Late applications to Edinburgh secondaries (long, sorry!)

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DH has been offered a brilliant job opportunity in Edinburgh, he'd be mad not to accept it. We have family in Glasgow and friends in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, I think it'd be a really positive move for us all. Currently we're in England.

But the move seems daunting as we'd be moving in the same year as our eldest's secondary school admissions, so we'd miss this process. Can anyone help me navigate this?

This has all happened really quickly - but realistically I don't think we'll have sold our house and be ready to move till the new year at the earliest, or later if the market's not moving - unless we're really lucky.

Also, because of the difference in the English and Scottish systems, I can't see any way of doing this other then selling our house first, then renting in Edinburgh while we house hunt. We don't have much spare cash - our house budget is about £300k which I know doesn't go far in Edinburgh!

So, by the time we've bought a home in Edinburgh, we'll have long missed the applications process.

Can anyone give me any advice on this? I know the system is different to England, there isn't the same competition for places, but are Edinburgh schools oversubscribed even so?

DS is bright and has ASD (high functioning) so I need to be careful he's going to a school that he'll likely thrive in.

Will DS end up without a school? Or sent to one miles away that's not suitable for him? Are we mad to consider this?

Thanks for reading all this!

"leafy and friendly" sounds lovely!

I'm not totally against new builds. I've come across many on my searches that'd be great. I'm just not at all keen to spend years living somewhere that feels really soulless, do you know what I mean?

You're totally right, it's so personal isn't it?! For me, it's more about the wider area than the house, so not kerb appeal as such. e.g. I'd rather come home from work / see my DC grow up in an ugly house in a pretty area with character, then in a pretty house in the middle of a sea of otherwise soulless identical houses. Not Wester Hailes for example, from what I've seen online. (Sorry to anyone from Wester Hailes!)

But being on an estate that feels homely and has character, totally up for that.

I guess people have all sorts of different experiences. We lived in penicuik for about 5 years, the latter 2 with our DC, we made so many friends of all ages and have really great memories of our time there and were still exchanging photos and christmas cards with our elderly neighbour until she died a couple of years ago. We lived in Denny for a couple of years and just didn't settle although again, we made friends that 15 years after moving we still socialise with. I can name virtually everyone in our street of 24 houses and it's the place where DC could could knock on any door and get help if they needed it.

I would add that we are actually quite shy as people too so it's not like we are creating this social bubble with our magnetic outgoing personalities!

You should know what feels right for you and you will know when it's not (hopefully). We rushed into the Denny move as we needed to move quickly for a new job and we bought off-plan into an estate where we were the 3rd house occupied. It was desirable in the local area but we just never felt at home and therefore moved again before DC were ready for school.

We only break up on the 20th dec this year, just thought I’d mention in case you could come up in time to catch the schools before the finish

Damn, 20th here too! Then back for the 6th.

I don’t think you have need to look at schools at Christmas . I think you need to look at areas that meet your criteria for your house and then look at where the local school is on the league tables ( or however else you what to judge them).

Like most people, you will probably have to compromise on some of your criteria because budget.

TBH High schools don't organise visits for people who are thinking of moving into the area, they are too busy. So it doesn’t matter if you come up in early December or not.

Start researching the housing market now. Google maps makes this a lot easier than it used to be.

I live in Corstorphine and my children didn't go to the oversubscribed school for high school, but the "deprived" one. The pastoral care has been outstanding. Dd did well in exams, Ds struggles more but gets nurtured to support him in the best way.

Re deferral. I deferred Dd as she was born early in the January. She definitely benefitted.

In my previous job, I successfully as a practitioner helped support and got approved deferral for a September born child. We got evidence from the paediatrician, ASL services, the nursery, the parents which helped it be approved on first attempt. We have seen children refused because a good enough argument couldn't be put forward. The parents usually self funded in a private nursery instead.

It would be worth looking at Schools with good ASL support bases. Forrester, St Augustine's, Craigmount and St Thomas's are the ones of the top of my head. It gives the pupil a place of safety where they receive a full education if they can't do it in the class or they will be supported in classes with a PSA.

Yes Livingston is probably not what you're looking for, it's affordable, convenient for communiting, plenty of amenities and decent enough schools but it's a new town and doesn't have charm or character at all.

There are lots of excellent secondary schools in Edinburgh and very few terrible ones. I work in pastoral care schools though the Lothians and there are a few I wouldn't recommend purely from my own experience: Lasswade, Musselburgh, Knox, Ross High and Penicuik.

Schools that I rate highly purely based on my expierence of working with their pupil pastoral support, Gracemount, Royal High, Firhill and Currie.

You could get a three bed house for your budget in the catchment area of Firrhill, Royal High,
Balerno, Currie, Forrester, Queensferry High. A catchment area has more and less expensive parts usually - we are not taking period here though!