Edinburgh schools

[springseternal]

I'm looking for some advice. My husband has been offered a new job in Edinburgh. At the moment we live in Belfast and my children attend a grammar school. Friends and colleagues here and in Scotland have advised that for our children to receive the same high quality education in Edinburgh or anywhere in Scotland we would need to send them to an independent school. We are in a position to pay private school fees, however, I do not feel entirely comfortable doing so.

Surely, there are good state schools in Edinburgh? TIA

There are a few, boroughmuir, Gillespies… but you’d need to live very close to get in.

Scotland does not have academically selective schools in state sector, they are all comprehensive. If you want this then you will have to go private, that's likely what your friends will be referring to.

There is a peculiarity to Edinburgh (not elsewhere in Scotland) where 25% of secondary pupils are in private schools therefore the state sector does not have a particularly good social mix. It also means that in the league tables (if you place importance on them) the Edinburgh state schools are never going to come out on top.

The best state secondary schools in Edinburgh are Boroughmuir, Royal High, Gillespies, Craigmount and Firhill.
You will need to live in catchment to get into any of those.
If you buy/rent in one of those catchments you can't go wrong.

Thank you for your help.

I'm from NI and went to a Grammar school. I have a career in academia. It took a bit of getting my head round the non selective comp system but my DH is v academic and he went to a comp in Glasgow. My son goes to a Comp just outside Edinburgh and I am perfectly happy with his education- none of my friends who's kids go to an independent school have done better. The comp has a very wide social mix which I like. I have friends who's kids go to Gillespies, Portobello, Currie and Balerno and they are all happy - those are all at the top end of the league table Edinburgh wise.

If you can get into one of the decent state schools then I would go for that in the first instance. You can always go the private route later if it doesn’t work out. No need to spend the money on private if you don’t have to. I think if you’re bright (and your kids sound like they are if they got into a grammar) then you’ll do well anywhere. Private can be an advantage if your child needs learning support since that’s sometimes thin on the ground in the state sector.

Just to warn you.....you'll probably be shocked by the uniform standards (or lack of!) at the state schools in Edinburgh compared to NI grammar schools!!

Craigmount as mentioned above has a huge bullying issue & my friends kids went to Firhill and said it’s really rough?

There is nothing wrong with many of Edinburghs secondary schools, and the high rate of private schooling is some weird snobby cultural thing - Edinburgh types feel they must send their DC private because they went private and then newcomers see the stats and feel they need to do the same.
The larger private schools have huge classes and follow the same curriculum as the state schools.
Academically the better state schools outperform a lot of the private ones.

OP, I am originally from Belfast and attended a grammar school there. I now live in Edinburgh and mt child attends a private school (currently in senior school although they've attended from P1). For me it's a huge financial sacrifice as I am a single parent paying the fees on my own. I would absolutely consider the school equivalent in terms of academic achievement, pastoral support and ethos to my old grammar school which was why I chose it. As things have turned out, my child now has additional needs and the school has been absolutely outstanding in facilitating.

@mykitchenruler I can assure you it is no snobby cultural thing- and class sizes have been consistently smaller throughout.

Echoing pink's comments.

I’ve worked in education and across many edinburgh schools. Also know NI education system and schools v well. Edinburgh is strange as opposed said 25% are at private. Private schools viewed also at different levels.
State schools as listed above all good, but comprehensive education here will feel closer to high school in NI.
Uniforms at state schools will be hardest transition as they wear jeans and trainers and no ties etc in most state.

Worth figuring out where you would want to live first as you can go to any private then but state is strictly by catchment area so budget is key. What would your budget for housing be? What sort of area would you want to live in?
Fees for secondary range from 13kpa-25kpa for day pupil and a good mix of single sex and mixed, sporty and academic.

If you want a flavour of what each private school would be like I would equivocate George Watson with Methody or Sullivan Upper or BRA, merchiston castle with Campbell, strathern with Mary erskine, Victoria with St. George’s..

Prob more across the Provence I could compare as well but absolutely a more direct comparison to grammar than the state comprehensive.

That’s not to say your young people wouldn’t flourish there

Not sure from your post if your kids are primary or secondary but here's a few thoughts. The biggest issue we have faced at DS primary is lack of consistency in teaching - teachers come and go with alarming frequency and there is a high dependency on supply. The school estate is cramped and too small for the number of children attending - I was shocked by the lack of investment in many of the state school buildings. I'm also not a fan of the curriculum for excellence but not much can be done about that ...

