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!

@comfysocks I think you're right, coming in August would be easier, and it would also mean ds doesn't need a gap year unless he wants one.

He's very determined he wants to finish the year here, and I don't think I've ever made a decision he doesn't agree with before. I'm not sure I can do it.

The more I think about it the more I think moving in July/August is the best idea for ds. Leaving halfway through the year here will be horrible, but starting a new school at the beginning of the school year makes so much sense. And then he can go into either S4 or S5, depending on how the academic levels match up, and have the best chance of succeeding.

It feels very soon though!

I need to find a job and sell my house and furniture I don't want to ship, and having a whole year to do that felt ok.

Maybe I should start looking for work and see if anyone is actually interested? I'm not sure how transferable my skills are.

Personally OP I agree with coming back earlier too, in fact i'd try to get over at Easter time, get him in and settled before the summer hols so he can choose subjects, maybe make a friend or two and then have the summer off to do an explore. That way, if he went into S4 he could have a good go at the Nat 5s and be in a position to start his Highers with experience behind him, or start the Higher curriculum at the same time as everyone else and do a gap year before Uni to meet the residency. Also, either way, he'd have met the 3 years by the time he is applying for finance to start in the September.

What is it you do for work OP?

@ContadoraExplorer I'm in the public sector, monitoring the performance of crown entities, and writing regular reports to the minister, and managing ministerial appointments to various boards. It's kind of hard to explain and I'm not sure what it would be called in the UK if the job even exists.

I'm happy to take a pay cut and/or move sideways into something else. I guess my role is mainly relationship management and analysis plus a lot of writing

@rhubarbcrumbles I think you're getting mixed up with the English system. Our year is 1st March to 28th Feb so all children born within these dates would be in the same year at school, unless the parents have chosen to defer entry for a Jan/Feb birthday.
16.5 would be quite old for joining 4th year after Christmas. My son is in 4th year now, currently doing prelims and he will only be 16 in Jan and he's one of the oldest in his year as we deferred him starting school till he was 5.5. You still have DC's only turning 15 after Christmas.

Op, I'd get myself signed up for alerts from indeed jobs and get on Linkedin if you aren't already and start sussing out the market and what is out there. I wouldn't be tying myself to a particular area until I either knew where i'd be working or had established where the biggest market for jobs was.

Obviously public sector exists everywhere but you also have Holyrood (the parliament not the palace...) which might be a good fit or relationship management in the finance sector? Lots of stuff is outsourced now and they need people to manage the relationships on both sides. What about change management? I think you probably need experience in all the fancy spreadsheet things they use though and maybe Agile?

Even November and December birthdays can be deferred (and occasionally October but very rare for "older" kids - unless they've come from abroad )

(And rhubarb has demonstrated before that they don't understand the Scottish system, so I'd ignore )

The joy of the Scottish "all the way through" schooling system (and no 6th form "selection" ) and its exam system is that young people can and do sit Nat 5s alongside Highers and Advanced Highers. And in fact, technically there is no need to sit Nat 5s at all as Curriculum for Excellence was designed for those that were capable to go straight through to Higher.

Definitely sign up for job alerts through this website: www.work-for-scotland.org/

and maybe even email some recruiters who might be able to help you find something that might fit in the private sector, I'm sure you will have lots of transferable skills!

Web Search for civil service jobs, on the gov.uk site as well as work for Scotland and myjobscotland. Those three should cover your for public sector perm stuff.

Any suggestions of recruiters I could try? I've been looking at indeed and signed up for alerts from various places. I think I will apply for something and see what happens

If you wanted to investigate the north west of the city there’s Bearsden or Milngavie (pronounced mill-guy) or the West End.

All considered good areas with places to go on your doorstep, though the West End covers a large area and has loads to more to do than just in Bearsden or just in Milngavie. But they are on the border of countryside heading towards Stirlingshire so they have that appeal which the west end doesn’t have.

Have a look at rightmove, slater Hogg, Clyde property, gspc sites for prices. They all do for rent and for sale prices so you can see what to expect.

I don’t know if it’s the same where you are but sometimes you will see a bargain priced property you like supposedly in the area you want and subsequently find out it’s just on the cusp and isnt really classed as The West End or whatever.

So be careful and look on the map to where it is first. That’s why sometimes houses in say North Kelvinside can seem like bargains, they are actually in the back of Maryhill. (Not as exclusive and sought after) and aren’t the bargain you initially think they are.

Some bizarre responses here.
In scotland secondary school is 1st year through to 6th. Depending on when his birthday falls he could be in either 4 or 5th year.
Actual exams happen in May/June with prelims (mock exams) in January.
Moving in December would be risky purely because the subjects he is studying in NZ might but be available at new school or the circularium will differ meaning he won't be as the same stage as his peers.
He can leave high school education from 16, so I guess if he know what he wants to do next he can plan.

