much more trigger happy about how they manage this, and the result has been the situation people are talking about here with appeals etc.

We have two primary 1 classes in one large room. The teachers seem quite enthusiastic about team-teaching. Personally the thought of almost 50 children in one room give me the shivers (fortunately I am not a teacher).

It is one of the reasons I'd like to move out of Edinburgh to be honest.

Report

blowinahoolie · 29/04/2015 13:38

Our primary school has fairly small class sizes so DC are very lucky in that respect. I don't know anyone who has had trouble getting their DC into a primary school but appreciate secondary schools may be very different, especially if it's a RC one.

Report

OOAOML · 29/04/2015 12:58

Great news Bloody

When our school had their capacity reduced and intake frozen the council tried to claim we didn't have enough general purpose space. Once all the schools were crammed, they suddenly managed to redefine GP requirements.

The building we've had put up currently includes GP space. We were told it would always be GP space. I'd bet it is classrooms in 1 or 2 years at the rate the schools are growing. And they haven't even built the new housing opposite the last school they closed yet but it is planned. No idea where those children are meant to go (it is going to be mixed council and housing association).

Report

HoppityVoosh · 29/04/2015 12:50

Congratulations Bloody! That's great news!

Report

Ubik1 · 29/04/2015 12:14

Out school is very overcrowded and is using general purpose rooms To cope.

It was built with a 'media suite' which now accommodates two classes - 60
Children.

It is struggling to accommodate in-catchment children and if limits are set, the parents just appeal and the children are let in.

The council are trying to cap the intake but I doubt this will hold.

It meNs many parents do not know what primary their child will be attending

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 29/04/2015 12:06

Didn't seem to be any bother and they just added me to the mail list for newsletter etc and sent me out the induction details - which were different than for the catchment school and it's your own responsibility to arrange to get them out of primary and take them up etc.

Hope you get good news re nursery - think they prioritise morning spaces for pre school though.

Report

BloodyDogHairs · 29/04/2015 12:00

ah good, I thought it was more jumping thru hoops lol and form filling ins.

Just waiting to hear about a place for nursery for my 3 yr old but I was told catchment areas don't matter for nursery. I'm hoping for a morning slot.

Report

OneMagnumisneverenough · 29/04/2015 11:34

Congrats!!

You just need to call them to confirm you are taking up the space - that's what I did :)

Report

BloodyDogHairs · 29/04/2015 11:18

OMG after asking yesterday about when we find out about placements.....the letter comes today! My DS got a place at the high school

The letter says I need to contact the school to enroll him now so I'll need to phone as I'm not sure how it all works now as I can't mind what happened when my DD started at the high school.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Email address

You've subscribed!

HoppityVoosh · 28/04/2015 18:33

His nursery is term time only so for now the head teacher has said all meetings need to be with the catchment school, I wish both schools could be involved but then it'd be a waste of at least one school's time. Hopefully going to draft the letter tomorrow then speaking to our local councillor is a great idea. We have a few teachers in the family too who have offered to look over our appeal letter too.

Report

OOAOML · 28/04/2015 16:53

Just seen the ASD aspect. We were still trying to get an assessment when we were applying (only happened at the end of P1) but we did highlight concerns and developmental delays in our letter. Try and get it drafted as soon as possible - speaking to a local councillor can also be good, as they know how the appeals process works.

We were really worried about transition activities - we worried about him attending both, or attending one and then not going to that school. We did chat to both head teachers about ways to manage it.

Report

OOAOML · 28/04/2015 16:49

I think in our case (Edinburgh) the appeals were going to be taking place in July. I've just checked my emails (I saved it at the time) and we were offered a place on 2nd June, so he still managed to do the transition meetings the nursery were organising (I think he missed one).

I don't know what it is like where you are, but we knew that there were people who had places at the school we had a place at who wanted places at the school we wanted but didn't have a place at (can't think how to make that sentence work) but that special priority was given to all the people from the housing development that wasn't in any catchment (brilliant plannning there!). We also knew the school we had places at was struggling to take everyone, and they were actively encouraging deferrals and placing requests out. I imagine someone in the council had to go through and make decisions based on all that, I know they wanted to minimise the number of appeals as there were loads across the city.