Moving from Edinburgh to Winchburgh (what do you think)

[justanotheruser1]

We are planning to buy a new build at Winchburgh and would like to know if it’s a good move considering there will be 3 new schools and a train station. My DP works from home (even after covid) and I may have to go to haymarket once a week for my work.

We have two DD ‘s - one in p4 and an infant.
This is our first house and we currently live in a flat in Edinburgh, we are moving so we have a garden and my older DD can go to a good high school in 3 years. (Current high in our catchment is not great and we don’t want to send our kids there)

Just want to know your thoughts on this

[quote justanotheruser1]@Invisimamma no it’s not a reason to move, when we are looking around a local women who lives there made a comment along those lines. Maybe that’s how it was before/until loads of new houses were built.[/quote]
Was it the catholic school she was referring to?

Holy Family is a very small primary in winchburgh. A colleague's kids went there and there was less than 100 children in the school.
There's only 4 or 5 classes in the school, all composite classes. Hers both had about 20 or less in their class so I guess if you add in the classroom assistants in the school that would give the 1.15 ratio the woman mentioned.

The catholic secondary is St Margaret's in Livingston which gets very good reports.
Sorry my earlier info on schools was about non-dom. I forgot to mention the catholic school

@justanotheruser1

Thank you *@Invisimamma & @sartorius*

This is our first ever house and would like to make the right decision as we plan to live there for at least 10-15 years.

We have a budget of 450k to buy 4 bedroom house - initially we were looking in Currie but I feel current prices are very overpriced and we may get a small semi detached house for our budget, and Currie schools are over subscribed too.

My DH work is home based and my work is also remote with one day to office a week near haymarket (after this covid is done).

we thought Winchburgh is ideal with three new schools opening in 2022 (one primary and two secondary) with adjoining sports complex and a huge district park.

I know we have to travel for kids classes and things like that (mostly to Edinburgh)

Currie is great for Balerno high school catchment but as for housing it's absolutely extortionate! Eye watering. Hardly getting any house for your money.

@HarrisMcCoo wasn’t aware Currie primary feeds into Balerno high as well, thought all Currie is feeding into Currie high.
Thanks

[quote justanotheruser1]@Tailendofsummer sorry if I wasn’t clear about class size, meant a teacher dealing with 15 pupil in a class is better than dealing with 30 pupil - as each pupil will get more time with their teacher when they need help.
My older DD enjoys swimming, roller skating, tennis and cycling, only classes she has is swimming and tennis. I do like shopping and cycling with family and rest (cinema, shopping, soft play) are not done regularly so no a problem. However we will miss one thing though I.e. takeaways 😀 but hey ho.
We want a decent house with a garden and both of us brought up in a village background and would be happy living in a village setting.
But sure we are still looking around to weigh pros and cons. Ta[/quote]
You're not going to have that though. As a very experienced secondary teacher, they'll maybe have composite classes if this is the case. They're not going to justify classes of 15 if the next town along has classes of 30. If you want to move, move, but don't move because you think you'll have extraordinarily small class sizes at your new house.

Wow, I didn't realise there was so much hate for WL. I live in WL but only just as I sit right on the boarder to Edinburgh. I would say it really depends on what you're looking for. I personally do not enjoy living in town for the traffic, the hustle and bustle, the never ending traffic lights and the fact you can't feel free.

I would say being close to the bridge is not a bad thing as long as you're not going over it. There is a slip road off the m90 that takes you to SQ and the A904. I actually find getting into town a lot easier here than I did getting on the m8 everyday... Now that's a bottleneck.

I don't have to drive to get everywhere as I enjoy cycling and walking the dog which there is plenty of in my doorstep. I also have lovely pretty views that apparently don't exist in WL 🤣.

What about Midlothian? Straiton / lasswade have lots of new builds. Even out towards Penicuik

[quote justanotheruser1]@HarrisMcCoo wasn’t aware Currie primary feeds into Balerno high as well, thought all Currie is feeding into Currie high.
Thanks[/quote]
Mea culpa. DH has corrected me, it would be Currie High. He said even kids who live in Balerno don't even come under catchment for Balerno High.

But Currie High apparently has a good reputation anyhow.

I wouldn't OP simply because I think it is better to have a smaller home in a place with more amenities nearby. This is really important as the kids get older and want more independence.

I also think you are misunderstanding about the teacher ratios - I was told by DS school (Edinburgh) that they are told by the Council how many classes they have to form over which year groups to meet ratios- so in our case there have been composite classes straddling two year groups and something called team teach which is a large class (49) with 2 teachers.

Just to say that, even if you drive, you should keep in mind that when your kids are teenagers, they will need good and safe public transport links to get anywhere, so you should also consider that, or they will drive you crazy asking for lifts when they are older. What about somewhere like Peebles, or is that also crazily expensive now?