Stirling schools

[Dziuba]

Hi all,

We are strongly considering moving from London to Stirling in the Spring and I'm looking for some basic information regarding schooling ages, as this seems very different to the UK systems.

My daughter was born in Oct 2010 and is currently in Y6. Going with the UK system, she'd be moving to secondary school in September this year.

Can anyone tell me if in August this year, she should be transferred to Y7 primary or a secondary school?

Thank you in advance!

August this year she would be going into S1

@Bushkin

Thanks very much! Always great to double-check.

Will it be hard to get a placement if we apply say May/June time? In the UK, councils offer a secondary school placings on 1st March and after which date, it is rather difficult to get a place for anyone moving into an area, not impossible of course, but certainly not easy.

[quote Dziuba]@Bushkin

Thanks very much! Always great to double-check.

Will it be hard to get a placement if we apply say May/June time? In the UK, councils offer a secondary school placings on 1st March and after which date, it is rather difficult to get a place for anyone moving into an area, not impossible of course, but certainly not easy.[/quote]
You should perhaps take some geography lessons, unless you know something we don't 😉.

In Scotland you are usually allocated a space in your catchment school. I'm not aware that any of the Stirling schools have been unable to accommodate all catchment children. So the process would be to decide where to live and apply to the catchment high school. You are also able to make a placing request if you'd like a school other than the catchment one, those are not guaranteed and places are usually applied for by I think January in order to get a response in the spring. Later applications can be made but will obviously be considered later. Even if you are applying for a placing request, you must always register at your catchment school and no school transport is given for placing request children.

There is one catholic High school in Stirling and applications for that will usually mean that all baptised Catholics will be accommodated and then other places available can be applied for.

Did you have any locations/schools in mind?

Very helpful comment as usual @StarryEyeSurprise

As Elephant has said the problem that you have in England re in year moves is v unlikely to apply. Once you know where you want to live call the council/school to check re the catchment school but I can't imagine that there will be any problem.

If you arrive in the spring and she starts school then, she will be in P7 and hopefully in time to do any transfer events for high school. You will almost certainly get a place in your catchment primary and if not it will be the next nearest feeder school for the same high school. P7 places are not normally a problem unless it's a small school with maybe a very full composite class.

The other advantage of a spring move is that she will get the full summer holidays whereas if she finishes up in the English system in the summer and then moves to Scotland, we go back earlier usually mid August, having mainly finished up for summer at the end of June/beginning of July.

Oh and I think this is the first year of Stirling Council having a slightly shorter summer holiday and having 2 weeks in October instead. All the info should be on the council website though. Mine are past school age now but not too long back and there is at least one Stirling high school teacher on here who may be able to help with info regarding how full schools currently are (if she has picked up any info).

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the helpful comments! Much appreciated.

I work for a global company and am so used to referring to the UK (as my location) that I misspoke here and should have of course referred to England as our current home.

Rest assurred to anyond particilarly worried, I do know the difference (most dayswink) and didn’t mean to offend any of my (hopefully soon to be) Scottish neighbours.

Being an October birthday she'll stay in the same equivalent year (yr 6 = p7 final year of primary) so if she doesn't start school here til august it will be s1 - first year of secondary. Unlikely you'll have any issues getting in to your catchment secondary. Would be good if you arrive in spring for her to do some time in p7, transitions are good here. Even last year for dd moving up lots of effort was made despite actual visits not being able to happen. As far as I know schools in the Stirling area are decent. Welcome to Scotland when you get here

My ds is the same age and will starting S1 at high school in August. His primary school have already started the transition process, teachers have visited them from high school and they will have 4x full days of transition at the secondary school in May/June. If you could get her into a school in the spring this might help with the move to secondary.

In Scotland you generally go to your catchment school, once you know where you are living you will know which school she will attend.

Unless I’m doing the maths incorrect, wouldn’t OPs DD be entitled to go into a Yr 7 class here? Started school in England age 4 in the Sept, turned 5 in the October? So that would put her in P6 now in Scotland, with one more year of primary to go from August. Unless I’m confusing it, but based on the cut off in England being end of Aug, not our Jan/Feb cutoff.

@OnceUponAWhine

Unless I’m doing the maths incorrect, wouldn’t OPs DD be entitled to go into a Yr 7 class here? Started school in England age 4 in the Sept, turned 5 in the October? So that would put her in P6 now in Scotland, with one more year of primary to go from August. Unless I’m confusing it, but based on the cut off in England being end of Aug, not our Jan/Feb cutoff.

If she was born Oct'10, then she's currently 11 so would move to S1 in August.

Current Scotland P7 cohort were born March 2010- feb 2011 so that’s where OPs DC fits therefore S1 in aug

It goes by year she was born, 2010.
The year group she's in at moment in England is equivalent of P7 (as they do reception)
OPs DD will turn 12 this year so will go into S1

I mean will go into S1 in August

Ah doh, I was forgetting reception year before P1, age 4 on entry to that.

Thank you all! Glad to see people care & trying to help

Most of the Stirling schools are good. Some have better academic stats than others but the league tables reflect postcodes not standards of education. Placement requests are not as easily granted as they were a few years ago. Stirling High, Dunblane , Balfron and St Modans are nearing capacity with some year groups full. Places are held for people who might move into the catchment area during the school year, so you should get into your catchment area school, I wouldn't rely on placement requests being granted when making big decisions. Happy to help if I can, I think I might be the teacher mentioned earlier in the thread.

Yes, I was thinking of you lidl but wasn't sure if you still had access to this information. I know that placing requests are definitely not as easy as they used to be. I think I saw on here that there was the odd school (Glasgow or Edinburgh? ) that had been unable to accommodate all catchment children but I think that's quite rare. Although having said that, many years ago our local primary ran out of classrooms and had to offer P1 parents places at a nearby school. After a bit of outrage they had to install a portacabin over the summer holidays and also ended up forming a couple of classes in the nursery building and moving the nursery elsewhere.

Everyone got what they wanted though.