Edinburgh independent schools - Distance learning response

[Popskipiekin]

We’re planning to move up to Edinburgh for the academic session 2021/22 with two early primary age DC. We’ve been really impressed with the response during lockdown of our current (London) school and their provision of materials for home learning.

I was thinking that a decent response to lockdown would be something I’d be really interested to hear about as we try to choose schools for our two DC for next year, and I wondered if anyone had anything to say about the lockdown schooling response from any of Watsons / Heriots / Edinburgh Academy / ESMS ? Thanks so much - anything you can say would be helpful. I don’t know any of these schools - my brother went to EA but that was years ago - and am just trying to think outside the box slightly to get some info to help narrow our decision (which may or may not be made for us when the DC have their assessments of course).

The general consensus in Edinburgh is that EA came out on top during lockdown. We moved our 2 youngest kids from ESMS and my sister tried to move from GWC but there wasn’t space available at the time. As a family, we now have kids in P2, P5 and S3 and now that we are back in lockdown, we have to say that we are really impressed with how EA is doing things and the parent body seems generally very happy. Don’t know much about other schools, but our experience of ESMS and GWC during lockdown 1.0 was nothing short of shocking.

Hi @Scottishmumof4 that’s really good to hear, hope EA continue to impress you. Am so interested to hear you have moved across from ESMS. How very sad they and GWC didn’t provide what you and your sister needed last lockdown.

We’ve had a bizarre time of online assessments over the past couple of months but are thrilled DS1 has an offer from EA for P3 Aug21 (so we will be your contemporaries!) and fingers crossed for DS2 who will be P1 then or nursery as we might defer. Thanks for writing back and see you in August!

I'd like to say that so far - two days in - Watsons have really upped their game. Good initial interaction with parents and DS has a full days timetable which is a mixture of live teaching and assignments, and we as DPs will be notified if he doesn't attend or submit anything. DS seems pretty engaged and motivated.

The general consensus in Edinburgh is that EA came out on top during lockdown.

Consensus of other parents you know or is that coming from something more official? Interested to know as I only know one set of parent friends with kids at EA and they were pretty indifferent about the provision.

@rookiemere

I'd like to say that so far - two days in - Watsons have really upped their game. Good initial interaction with parents and DS has a full days timetable which is a mixture of live teaching and assignments, and we as DPs will be notified if he doesn't attend or submit anything. DS seems pretty engaged and motivated.

Same at MES, things were a bit hit and miss throught th first lockdown but the teachers were run ragged so it was understanable. This time round it's been great!

@Eightytwenty
That's interesting. What do you mean by "online lessons" - is that a live video call the length of a lesson?
Also, I think it makes a big difference that in senior school kids are older and much more able to work on things on their own, whereas in junior school they are simply too young to be able to figure out a new concept by themselves, for example.

St George's has plenty of live lessons and timetable from p1 on - it's very hard to get remote learning right at primary I agree, a lot of it depends on how well your child does with screen based lessons and parents don't all think the same things constitute good. I'm very happy with the offering this time too across both of my lower and upper primary dc and the teachers have clearly put a huge amount of effort in and delivered education of value to us so far.

Here's hoping they go back soon...

Mean time I am having to ‘teach’ my daughter who is at a state primary. She has one zoom call a day to listen to a story. And there are links and some powerpoints / audio recordings for some of the work. But it isn’t ‘teaching’.
This sounds exactly what is happening in EA Junior School. Not quite clear what we are paying money for if you can get the same in a state primary.

I'm very glad it's working out for you in the senior school - sounds like they are putting more effort in there. Although I wouldn't have guessed from the lacklustre comminucations from the rector.

I'll second St Georges - our friends have been very complimentary of their online offering. I also know Fettes has at least 3 live lessons per day and strict timetable.

I've heard the same from an EA parent, junior offering seems to be really limited.

We're doing well with St George's at the moment - primary age DD is on teams calls for a lot of the day.

God. It probably is a bit of a shitshow in the primary years. And taking my own experience as an example: I think what is being laid on by our little private London school is amazing, but I’m sure it’s not enough for some parents (and too much for others - definitely too much for us, but I appreciate it nonetheless).

As my DH said to me earlier, let’s hope we don’t have to choose a school for the next 10-12 years of our DCs’ education on the basis of how the school performed in a pandemic. Let’s hope that by next academic year the stuff of remote schooling and lockdown will be a memory - a still recent, still awful memory, but consigned to the past I hope. Perhaps, yes, we might have to move to remote schooling for next winter as a precautionary measure but not long term.

Thank you all for giving me food for thought. If we do go with EA, our DC will be 5th generation there and I am not too much dissuaded by what I’ve heard from keeping that thread of history alive. I think it is the best school we have been offered (not too many places for moving into P3 for DS1 so beggars can’t be choosers) and hope we don’t regret it. Even if the location is a massive arse for finding somewhere to live!

