Primary schools in Ayr

[StiffLittleFinger]

Just looking for some thoughts on primary schools in Ayr.

We live in a rural village atm so DS has been used to small class sizes and I'm not keen on throwing him into a huge school. Holmston primary looks appealing however I'd like him to go to Kyle academy and the associated secondary for Holmston is Belmont- will that matter?

Also wondering how much the area you live in affects what schools your child can attend- is it a case of catchment only?

No idea really how it all works- living rurally means all children just go to the nearest school and that's that. How do you go about "applying" for a school?

Just bumping as I posted late last night.

I have a friend whose kids went/go to Kyle Academy and is very happy with it.

Best thing to do re catchment v placing requests is to contact the school and ask.

Forehill is equally as good as Holmston and is catchment for Kyle. The advantage then would be he would have friends from primary going to secondary with him. Catchment areas in Ayr don't follow logical geographic boundaries so I think there are probably loads of placing requests.

Kyle has approximately 50% young people there on placing requests.

I work in education and I'm not familiar with all the primary schools but I'd recommend Kyle or prestwick as secondaries.

Belmont has a good historical reputation but it's not as good as those two at present.

Avoid anything likely to lead to Ayr academy.

SLF are you coming from England, or are you broadly familiar with the catchment set up? I Don't know anything about Ayr. I have made a placing request though so may be able to help from that point of view. Usually there are forms and guidelines on the relevant council website.

Catchments for both primary and High school are based on where you live, the catchment for your high school will be based on where you live irrespective of what primary your child attends. So, if you moved to an area where Kyle Academy is the catchment high school, then he'd be entitled to go there regardless of which primary he attends. The thing to keep in mind though is that he may not necessarily be moving up with any friends he makes (imo this doesn't necessarily matter, they make new friends at high school anyway).

If you have a primary in mind but are unlikely to move into the catchment for it, I'd give them a call and ask whether they are usually able to accept placing requests and gauge it from there. Obviously they wont be able to guarantee anything in advance.

I think the local council education team are probably the best placed to guide you on what the system is for enrolling. Certainly for P1 and S1, you need to enrol at the catchment school as well as applying to the school you want via placing request. I'm not sure if you still have to do that when it's an in year application.

Remember that you wont get school transport for a placing request school.

Hi again all, and thankyou for the advice.

I'm coming from another part of Ayrshire so familiar enough with the school system generally, just not familiar with how catchments and associated secondaries work.

I'm very unlikely to be living within catchment of Forehill or Holmston and wasn't sure how important living within catchment is for Ayr- I know it can be horrific down south.

So basically I would need to enroll him in his catchment school but then make a placing request and hope that he got in? If I was planning to move him to the new school after Christmas then should I start the ball rolling now?

I really appreciate all the advice, I have no experience in this whatsoever.