Dunblane mums

[hazeldaze]

Dear Mums, we are planning to move to Dunblane/Stirling area this summer with kids age 8, 12, 14. My first step is to tap your knowledge on the schools; primary and secondary.. our kids are coming from abroad and are going to have quite a steep adjustment curve! We're coming over to visit the schools soon and really are just at the start of the research process, so any advice much appreciated! Also are there any facebook groups out there, along the lines of "Dunblane Mums" or families or whatever.. often those are a brilliant source of information. Looking forward to this new adventure and frankly quite daunted and trying not to let my brain explode on a Friday night!

I am not from Dunblane but stirling Dunblane have a few good facebook pages maybe join those ?and giving this bump for you.

If you’re moving to Dunblane then the simplest option is to go to your catchment schools. Your older two to the High School and your youngest to either Newton of Dunblane Primary. The other primary option is St Marys - which is a lot smaller, I think most years are composite classes.

All the schools have good reputations.

If not Dunblane then the other schools are Stirling/Wallace/Bannockburn - which one your DC would go do depends on where you live. If your DC don’t go to their catchment school transport can be a problem.

Catholic option is St Modans high School.

Dunblane probably has the ‘best’ reputation but the others are good options if your DC are engaged with their schooling, Bannockburn is probably the bottom on the list (but many go there and do well).

Balfron/Maclaren are also Stirling schools but most rural.
I don’t know of any ‘mums’ Facebook pages.

There is Dunblane High School parent Council Facebook Page that you might find interesting. Wax is a long term poster whose DC attended the school so she often imparts her wisdom on the topic. Personally I am a English teacher in a Stirling school with 4 DC the younger 2 still secondary age pupils if you have questions about "systems" I can try to help.

The Stirling area is a fantastic location to bring up kids. There is everything you could want hobby wise, gorgeous scenery and not too far from bigger cities. Good luck

Thanks lidl :)

I'm not a Dunblane mum in that I don't live in or come from Dunblane but my DSs went to the high school. Other than the Parent Council facebook page and a buy and sell type page, I'm not aware of much more. Think there is one Discover Dunblane BID which i think is more of a community business type page but there may be links on it to others. There is also pages for the scouts and BBs but those might be closed pages.

You'll have two in High School and one primary - it's definitely easier to make friends hen DC are in primary. I have some friends in Dunblane but they are all people that I know from elsewhere rather than people i met through school. Colleagues, ex neighbours, someone from here :).

It really is a brilliant area (stirling/bridge of allan and Dunblane) and as lidl says, every activity you can think of is catered for.

All the schools are decent. My last pick would probably be poor Bannockburn which sits at the bottom in terms of academic success, but it may be a brilliant school in other ways and simply suffering from a demographic with children who don't get enough support at home.

If you want to share a bit about what you are looking for in terms of housing (size/budget) and any other considerations e.g. need to walk to rail station to commute, must be walkable to golf course etc then I, and I'm sure, other locals would e happy to help. My knowledge of the North end of Stirling/bofa and dunblane is probably better than that of the south of the city.

i can help with clubs and societies and sports stuff a bit too since my DC tried everything (and did nothing!)

My kids went to BHS thankfully they left well adjusted but my god it's a hole!

Sorry Mrsjayy - I was trying to be diplomatic - it's not like me! :)

I think parental involvement and the home environment is key to the overall stats but decent kids should do well regardless. The majority of my DCs primary friends went to WHS and from what I see have mostly come out and done well for themselves (though some of their peers are already parents...! at age 17/18/19) and the school is doing really well under it's "newish" head who joined after DSs were at Dunblane. I think traditionally, geeky DC have done better at DHS as it's a bit less "lively" (though I have come across a few arrogant little feckers), but i'm not sure that it really makes much odds anymore. The playing field has been levelled a lot across the schools over the years since DSs started.

We went to Dunblane due to bullying issues in primary that DS1 needed to get away from and at the time, i'd had no reassurance that catchment school WHS could keep him safe and nurtured. From what I know now, that has changed and I might not make the same decision now. That would have saved me 6/7 years of school run...

That is ok no offence taken tbf one of mine has a learning difficulty and the Senco was brilliant I couldn't fault them dc came out with pretty decent exam results, but it is rough !

Thanks a million lovelies, you are helping me feel a bit more reassured! I'll be over first week of Feb to go and try and visit the schools and then we can try and figure out which areas we like. We're a family of 5 with dog and DH works mostly from home, so the house hunt will be fun I'm sure!