Can anyone offer any updates on the provision at Heriots in this lockdown? My son has an assessment on Wednesday for entry into S5.

Hello
We live in London and plan to relocate to Scotland in Sept 2021. Our daughter (10) received an offer from George Heriot's last week for entry into Year 7. We were hugely impressed by the assessment process and the way it was organised. The tests were done in the child's home and took the form of a full online day. Our daughter was put at ease by the introductory comments from Mr Morrison. There were a few breaks during the day and an adult had to be on hand to sort out any technological issues (we had 1 hiccough due to choice of browser but it all got sorted out and the school were very helpful). During the day they completed some GL assessment papers, had a group chat and completed a piece of creative writing which had to be posted back to the school . 2 windows were open on the computer simultaneously, the test window and the google/zoom window(can't remember which) where a member of staff was supervising throughout. Our daughter did some assessments in London as well. None were as thorough or as personal as the Heriot's assessment.

We visited Heriot's prior to Lockdown no 1 last year and came away thinking it would be a great school for our children. It is smaller in size compared to some of the others in Edinburgh and that in itself means affords more personal attention. It has an enviable academic record and also espouses strong values in terms of the wider community.

I have two in the junior school at Heriots. I would say the remote offering last time round was ok, but they have seriously upped their game and so far I have been very impressed. 3 or 4 live lessons a day with lots of interaction with class teachers and feedback given on work. Additional support for learning sessions too for those who need it.

@nonamoss

I have two in the junior school at Heriots. I would say the remote offering last time round was ok, but they have seriously upped their game and so far I have been very impressed. 3 or 4 live lessons a day with lots of interaction with class teachers and feedback given on work. Additional support for learning sessions too for those who need it.

That's great. At my children's current school they follow their usual timetable. Every lesson has a live element with tasks/work set and then submitted at the end of the lesson. I couldn't hope for anything better.

@Ladolcevida

Hello We live in London and plan to relocate to Scotland in Sept 2021. Our daughter (10) received an offer from George Heriot's last week for entry into Year 7. We were hugely impressed by the assessment process and the way it was organised. The tests were done in the child's home and took the form of a full online day. Our daughter was put at ease by the introductory comments from Mr Morrison. There were a few breaks during the day and an adult had to be on hand to sort out any technological issues (we had 1 hiccough due to choice of browser but it all got sorted out and the school were very helpful). During the day they completed some GL assessment papers, had a group chat and completed a piece of creative writing which had to be posted back to the school . 2 windows were open on the computer simultaneously, the test window and the google/zoom window(can't remember which) where a member of staff was supervising throughout. Our daughter did some assessments in London as well. None were as thorough or as personal as the Heriot's assessment. We visited Heriot's prior to Lockdown no 1 last year and came away thinking it would be a great school for our children. It is smaller in size compared to some of the others in Edinburgh and that in itself means affords more personal attention. It has an enviable academic record and also espouses strong values in terms of the wider community.

@Ladolcevida Glad it went well - sounds very similar to what my son will do on Wednesday. Is there a 1:1 interview too? Or only a group one?

I thought all offers are posted on February 4th? That's what I was told in the assessment letter.

Hi there
My daughter was in a zoom group of 5 or so kids for the chat session led by Mr Morrison. They had some general chat and then he asked each child a couple of questions based on the info supplied in a form we had to complete ahead of the assessment day. They also had a separate zoom group session for some teambuilding challenges( these were not difficult in themselves - more aimed at seeing the kids being spontaneous) The school has a large intake to year 7 and all results for that year were sent out at the same time. The assessment day was late November.

@hosnav Heriots (and all other schools) are assessing different year groups at different times. For example the offer for P3 intake went out on 6th jan (possibly along with P2-P7?) whereas P1 assessments are happening this fortnight (ours was last week) and we’ll hear on 1st feb I think.

[quote Popskipiekin]@hosnav Heriots (and all other schools) are assessing different year groups at different times. For example the offer for P3 intake went out on 6th jan (possibly along with P2-P7?) whereas P1 assessments are happening this fortnight (ours was last week) and we’ll hear on 1st feb I think.[/quote]
@Popskipiekin thanks for the response

St George’s Junior School has hardly any pupils - much easier to do online learning in live format. I think they’re struggling for numbers.

They're small classes - we've had 14 to about 18 I think - but a couple of classes per year. I think they've been a similar size for a long time and their numbers increase up the school. The current p6 (lower school) is 3 classes.

St Georges classes have always been small. DD year in junior school had 14-16 per class (10 years ago) then 18 in lower and upper school.
As you say, easier to do live online learning with those numbers