Any information on Shawlands Academy?

[Frida2408]

Hi, we are looking at houses in Newlands - does anyone have any information on the primary schools - Langside I think? Or the secondaries Shawlands and Holyrood? I can't find any inspection reports online and would love to hear from people with children in those schools. We currently live in the west end and our children are in Hillhead which we are happy with but we need a bigger house. Thank you

@prettybird will be able to help I'm sure. :)

I'll repeat roughly the post that I wrote in the Secondary education topic - as much for anyone else who might be interested in the area as you

Langside seems to be a good primary school - but I only know it by reputation via the parents at the local rugby club who have kids there. Shawlands Primary is good too, as is Battlefield Primary. (My ds went to Glendale Primary but it feeds/we're in the catchment for Bellahouston Academy).

But I have nothing but praise for Shawlands Academy. Ds has just finished S6 there and is off to Aberdeen Uni on Sunday (). He was a placing request - should have gone to Bellahouston Academy. It's a great school. Encourages strong academic results but more importantly aims to to turn out well rounded individuals. We'd have done a placing request anyway but the fact that it was a School of Rugby sealed it for us (or rather dh, as he'd said he wanted ds to go to a school that did rugby from S1).

It has a friendly rivalry with Hyndland, which gets similar results (although the headteacher would insist that Shawlands is better )

Shawlands has a very mixed demographic - from a lot of SIMD1&2 (eg Govanhill) to the leafy streets of stone villas in Newlands, Strathbungo and parts of Pollokshields. It is proud of that demographic as it is part of what creates the ethos of the school - adding value to all the young people. The head teacher describes it as ranging from kids whose parent is a millionaire to those who literally don't know where their next meal is going to come from

There are apparently 55 languages spoken in the school and the British Council has described it as the most international (state?) school in the UK.

I think it's now the 2nd largest secondary in GCC (after Holyrood) and is now very much at capacity (so placing requests will become more difficult). The advantage is that they are pretty much able to offer just about any SQA subject.

If you want to get a feel, you can watch "Our School" (think that's its name ) on CBBC as it was filmed there last year.

I love the Southside (even though I was brought up in Bearsden/Milngavie and went to Bearsden Academy) with its parks (Quuens Park, Maxwell Park, Pollok Park) and good transport links - and good schools Shawlands has become quite a vibrant place as well for eateries, cafés and some wee arty shops. Not quite the West End - but still great in its own way.

Hope that helps! Any more questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks pretty bird - that's really helpful - it sounds pretty much like my daughters current school - headteacher I great. I really like the mixed demographic and they have friends from Poland, Indonesia and India plus I think all the languages spoken in the school have really benefitted them. It sounds like there is a good headteacher as well. I'm quite happy to move the the Southside despite having lived west all my life - I think the west end will change over the next few years as so few families/people can afford to buy/live here. I love all the parks on the Southside and independent cafes etc. Thanks again for your response - good luck with starting uni!! :-)

Oh yes - I saw the documentary - it was great - do you think it gives a realistic impression of the school? It did remind me a lot of my kids current school! I can't see my daughters getting in rugby though - they are more into art/music etc...

We are also looking at Milngavie etc but I think that will be a completely different vibe - much more suburban? Thanks again!

I happen to have a sporty ds, so I know more about the sports side

But the reason I mentioned "well rounded individuals" is that they also encourage music and arts, if that's more the young person's "thing". They've had success in public speaking competitions, the parent council ran a "Artistic Show Case" a few years ago and sold off some of the work that pupils has left behind. There have been some talented musicians that have gone through the school and gone on to study the subject. I've heard a few of the musicians at the annual senior awards ceremony (where they wheel out the grand piano) and they were very good. They put on a musical last year (I suppose technically the year before as we're now into a new school year).

To tell the truth, I haven't really watched "My School" (keep meaning to catch up on iPlayer ) but I know the school was happy with the producers and have been tweeting mentioning it. I knew/know the English boy (and his dad) through the local rugby club (and probably some of the other kids). I'll watch it next week (bit busy at the moment getting ds ready to go off on Sunday ) and let you know what I think.

Milngavie is indeed more suburban but still nice. I prefer its "town" centre to Bearsden's. We'd have bought there (would have been closer to my parents and dh's golf club ) if we could have found a house that we liked (we were spoilt by our lovely big rooms and tall ceiling of our Victorian tenement in Shawlands) and that we could afford. We spent 2 years looking North Side before deciding to looking South Side and finding our current house the first night of looking ! It's a 4 bedroom upper conversion (dh calls it a horizontal semi ) with a large garden in Pollokshields I'll not tell you how much we paid for it as it would just upset you

That was in 1999 - I wasn't yet pregnant but we were planning on starting a family. At the time we assumed we would move again "for the schools" - but once we did our research, we realised we didn't need to.