Senior School in Edinburgh

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I need help! I am looking for a private school in Edinburgh for S5 and S6 for my son and daughter.
We live in Asia and are only ever in Edinburgh when the schools are on holiday, so don't have the opportunity to go and get a feel for each school. My mum lives in Edinburgh and she has attended Open Days on my behalf, but of course she comes away thinking they are all fabulous as that's what Open Days are there for!
I have looked through the websites and have a short list of George Heriots; Edinburgh Academy and George Watsons. The Mary Erskine and Stewart Melvile also look interesting but not sure what my thoughts are on single sex for a year followed by co-ed for the final year.

The two most important factors for me are challenging academically and a welcoming student body. My kids are both book worms and don't want to be forced to play sport.

I also can't find any information on the websites about the school hours. Are they all the standard 9am to 3pm ish?

I realise school choice is personal but so hard to make choices when all you have is the school's promotional materials!
Any advice very welcome.

DC are at Watson’s (S6 and S3). DS also got into Heriot’s but he far preferred Watson’s (and so DD didn’t really get a choice ). I don’t think there’s much between the two- possibly Watson’s has a bit more emphasis on sport, but neither of my children play rugby/hockey and it’s not a problem.

School day is 8:40 (for form- classes start at 8:50) until 3:30.

They are definitely challenged academically and the teachers seem to note particular areas of interest and recommend additional reading etc. It’s a large school so there is a wide range of subjects, especially AHs. In 6th year they also run a lot of seminar type courses- e.g. right now DS is supposed to be attending finance type lectures (but is actually heading off for his last DoE expedition).

Thanks for your reply. The feeling I am getting generally is that they are all good so I guess I need to see which they get into go from there. Do love the view from the courtyard at Heriots which could be a deciding factor

Just on reputation, George Heriot’s is known as the most academic, anecdotally they don’t ‘do’ dylexia, for example, but that’s just based on word of mouth.

Apart from that, they all seem very good and very similar.

Have you any preference for where you’d like/need to live? I find quality of life and travel time to school to be really important.

Watsons and Heriots would be easiest - Watsons slightly closer but Heriots a convenient bus ride.
EMSM I thought might be OK as they have a school bus service but leaning away from that since I discovered co-ed starts in S6 - if it had been from S5 then possibly.
Hadn't even considered Edinburgh Academy but when my mum went to Heriot's recent open day, another parent apparently told her how fabulous it is! It is a bit further away.
I like that Watsons sounds more inclusive academically but not sure about the size. My kids once did a summer camp there too and they were the only non-Watsons children to attend. They found it a lot less friendly than the camps they did at Dynamic Earth/Edinburgh Zoo etc. where it was a mix of children from lots of schools, so that kind of puts them off - perhaps unfairly.

I have heard, anecdotally, that EA can be difficult for children who don’t live in the New Town, but that might be a few isolated cases (though it did put me off the school as I knew the parents!).

I also know quite a few parents with DC at EMSM and they all love it. Like you, I wasn’t keen on single sex until S6 so we didn’t really consider it.

Is EA still 60:40 boy:girl, it was last time I checked, which put me off for my quiet daughter.

I agree that Heriot's has a reputation for being the most academic whereas Watson's has better facilities for sports/drama. I also agree with a PP that Heriot's learning support provision is fairly poor.

Heriot's is a much smaller school than Watson's which I liked.

I didn't really consider single sex, although EA has a bit of a reputation for snobbery that put me off.

This is all great info - thank you!

Dd ESMS in 6th form. Loves it and has really flourished in STEM subjects there. Think there are one or 2 who join in upper school each year and seam to settle well.

I went to ESMS - it was many years ago, though. However I can confirm that going from single-sex to co-Ed in sixth year turned a lot of us crackers and my grades personally dived. Not sure if that helps and it was also many years ago now, but I do agree with you that it is something to consider .

Off for a good cringe now as I think back ...

Haha! And I think for my two going from co-ed to single sex and then back to co-ed over two years would not be sensible.

It was essentially like putting hundreds of Bennet sisters together with a good proportion of Edinburgh’s boys; I’m sorry to say that I was a complete Lydia . A lot of girls were extremely sensible and grown up about it, so hopefully your children would be more like them? Good luck whatever you decide. But whatever you do, get them to practise holding on to their kilts in the wind before going out in public- everyone in the central belt saw my tights during the 1990s 😄

As a mum with a DC at Heriots with Dylexia, wanted to say that so far we have nothing but praise for the learning support team and school as a whole

We moved back from the US at the end of 2018, and DS (13) joined Watson’s at the beginning of the Spring term, he’s really happy there and has settled in well, likes that the school is large with lots of options in subjects and broad range of pupils. We interviewed for Herriot as well, was interesting and not as flexible as Watson’s approach to in-year transfer. Very happy with our choice. There doesn’t seem to be an over emphasis on sport - although DS does his main sport out of school - so he might just be oblivious to it.

Thanks for your input. My mum is going to the open day at Watsons tomorrow so will see what she says. Sounds to me that Watsons or Heriots would be a good fit.