The catchments should be on-line somewhere. If you are looking for catholic provision then it's St Modans, otherwise, i'd be looking at Dunblane. Wallace or Stirling high if you want within handy access to the city.

Not sure what your budget is or what type of property, Dunblane is expensive as is most of Bridge of Allan, lots of nice areas around Stirling depending on what you want :)

I'd choose High school and area to live first and then look at primary. Are you moving within Scotland?

Great to come across this thread as we are also moving from abroad to the Dunblane /BofA area this summer. My girls will be going into S2 (12) & S3 (14). All a bit daunting but exciting too. Kids are very nervous about settling in as they have never lived in Scotland/UK and I'm keen for them to be in as nurturing an environment as possible where bullying (different accent etc) is at a minimum.

From what I know of Dunblane High it doesn't seem to have reputation as a schywhere bullying is rife. A different accent is not an issue there as there are many from broad local accent, cut glass upper English, American...

I'm not sure it has a reputation for being particularly nurturing but believe they are working on it with new pastoral roles and a nurture room fitted.

Nope moving from abroad, but both us grown up's are from Scotland) It's going to be quite a shock to the system! We're on Rightmove daily now, does seem that pickings are slim! Hubby is now proposing Peebles down in the borders, which is a lovely town, but not well connected (and a bit too close to my parents!). I'm quite open to the wider Stirling area, I see that driving/school run is going to be in my future, but I guess most UK parents do that! I've been lucky enough to kick my kids out the door every morning from the age of 5, regardless of weather or darkness.

Thanks Lidlfix. I have lots of questions that i'm hoping you may be able to give me some insight on that may also be useful to Hazeldaze. I'm also interested in Wallace? Is the student population also as diverse? I have one relatively academic child and one less so. How well are the non-academic kids supported in each school? If we end up out of catchment, is it likely we will be able to choose schools? I read on here that it wasn't an issue in the past but I'm wondering if that's still the case? We really just want our kids to be in a happy school where they will hopefully make friends easily and where there isn't too much distraction in terms of them being able to learn.

Lidl probably has better info nowadays on placing requests but in the past it wasn't an issue in DHS.

My experience has been that bullying in DHS doesn't seem to be an issue and being "different" seems to be well accepted. I'd also agree that I haven't found it to be particularly good in terms of pastoral care but other parents/DC might have different experiences. It's a nice school with a nice atmosphere, never seen a fight or anything horrible going on when I did school pick up for 6/7 years and drop off for about 4.

I'd say Wallace is a bit more diverse and probably more used to dealing with issues that DHS doesn't have or rarely has. That said, I think it has a decent leadership team who have really brought the school on academically but I think it's always been the case that really bright DC have still done well.

Friends and neighbours with DC at Wallace seem perfectly happy with the school and sports are well catered for.

Peebles is lovely and it's an area we are really familiar with and I have thoughts of retiring down that way. Reasonable bus service into Edinburgh but a lot less in terms of things to do for teens than Stirling area imo.

Wallace is known to be one of the most "comprehensive" comprehensive schools in the Scottish system. It's catchment area includes some of the most prestigious postcodes ((up the hill in Bridge of Allan) and some very deprived . As a result the school regularly has successful Oxbridge applicants but some some pupils who will leave to be 3rd generation unemployed.

There's even more diversity than Dunblane as DHS is quite a homogeneous catchment, albeit with a variety of accents. You might not have as many proper plummy posh accents at Wallace but still quite a range due to the uni and Glasgow, Edinburgh commuters. Quite a few BofA kids placement request to Dunblane. Dunblane is approaching capacity with some year groups full .

Your academic DC will be challenged as Wallace ability stream (in some subjects) as early as S1. I taught there a long time ago but loved it. It's a School of Sport so if your DC have talents at rugby, football, basketball and swimming they could high level coaching as part of the school day. Wallace has Ochil House which is provision for pupils with severe and complex needs. I used to melt when I saw how inclusive and supportive the mainstream pupils were.

Thanks so much to you both for your feedback, very helpful.

I better clarify that DHS still has spaces for pupils who move into the area, and for priority situations (care involved) etc it is just placement requests which won't be guaranteed to be granted as they have been up to now.

Think the school role is upward of 950 and capacity around 1000.

Hope I didn't cause confusion

Not at all thanks LIdlfix