Edinburgh schooling options

[newtoedinburgh]

Just our luck to be moving to Edinburgh midst pandemic: I am trying to get a handle on schooling options for my two DDs who will (as far as I understand it) be starting in P3 and P6 next academic year - aug/sept 2021.
We are British but they have been in the Southern Hemisphere for the last 4 years - this means that my 6 year old (turning 7 in august) has only just started to learn to read. They start reading at age 6 where we are at the moment. She is sporty and very outdoorsy. My elder DD (age 9 soon 10) will be more in line with curriculum as she is that much older. She is bright and very artistic though, but as she has been in school down here she is used to very little academic pressure.
Both my DH and I went to private schools in London. At the moment we are open to all the options we can find in Edinburgh. Clearly it will come down to where has space for our DDs. We will not be able to visit before moving in July (IF WE CAN!) due to CV. We will be renting initially as we find our feet.
I know Steiner's are not popular on Mumsnet and I am pretty well versed in the reasons why. However, it looks like a potential solution as they start to read later & seem less pressured.
Are there any current parents at Edinburgh Steiner who can chat to me? If they do Steiner for primary can they get into more mainstream senior schools if they want to make the shift?
Or can anyone suggest other schools to look at? We are open to state options but I am concerned that the lack of outside space and large classes will be hard for them to adjust to....
Basically I would appreciate some local intel & ideas. Open to all at this stage. I guess our priority is finding the same place for both of them, Co ed, and easing the transition. Thanks for any help feeling very anxious about the whole thing to be honest.

I don't know anything about Steiner or really private schooling but just wanted to say two things, for state you will need to know where you will be living in order to get an in catchment place, I think you'll need to have evidence also. Not all have no green space though but in general class sizes will be large.

Secondly, I wouldn't worry too much about the reading and use that as a reason for steiner. If she is bright, she will come on very quickly and certainly in state, they would accommodate this fairly easily with allocation to a lower reading group to start with. Surely private school, if they have entrance conditions should also understand that she's only just starting.

I'd get her reading at home as much as she can, maybe with her sibling who will probably still remember how she was taught.

Hope all goes well with the move.

thank you @WaxOnFeckOff for replying :)
Yes, the issue is having a rental agreement (without having been to the city yet) to get a state place... We would love to do a state primary if it was a good one, but our fear is we have to leave it so late & then they may end up at different schools if places aren't available

Here are the primary school roll projections which might give a high level view of where spaces may be likely to be, obviously that doesn't break it down by primary year but should help. The fact that you don't need a P1 space is probably helpful.

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/22447/primary-school-roll-projections

If you are going to use state secondary, it would be helpful to get in the catchment for the one you want.

That is brilliant thank you, I see immediately that 2 that were recommended are over capacity :(

I wouldn't worry at all about DD being behind as you've been overseas. Edinburgh is a very international city and there are children joining schools from all parts of the world all the time. The universities attract families coming from overseas for 2 or 3 years. The schools are well used to this.

State Primary schools are mainly excellent, as long as you avoid living in certain areas (avoid Pilton Muirhouse, westerhailes , craigmillar, Niddrie) Most children go to their local catchment primary.
Your problem will be that some of the schools are very full, classes are large and you cannot apply until you have an address.

Edinburgh has a good choice of private schools and their class sizes will be much smaller. 25% of secondary pupils are in private. They all offer an excellent education but have a slightly different character and emphasis on eg sport, drama etc. Some are very large and others much smaller.
Sorry I don't know anything about the Steiner school.

We did state school with ours initially and then moved to private mid primary. DDs have had friends joining school from overseas the whole way through and it has not been a problem for them to slot in and catch up academically.

Good luck

Thank you @Sootess for taking the time to reply.
Could you point me in the direction of the private schools more known for drama and art? I have a Good Schools Guide online membership - seems quite helpful, though not for state schools.

Steiner is not for me but I believe the Edinburgh Steiner school has a good rep. Children seem very happy there.

Most primary schools do their best with outdoor space, forest schools etc while recognising that space itself is at a premium. I wouldn't let lack of green space put me off a school, my DS first primary school was absolutely brilliant it had a tiny concrete playground but the ethos was amazing.

Really the trick for Edinburgh is to think about secondary schools... the primaries are pretty much all good apart from in a few areas of real social deprivation which you probably wouldn't be moving to anyway. Secondary is key. If you're in catchment for a good secondary you're going to be in catchment for a good primary.

I agree with working backwards from secondary school catchments given the eldest is 10 and whether or not you can live in one of those really comes down to housing budget. There's a couple of fairly extensive threads on this page about those if you scroll back a bit.
Your main options for private would be Fettes, Edinburgh Academy, George Watsons, George Heriots, and ESMS (but that's only co-ed for primary). I wonder if the whole formal uniform, structured timetable type approach might be harder for kids from a southern hemisphere background to adjust to than a state school?

I wouldn't worry too much about your p3 not reading much yet, p1-p3 is a largely play based cirricullum in Scottish state schools now and she will catch up quickly.

You need to know where you're going to live though and find out the catchment schools and if they will have space in those years. They do usually hold some spaces for people moving into the area but not all school will as some will be very full. Lots of primaries in Edinburgh have green and outdoor spaces.

Personally I'd look to the south of the city and start from there. Depending on budget Marchmont, Sciences, Morningside then depending on how far you want to commute Gilmerton, Liberton etc. But that's just my preference as I like that side of the city.

Others might prefer Trinity and Cannonmills more towards the north.

Cargilfield Prep is co-ed and is fab. It’s in the Crammond area of Edinburgh. The art department is superb. Lots of clubs, lots of sport, music and drama and was quite international in its cohort whilst my DC attended. Bit expensive though but, in my opinion, worth the money.

