Help please with schools and areas in Scottish East Coast

[WhatsTheKerfuffle]

Hi, we are hoping to move back to Scotland after moving to England over 20 years ago. I'm originally from Dundee. This time we move with a 10 and 8 year old so our move has to revolve around schools.

We've been looking around Broughty Ferry and North Berwick, but not many properties up for sale in these locations so we're casting our net wider around the East Coast (and beyond) and floundering desperately as there's not much up for sale so I keep jumping from one school to the next. We'd love a beach, but there is a real emptiness in the property market so we might have to give up that dream as we'd like to leave soon so that our P7 child has time to settle in before secondary. We'll pretty much work from home with travel to London, so pretty flexible on location. We've ruled out country living, despite the amazing houses, as we don't want to be a taxi service and we'd love our children to move around independently as they get older. We'd love somewhere 'rural' though, so no cities.

Have looked at Bridge of Allan recently as well as Dunblane too - Wallace High looks like to has a diverse mix of children with a reasonable flow of new children from people moving to work at the university (or there used to be pre COVID ). Can anyone comment on what BofA or Dunblane are like for teenagers and give any info on Wallace High?

Really I'm just looking for suggestions of really nurturing secondary schools that offer a lot on the creative side as well as challenges academically. I'd love a smaller school for both children, but then the curriculum seems to get quite narrow and to get the wider range of subjects creatively I think we need to consider the large schools. My DD1 might also be ADHD and dyslexic (mildly on both, but the older she gets the more different she seems from others in terms of focus) so schools where anyone has had a good experience on those areas being well understood and catered for would be helpful to know about too. We're finally having her assessed as it will be important to get the best help for her at secondary.

Specific questions on areas/schools we've looked at

• Can anyone comment on Anstruther and Waid Academy and generally what it's like for teenagers in the area? Any issues for children with English accents or is the school quite diverse? Good or bad experiences at the school?
• Same questions for Bell Baxter too
• I know we've wandered away from the East Coast, but same questions for Balfron High as the school sounds great.
• We drove around Kinross as the school there sounds good too, but we didn't think there was much for teenagers there - can anyone tell me we missed a bit and there's lots to do?

As you can see we are a bit all over the place!

Thanks so much for any advice at all on schools - really any locations are helpful to research.

Kinross High is a community campus so in some ways it is a hub in itself, it has the local library in it and has community activities and lots of sport classes etc. There's always something going on (usually). I think Kinross is a bit deceptive as its one of those long spread out towns, there are lots of attractive pockets of housing tucked away that are easily missed in a drive through. The High Street is improving at the moment lots of old civic buildings being converted into housing and some new shops.
Generally get more house for your money than in Dunblane.
Im not the best person to give advice though, I fully admit i let my heart rule my head as i attempted to move to Dunblane and seriously considered Kinross but gave up as i liked my house, friends, neighbours and the primary school. It has added complications to everyone's life living 12 miles from school, best avoided even if placing requests make it possible.

@BluebellsareBlue

What about monifieth? I live here and the beach is right there, monifieth high is a good school and also grove academy if your thinking of the ferry or barnhill

Second this. Monifieth High is great.

@wafflyversatile

Muirhead and birkhill? Auchterhouse? Invergowrie seems to have a steady supply of houses. Liff is full of newbuilds as is piperdam. I cant comment on schools. Broughty ferry is all very lovely but it tends to be cooler on the coast and there is the HARR!!! to ruin nice days.

Some of these areas feed into Monifieth High.

We are still looking and do really appreciate all the comments. Kinross High has been coming up tops here and in a few other threads too. I also just found some interesting houses in Kirkcudbright (shame on me pronouncing it phonically, just glad I didn't say it aloud to anyone :/) and the schools around there look like they fare ok academically but seem to have quite narrow curriculums compared to other larger schools, which I guess is to be expected. It's way away from our search area, but we are just struggling to find anything we like in any of East Lothian, Kinross, Bridge of Allan etc. We also can't travel up this October half term as my daughter's class had a covid instance so the whole class are isolating so pretty tricky looking at houses from a distance. It's getting to the point where we might just buy/rent a smaller place in the area we want and hope that a 'forever' home turns up at some point. This is the house that looks nice in Kirkcudbright: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-96075845.html just not sure if we'd feel too away from 'it all'.

Anyone know much about Kirkcudbright area for living in (as opposed to being a tourist) and the schools? My daughter loves art and it seems perfect to inspire her, though my son is more sporty and outdoorsy.

Thanks again!

Would you consider Inverness? Voted one of the best places to stay in the UK. Direct flights to London. There's a really good lifestyle.
Almost guranteed snow every winter.

My husband was thinking about driving to London when he has to make business trips so Inverness may be a bit too far, though it is appealing. Anyone know what the schools are like up that way?

I think if your DH is going to be going down to London relatively often I would be looking at the different travel options pretty carefully. From East Lothian where I am (getting a train fron Dunbar) you can be in kings cross in not much over 4 hours. From somewhere like Kircudbright that looks like much more of a trek, and driving it often might get boring really quickly.

We've just moved out from Edinburgh, but even from there the train was generally my preference - ended up taking about the same amount of time altogether vs flying once you factor getting to airport, waiting about etc - and I could work on the train. Driving seems like a rotten option!

My mum lives in Kirkcudbright. It's a fab little town but I don't have experience of the school. It's a brilliant community and lots going on but I think might be more isolated than other options once your kids become teenagers.

Gorgeous house by the way. It's the perfect Kirkcudbright house.

My 3 went to Kinross High, one at the old school building and two in the new community campus. The welfare team are excellent. DS struggle with settling in and his attendance was poor but we had huge support from the school.The music department are brilliant and the school is strong in music/dance etc
DDs both went on to gain university degrees and DS is a musician so pleased with how it ended up. Agree many of the children attending live rurally so we did a fair bit of taxiing around but motorway north and south is to hand. Perth and Stirling have decent sized railway stations for connecting to London, Edinburgh about 40 minutes away by car.

I think you need to pick a decent area and to from there. I've a dyslexic dc getting good support from her LS teacher - all it would take is for one teacher to move on for that to potentially change. I can't imagine moving to a town solely for the school, better to be in an area you like with stuff to do and a few schools, then you can move from one to the other if required.

I don't know much useful but Balfron has been picking up kids of staff from Glasgow Uni (from Strathblane, Killearn). I've not had any issues with a very posh English accent in East Dunbartonshire.

What about more inland from north Berwick? East Linton? Apparently the train line is being reinstated there so would be great once your DC get a bit more independent

East Linton is supposed to be getting a station, and some places in East Lothian have pretty good bus services for getting in to Edinburgh especially which would give teens some independence.

Inverness has a great choice of secondary schools. If you stayed outside of Inverness Teanassie is a great country school with a great community ethos. Inside inverness Balloch primary has a good reputation. The highest rated secondaries are Culloden Academy and Millburn.
Inverness has loads for children and adults. Housing is much more affordable than Aberdeenshire. It's also a really pretty place. You can walk to a lot of places, but public transport is also good.