Moving to Glasgow from NZ with 16yo

[Tinofcurses]

I posted something similar in Education, but someone suggested I might get more info here.

I have tons of questions...

We're planning on moving to Glasgow from NZ at the end of 2020. ds will be 16.5 by then. He will have completed year 11 in early Dec 2020, with 2 more years of school to go if we stayed here. I'm thinking he should probably go into S4 in January, and then carry on from there.

Does that sound right/possible? Will he be super old compared to the rest of his year? If so, does it matter? How does the secondary school system work anyway? I went to school in England about 500 years ago, and ds has only been in the NZ system so far, so I'm clueless.

Also, any thoughts about which parts of Glasgow to look at? We're looking for an inclusive, mixed, non-catholic school, and plenty of shops, cafes and places to walk a dog. Ideally fairly central, or at least with great public transport (no car).

We'll be renting initially, and then wanting to buy a 2 bed flat or house with a budget of around 200-220,000 (is this realistic? I have no idea).

Actually, another property related thing...Do flats for sale in Scotland have rules about pets? I know it can be difficult to find a place to rent with a dog, but is it generally ok if you buy? We will be bringing our dog, but she will stay with my parents at first if we can't find a rental property with her.

Sorry, I did warn you I have tons of questions!

Update - we're still in NZ, but hopefully not for too much longer. We've been delayed because there are currently no flights for dogs from NZ to Europe, but they're starting to open up again through Australia and we're in the queue.

We sold our house, so we're renting a one bedroom flat. I've resigned again, and I finish work next week. No flights booked for the humans, but there are plenty available into Heathrow and my parents have agreed to drive down and collect us and then isolate with us for a couple of weeks (not sure of the logistics of this, but they're convinced it will work).

We've got a flat to go to in Kelvinside (which wasn't my first choice of location, but it looks pretty nice). The next step is to start panicking about how to find a job in the current climate. And to get ds sorted with school.

How's life in Scotland/Glasgow at the moment?

The responses on this thread are batshit

Budget is perfect to get somewhere nice

Schools will be absolutely fine 🙄

Kelvinside is a lovely area.
Great you have a plan and a lift from Heathrow.

Hope the flights get sorted for you both and the dog.

Scotland is doing well containing cv, lockdown easing now.

Hello. kelvinside is great.
Things are returning to normal ish here.
I studied in Glasgow but not there now.
Best of luck with jobs and school

Hello, I lived in Kelvinside till fairly recently . You have the Botanics/ Kelvin Walkway etc. Lovely. Scotland 's done v well at reducing Covid.

Hope you get flight soon. Would be good if your son was in Scotland for school start on 11 August.

We might have flights for the dog for 10 August, arriving Edinburgh 14 August (she has a stopover in Doha on the way). TBC with the airline on Tuesday, so fingers crossed we can get them booked in. There is nothing earlier. At least they're flying direct to Scotland again, so we won't need collecting from Heathrow.

If that works out, the humans will be able to leave on 9 August and arrive in Scotland on 10 August. Ds won't be enrolled and ready to start school on the 11th, but we should be able to get him started by the following Monday.

It's not ideal, but we can't leave without the dog, especially now we know there are flights available in only a few weeks.

My parents went to NZ in January to visit my sister. We're still trying to get them back! They are Emirates which seems to be August Glasgow and September Edinburgh. (The preferred route). Get your DS in school as soon as you can but we anticipate the first 2 weeks in senior school will be settling/health and wellbeing for all. In primary we are looking at that focus for the first 6 weeks.

I don't think I could have coped with my parents here through lockdown!

I had Emirates flights originally, then tried Qatar, both cancelled (and refunded, thankfully). I'll book with Air New Zealand this time. I don't think the Auckland/LA/Heathrow flights are likely to stop running.

That all looks well timed OP. Infection rates are still low and Scottish Government have made it clear they will keep up the pressure to suppress the virus. And the sun was shining!

Kelvinside is a great location. Which schools are you looking at?

Sun was shining today that is!

I hope we get a little bit of summer when we get there!

It'll probably be Cleveden Secondary School

Cleveden has a very mixed catchment area tbh. Quite a lot of bad behaviour.

I know it has that reputation but the two families I know who send their kids there seem happy with it.

That's good. Apologies- my post was a bit abrupt. It's just I know a few teachers who work there and didn't want the OP's son to get a shock.

I don't think any other schools nearby will have space.

Ds's current school has a similarly mixed catchment, so he won't find it too much of a shock. He's a bit worried about the size of the school though. It's a lot smaller than he's used to. I think that's probably a good thing, but he's not convinced.

Will your son be going into S5? If so Hillhead is probably out as they have a 2 year pathway to Highers. Hyndland might be worth trying though.
I suspect Cleveden probably has smaller class sizes so he might benefit from more attention there.

Yes he'd be going into S5, but not sitting Highers until S6. The alternative is going into S4 (he's in the middle of the equivalent of S4 here) but he's too old and I think it would be difficult socially.

Hyndland were not super helpful when I emailed a few months ago. They said we could try and enrol when we arrive, if we're in the catchment (which we're not), but they couldn't give us any other advice about the likelihood of getting a place.

Yeah, I didnt find Hyndland super helpful either tbh.

I hope it all works out for you either way