Thanks all
@motherstongue yes I had a brief look at Cargilfield, looks wonderful. But such a long day & we definitely wouldn't be boarding so I think we want somewhere that has less emphasis on that.

@emmathedilemma interesting - you may be right about the formal structure being easier in a state school, to be honest, I don't know. They are at a reasonably structured school at the moment, but they have many lessons outside (due to the weather) & they don't start homework or testing until around P7
... its rather wonderful to be honest, but hey ho - we are leaving. And Edinburgh is amazing so I am very excited. I just want to see what the options are for the girls. Which is tricky without being there. My DH office (when they actually go in!) will be West End way. He definitely won't want a long commute but he will also be travelling a lot (Covid permitting) so we should probably be reasonably near to the airport.

It all feels rather overwhelming

If you need regular access to the airport then I would definitely focus on the west of the city, it makes such a different for those early morning business flights and getting home late at night! Davidsons Mains, Cramond, Corstorphine all have a good range of housing stock. Royal High is one of the most sought after high schools in the city and I think Craigmount gets good reviews. There's an airport express bus runs along the A8 through Corstorphine and also great bus routes into the city centre for DH's work.
If your kids aren't used to homework and testing I think private school would be quite a shock to the system!
You can search on espc website for property by school catchment if you want to get an idea of what's around. The market seems pretty slow at the moment though.

I can't say about private schools, but so far my P2 has had no homework at all. I don't think they have any in P3 either.

They can read and write but not fluently yet. There is a lot of emphasis on phonics. Maths is rather basic. A bit of addition and subtraction. The better kids do up to 100 so far but some only to 20. They learn about shapes and a very basic understanding of fractions.

Even children whose first language is not English manage, so I think you should be fine as long as you find a school with a decent catchment.

It's a tricky one, generally you're going to have better art and outdoor facilities in private, but agree on the homework. You'd have to talk to a few and see who you got a good feel from. We do find the homework a bit much at times.

Most of the private schools have lots of virtual info available via their admissions people thanks to the pandemic.

Edinburgh Academy, Stewart's Melville are co-ed, good facilities. EA had some sort of scheme where you could start reading at 6 if you weren't ready when we looked round (a while ago).

There are other threads with opinions on those schools if you search.

If aim for Fettes as your end goal

I agree with previous posters, think high school catchment and work from there. Unless you're going to go private.

Some of the less over-subscribed primaries might be more flexible, especially those that are accustomed to families moving around. When we moved to Edinburgh we stayed with my parents initially and had no rental agreement etc to show. We got DS into Tollcross Primary without providing any proof of where lived. In the end we bought in the South Morningside/Boroughmuir catchment but he stayed at Tollcross. Very easy to get to West End from that sort of area, James Gillespie's High is also well regarded.

For what it's worth, my brother totted up the cost of putting his two girls through private school and persuaded DSIL that it would cheaper and a better investment to buy a lovely house in a lovely neighbourhood in catchment for lovely state schools, especially as some of the private schools don't get significantly better exam results than some of the state schools. Each to their own. A friend of mine who needs reliable wrap around childcare and holiday club reckons she breaks even by sending her daughter to Watson's.

I've done an intercontinental move and at first was thinking like you, which schools but in the end I stopped worrying, instead found a nice house to buy (thankfully mortgage rules were different then) and accepted I would homeschool until I got them into the local state school, my thinking is they would settle better into their new lives without the worry of school. As it happened they got school places in 4 weeks, before the end of the summer hols. Kids adjust so easily compared to us, and my two have sn too

I've worked in quite a few state schools in Edinburgh. In one I was diverted from the job I was doing to support 2 children who had done an international move and needed phonics input. I quite enjoyed it and by the end of 6 months both had caught right up with their classes.

You'll find that schools are used to children moving and supporting them well. X

Extracurricular stuff and wrap around care are definitely patchy in the state schools. I think our school has space for about a third of pupils in the breakfast/after school clubs.

OP for what it’s worth we’ve just done the admissions process for P3 Aug21. ESMS pretty much offered us a place on the spot when we visited last year - I get the impression they would have capacity. I seem to recall they shake up the classes for P3 and add more children, could be wrong. Watsons too seemed pretty willing to fit children in for this year. EA and Heriots were fairly full for P3. We didn’t look elsewhere. Best of luck with your search.

I think given that you've mentioned being outdoors and outdoor learning a couple of times - culturally this isn't huge in Scotland because of the weather - it really is as simple as that. So don't discount a great school just because there isn't a gorgeous leafy playground! My DS went to a village primary with a forest school element - in reality that meant one 40 minute lesson every sixth term as not all the teachers were trained in it. He was very happy there, and the grounds were great, but if we'd chosen it primarily for outdoor learning we would have been disappointed I think.

Thanks all so much, so much useful info

If anyone has the time - if you think of a really nurturing school in Edinburgh where springs to mind?

If you aren't wedded to coed then I would recommend looking at St George's as I think otherwise it would fit your bill quite well - small classes, tonnes of sports, outdoor learning, plenty of drama and arts too. I wasn't looking for single sex (I was actually quite opposed to it but we needed somewhere with space quickly to get away from a bullying issue in her old school so decided to check out everywhere) but as soon as we looked round it just felt like the right place for her.

@holdontoonemoreday that must depend on the school. My dc are in p6 and P2 and before Christmas the p2 was outdoors about 70% of the week and the P6 roughly 40-50%. They are very focused on outdoor learning and have purpose built outdoor 'classroom' spaces. Full waterproofs are part of the school uniform. I love the ethos to have them outdoors whenever possible. Rain isn't a problem but high winds would mean they are inside. Each class has its own door onto the playground with outdoor access. Every school in Scotland should now be doing the daily mile everyday too.