The biggest advantage of private school IMO is the fact that there is good after school provision and also lots of opportunities for extra-curricular stuff which is lacking in many of the state schools.

We decided not to go private for non-academic reasons - I wanted DS to have a strong link to the community he lives in and to have friends where he lives, rather than his friends being scattered across the city. The school has excelled at building a sense of community and I love the fact DS can be independent / go to school by himself / walk to his friends etc etc.

Just to address a couple of points upthread, someone said you would need to live very close to certain schools to get in. If you're in catchment it doesn't matter where in catchment (maybe confused with English system?).

Also that Edinburgh state schools never top the league tables, not true. Can't be arsed to look out the details and Scotland doesn't really have league tables like England, but DS's school (in Edinburgh) has been the "best" state high school in Scotland more than once. The results are very similar to Watson's, which is impressive given that of course, DS's school is non-selective.

My children are at a state school just to add.. and not one of the obvious ones everyone raves about. V mixed catchment but are doing well found own stream snd friends I don’t think snd bad schools in edinburgh . Op I would def think about sort of area you want to live in, where are you now do you want similar. This could help advise. I’m sure you will have investigated house prices, def higher than Belfast.

DS goes to Watson's secondary and my friends DD of the same age is at Firhill. They both seem to be doing well, if anything Firhill was better during lockdown.
However Watson's hugely better for extracurricular activities. DS is heavily involved in rugby, but if he wanted to do pretty much any sport or other activity there would be a club for it at school, whereas friends DD who is very sporty has had to go outside school for clubs to join as it's not hugely supported at Firhill.

Thank you all for your advice and comments. We've decided that I should stay in Belfast with the DC and see how things go. If we were to move to Edinburgh in the summer as planned, my DD would be in S4 with NAT 5's looming. Definitely not the best time to adjust to a new school.
One positive outcome of Covid is that companies are more amenable to employees working from home. My DH plans to divide his time between Belfast and Edinburgh.....
Thanks everyone

@Namechangeforthis88 think that was me, I meant you need to be in catchment and the catchments in city centre aren’t that big so you need to live near the school you want rather than English system of applying to multiple schools. Perhaps I worded it badly

Good news OP. I went to an NI grammar and it's a private education for free basically.

If you do decide to move you could ask about your DD re-sitting 3rd year. Scottish schools tend to be much more flexible than English ones when it comes to which year group new pupils join, so rather than put her into the year group indicated by her date of birth a headteacher may allow her to have the standard 2 years to prepare for Nat 5s since she will be following a different curriculum.

One thing that you might want to consider is that (at the moment) students who reside in Scotland and go to Scottish universities don’t pay tuition fees so could save you money in the long term if they’re likely to go down that path!

@applesandpears33
Re-sitting 3rd year could be an option. It would work out as in N.I as in England and Wales high school is for a max of 7 years compared to the maximum of 6 in Scotland. It would mean DD would start uni at 18 !! Back in the day when I was a student at Edinburgh Uni, I was slightly surprised by the number of 17 year olds struggling to buy drinks.

@emmathedilemma thankyou, yes the free university tuiton for Scottish residents is very tempting.

If he commuted for a while he could get a feel for different parts of the city you might want to move to. Would give you time to figure it out and settle GCSEs before moving to advanced huggers and higher which would be a good transition. Repeating a year is a good option ans they wouldn’t be alone being older as with our different cut off dates here ( feb rather than June July) lots of kids do defer a year so wouldn’t be only older one in year

@springseternal if you wait until S5 to move you children to a school in Edinburgh, please be aware they will be last in line when it comes to picking subjects for Higher. My son recently moved and we had every intention of sending him to a state school but we could not get him in to any of his choices in the catchment one (Leith Academy) and I then contacted at least 10 looking for a placing request for him to do the subjects he wanted to do. All of those said no, as his subjects were also already full with them. In the 11th hour Trinity came back to me and said they could place him, but by that point we had already enrolled him in a private school as we thought that was our only option. We are stretched financially to do so, so had every intention of trying to move him into state again for S6 but he loves his school so much that we just don't have the heart . . .

@Bluepeach Thank you so much for getting in touch. Our intention is to keep the DC at their Belfast schools. Though, that's very helpful to know of possible hurdles with regard to picking Higher subjects.

I hope your son continues to flourish at school. At the end of the day we as mums, just want our DC to be happy XX