Banchory Academy

[Luvlyjubbly]

Hello, we are moving to the Banchory catchment area with our children. We viewed a property yesterday and were shocked to be told by the estate agent that there are serious behaviour issues with the teenagers from Banchory Academy. He told us he'd had to break up a fight to stop an older pupil from beating up a younger pupil to within an inch of his life. He further told us that teenagers are pickings fights and filming them to post on social media. As parents we are understandably extremely concerned about what he told us and are now having second thoughts about our relocation. Does anyone have any experience of the academy and the behaviour of pupils inside and outside of school? Would we be safer choosing another catchment area such as aboyne or Alford? We chose Banchory because it seems like a lovely friendly town and the school achieves good results for it's pupils. Any experience or advice would be very gratefully received. My husband I haven't slept since we spoke to the estate agent. Many thanks.

@lisette1940 and @emummy : hopefully you have settings which will notify you of the tags, as you posted back in April positively about schools in Banchory.

My only knowledge of Aberdeen is of the Uni as ds has just finished his 1st year and of via Granite City, the U18 rugby team (ds was the oldest in the team last season )

Hi, not aware of issues like those, both of my daughters are at the school. They're asleep just now, will ask them when they get up and report back later!

Ok, have spoken to Dd1 who is in S6. She doesn't recognise the description of 'serious behaviour issues'. In her opinion there are some small groups of pupils who cause trouble within their own groups but not as a widespread issue with the rest of the pupils. She says that the students are very welcoming and friendly to newcomers. We both feel that there are some problems in all schools and that they are not a major issue in Banchory. She feels that as pupils progress through the school and get into doing the subjects they really enjoy, rather than having to do everything as in the first 2 years, they become more settled in their year group.
Out isn't school I haven't encountered problems around the town with widespread bad behaviour and would say that Banchory is a friendly and pleasant place to live, with a good range of activities and is not too far from Aberdeen for commuting to work.

Sorry, should say out with school I haven't encountered problems, not out isn't!

No first hand experience of the Academy but chipping in to say that it seems very odd behaviour for the agent to be scaremongering. We are in the North East, moved away after graduation for a decade or so then gravitated back, and Banchory has always had a great reputation, both the town and the secondary school. The agent’s behaviour is even more puzzling given the ongoing sales slump in the housing market in our neck of the woods.

Would you say there will be a lot of interest in the house you are looking at Luvlyjubly? Great houses are still going relatively quickly even despite the oil and gas downturn here.

If you have visited the school and liked what you saw I think I’d go with your instinct rather than one person’s running their mouth off. I do think it’s true that you get a handful of rogue pupils at every school but it’s how the school deal with things and how open they are about issues that really matters. And how confident you are that your DC will make good friendship choices.

Thank you so much for your reassuring replies! My impression of Banchory was exactly as you say - a really friendly town with a high performing secondary school. I'm confused why the agent said such negative things, you would think he would sell the area. Its daunting making a relocation and we hope we've chosen a nice place to bring up our family. I'm really glad to hear that your experiences are positive, that's what we were hoping to hear. Thank you

Good luck with your move, hope it all goes well

I have (had) two kids at Banchory Academy. One is just leaving for uni, the other is in S3.

Overall we are pleased with the school. Both my DCs don't hang round with trouble makers so they have avoided any bad behaviour. I'm sure some does go on but it will be the minority. The parents and staff are generally very supportive, hence the good results and great university destinations.

Hi, know this is an old post, but just wondered if the OP had any update - how have you found the area and schools since moving? Considering a move to Banchory area ourselves and keen to find out about the local primaries and secondaries.