Dunblane areas/Newton vs Dunblane Primary?

[relocating24]

Can anyone advise? We are in a situation where we are selling our house, relocating to Dunblane and renting for a while before then buying.

With needing to change primary schools now, I'm wondering what's best to do to avoid the need to change again when we buy. We're on the edge of one of the catchment areas in the rental. Obviously I don't yet know where we'll buy. I'm trying to figure out whether to go with the catchment school or put in a placing request.

My questions are:

• Is one school known to be better than the other?

By better, I mean no bullying, nice variety of activities including outdoor time/space, generally friendly, well organised, etc.

• In terms of the bulk of housing areas, does one catchment cover more than the other? They look relatively even to me, but that's on paper as I'm not in the area yet.
• Do both schools have decent after-school club for childcare after work? How easy is it to get a place?
• Are there any "bad" areas of Dunblane I should discount from house hunting? (And therefore narrowing down catchment areas)

Thanks for any advice!

Just a quick answer on after schools club - as far as I know, and I'm a little out of the loop - but all 3 primaries go to Dunblane Primary for after school club. They are bussed over after school. I think breakfast club too is all housed at Dunblane Primary.

There’s not much to choose between the two schools, also can’t think of any areas to really avoid. It would be a bit of a pain for your DC if you move to the part of Dunblane that is the opposite of the school that they are in while you are renting - just in terms of playing after school but Dunblane is small so not that painful.

As pp said the breakfast/after school clubs are at Dunblane primary

Other than the High school being in the Dunblane Primary area, I don't think there is a lot of difference catchment wise or in terms of where is better for housing (though I don't live in Dunblane). DC went to the High School and made friends with folk from both schools and I have friends in both catchments too.

Thank you!

Your chances of a placing request out of catchment are slim to none - especially at Newton.

Both schools are fine. A lot of people will expect great teaching and learning from Dunblane as the high school is ranked highly, and house prices are crazy - this is not the case. You are not paying for better teaching, you are paying for a 'better' classroom of pupils.

My kids went to Newton and were bussed to the after school club and it worked well. The after school club is quite over subscribed so talk to them about a place sooner rather than later (although that may have changed with so many working from home).
My kids moved to Newton in P3 and P6 and my view is that it is ok but discipline isn’t great and they don’t deal with bullying very well. It is however a well funded school (very active fundraising team) and so there are lots of nice activities and opportunities for the kids.
I don’t really know how DPS compares but I would imagine they are much of a muchness. Some year groups at Newton are quite small, others are almost at capacity so whether you would get an out of catchment place would probably depend on what year groups your children are in.

Very helpful info. Thank you!