Scotland from Devon

[Madmummyx5]

Hi everyone
Partner has been offered a promotion and will be based in Rosyth.

The kids and I are really excited about it but having absolutely no idea about Scotland I need some advice.

Question 1
Partner would ideally like to be within 30/45 mins travel time to work and I’d like a village/nice community. Could you give me some starting areas. He likes the look of Kinross but that’s as far as locations we have.

Question 2
Are there any areas we should avoid? I’d like the kids to be outside as much as possible like they are here, we both drive but would like to be able to walk with the pushchair as much as possible.

Question 3
Do we ALL have to be living in the catchment area of the school or if my partner is up there first can he apply for the schools before the kids move up?

Question 4
My Daughter is currently in year 9 and has chosen her GCSE options are they the same and will they transfer with her?

Question 5
I sort of understand the secondary school part and understand that it’s based on month of birthday (April ) so would she be a S3?

Thanks in advance

I'm local to Kinross. It's a lovely town (don't call it a village)

If you're thinking about the new houses at Lathro, maybe read up a bit. Check the Courier and Perthshire Advertiser websites for stories. There have been lots of local difficulties with the new hones, planning permission breaches, roads built too narrow, etc

Elsewhere in Kinross is great.

While I would normally caution against having a commute over the Queensferry Crossing, if you lived in South Queensferry you'd be going the right way across the traffic. My DH commutes into Fife from South Queensferry and very rarely has an issue.

Schools are good (brand new high school opening in April next year; new primary due soon) although the primary schools are fairly full due to lots of new housing - two have been or are being extended though. Lots of walks, friendly people, excellent links into Edinburgh, sailing, a beach and three iconic bridges. It's a great place to live.

I would recommend Aberdour of all the places mentioned. Very strong community spirit with an annual art festival. People i know that live there love it. The beach is AMAZING (shame about the weather!), it has a train station with regular transport to Edinburgh. Close second is South Queensferry. Again strong community, always stuff going on, very quaint town centre, nearby railway station which also offers train commute to Rosyth if necessary. The houses around the railway station are newish build and gorgeous family homes.

Q1 : Be careful with longer commutes. The roads are very rural and weather or small incidents can make a longer commute very time consuming and it can also be mentally draining. There are a range of lovely villages close enough to Rosyth that should meet your expectations.

Q2: Avoid Inverkeithing, Valleyfield, Oakley and I don't think the inland options are what you are looking for. Most of the other coastal villages are lovely but as mentioned, bus links aren't great so as long as you are prepared to chauffeur...

Walking: There is LOADS. The Fife coastal path runs directly through all the coastal villages and is an amazing walk - it's paved in most areas. There are other inland walks also. fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/
There are a few country parks (Lochore country park, Pittencrief Park, Beveridge Park, Ravenscraig Park, Loch Leven - to name a few). These are all within Rosyth area. Further afield Beecraigs Park and the John Muir Way.

Hi guys
Little update, so we’ve spent the week up here in Scotland, I have to say I’m in love with everything.
We love Kinross and we found everyone really friendly.
The kids loved both the high school and primary school and they absolutely fell in love with Kirkgate park.

We managed a drive to Perth and even though I loved the canal and the buildings were beautiful it didn’t give me the same “nice” feeling.

We visited Dunfermline and also managed an evening of at the amazing leisure park, took us ages to decide what to eat.

We are going to head to the Theme park tomorrow and I’m ashamed to say I never even knew Scotland had one.

Now I just need to find a home and we will be sorted, thank you to everyone for the help you all gave

Where is there a canal in Perth?

There is a Canal Street but I don’t remember a canal... I don’t think you would mistake the River Tay for a canal!

There are lots of Canal Streets around the country: historical relics of filled-in canals.

Iirc, the one near me (in Glasgow) became a railway line

D'uh - should read the post properly - I see that Madmummy referred to a canal

Might be a bit late now but if you like Kinross you would probably like Linlithgow which is beautiful, has great walks and good schools too. Its closer to Edinburgh and Glasgow so easier once the kids are wanting to galivant to gigs etc. If you have any time left its worth a visit

Purple frog. Maybe OP meant the Lade. Although I don't know that anyone would find that beautiful

I stayed in Kinross-shire for a while.

Please don’t get too excited about the theme park, especially if used to Alton Towers/Chessington type ones.

Pretty much every town or village will have ‘good’ or ‘rough’ areas these can be as small as one street.

My cousin has recently moved to one of the new builds in Kinross. His experience is fine, some teething problems but no more than he expected.

I remember a restaurant in Perth that had a waterwheel inside. We ate there probably about 30 years ago - assume that is/was on the Lade?

Y7 and P7 are not the same due to England having reception and Scotland starting in p1.
Y9 is equivalent to S3. I went to school (in Scotland) with twins who were April birthday and moved up from England and they went into the year above as that was suited to where they were academically

PurpleFrog. That would have been the City Mills. Now Mercure Hotel

Yes that is the lade. Trying to clean it up but losing battle against shopping trolleys and litter

Don't rule out the SW of Edinburgh - it's a reverse commute. Kinross has no train station for future proofing and teens.

That's not not quite the case - it's more complicated than that, due to the 6 month difference in cut-off dates. Y11 is the equivalent of S4 - when young people sit GCSEs and National 5s respectively. Both systems have up to 2 years of school left (1 year for Highers and a 2nd year for Advanced Highers/more Highers/more Nat 5s; 2 years for A Level. The difference in Scotland is that it is possible to go to Uni after S5/Highers).

It's true there is no reception year in Scotland, but Y1 and P1 are the first years of compulsory education in both systems.

A September born child will end up being in the younger half of the year in Scotland (especially because of deferrals), whereas a September born child will be the oldest in England in the year below