You budget for a 2 bed flat is plenty, with left over and yes dog will be allowed when you buy. Only a few complexes will have no dogs but mostly you'll find once you buy you'll have no issues. Renting can be more tricky.

Glasgow is great! More fun and affordable than Edinburgh. I’d recommend a flat in the westend, and private education.

In terms of schooling I think he will be fine starting in 5th year (highers). I also moved continents when I was 16 and that’s what I did.

There’s a brilliant independent book shop in shawlands, it’s called Young’s Interesting books. There’s a main stream bookshop (Waterstones) a couple of miles away in the nearest shopping mall (silverburn) or in town. There’s are very large numbers of coffee/brunch places and I think shawlands/strathbungo is a good place for food generally atm.

Shawlands academy is the most culturally diverse school in Scotland and like most schools it’s great for some but not all, depends on the child. My younger son is there and doing great but it wasn’t such a good fit for my older child. Lots of nice kids though and a huge range of parents so a wide range of social opportunities. There’s a lot of people coming into the neighbourhood.

The west end of Glasgow would be a great place to live too and good schools but you’ll get a much nicer place to live with your budget in the Southside. A large 2 bedroomed tenement would be ideal and affordable. The flats opposite Queens park are fantastic if you could stretch your finances a little.

Your job would maybe fit in with Scottish government jobs and there might be other jobs with organisations within the country. Can you hint a bit more on your specific area and we might be able to point you in the right direction?

Shawlands sounds ideal. I want to move there right now!

I'm in the education sector, but my job isn't particularly education related.

My super unhelpful mum (who is a secondary school teacher in Scotland but is too busy to answer any of my questions) has just emailed me to say moving in July/August is a terrible idea as the school year starts in May.

Is this true for all schools? How much work could they really get done before the summer holiday anyway? Surely ds could easily catch up on a month? And surely lots of people move house/school over the summer period?

Worth worrying about or no?

At DSs school they start the S4 curriculum at the beginning of May and the Higher Curricullum at the end of May (when the exams end). That's it until the end of June summer hols. However, school have said that around a 3rd of DC change their options starting in August after they've had the exam results.

Friend has a child at school in Glasgow and they didn't start the Higher curriculum until they went back after the holidays last year. It meant 3 weeks of thumb twiddling before the holidays so a lot of DC skipped school. They've not sat any exams/had results yet so no idea if it's had any effect.

I think I said before, I'd be looking to arrive after Easter/in May to get the best start, but I guess it depends on what year you go into and which school as to whether that will make a difference or not.

Most schools do indeed start their "new year"/Higher curriculum at the beginning of/early June (depends on when the SQA exams finish). But that means just 3 weeks (at most) of teaching before the break up for the summer holidays/numbers decline as people go off on holiday (no fines in Scotland ).

And many pupils will then change what they want to do when they start back at school mid August, once they know their exam results (or simply because they've changed their mind).

Good teachers are used to this (something to remind your mum )

If you look back at some of the previous threads on Scottish schooling, you'll see comments from teachers about this.

Some might start their Nat 5 curriculum in May, when the S4s and above are off on study leave but my recollection of Shawlands is that the whole school starts the "next" year's curriculum the 1st full week of June - and sometimes as late as (say) 9th June.

Your mum is right in the fact that yes timetables change normally the 1st week of June but the schools go on holiday 3 weeks later so him starting in August would be fine

Glaswegian here. Just chiming in to say Shawlands sounds perfect for what your looking for. Your boy will go into 5th year starting mid August. They will do some prep after exams finish in June but not much. His classmates will be 15 - 16, birthday range is from 1st March to 28/9th Feb.

Glasgow's slogan is People Make Glasgow and it really is true. You'll never meet a friendlier bunch of people.

The only downside of Glasgow is the people who take Rangers/Celtic and therefore Protestant/Catholic too seriously. But that's much less prominent now, although it is still there. But that's it, rest of it's perfect.

Also depends on location, east coast and Stirling schools and possibly lots of others don't finish until the end of June so 4 full weeks after exams rather than 3. Still doesn't matter that much as a fair amount of pupils will start some subjects fresh in August as they've changed their mind.

That said, I still think coming earlier would be better. It will make no odds to your DS as he wont be finishing the year in NZ anyway so no difference to finishing in April/May to finishing in July. You'd have time to come over and suss out areas before really committing to a school, he might have a chance to speak to staff and get to make a few friends before the simmer hols and would have time to go and explore and settle in before school starts back again.

Just my view though and there might be other factors I'm not thinking about :)