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Scotsnet

Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

Remind me what's good about living in Scotland?

516 replies

CoralPaperweight · 06/05/2022 17:18

I moved to Scotland 25 years ago (central belt) and I've had a great life here but over the last year or so I've got increasingly itchy feet. May be a post-Covid or age thing but I'm not sure I want to stay in Scotland forever - it just doesn't seem to be as appealing to me, and even the cities seem a bit flat at the moment. Realistically, I can't disrupt DS education at the moment, he's very settled and happy so please remind me of everything that is fantastic about life in Scotland. I'm forever reading threads about people who are desperate to move to Scotland and I'm not really seeing why at the moment.

OP posts:
User48751490 · 25/05/2022 18:59

SirChenjins · 24/05/2022 10:32

There is a BIG demand for private education in Scotland

4% of pupils in Scotland go through the private system. Hardly BIG.

I don't know anyone who privately educates their DC in recent years. Lived in Scotland all my days. Some relatives on DH's side were privately educated years ago, but was funded through the MOD as one parent was an army chaplain. They weren't wealthy. It was due to circumstances that meant they had to board, not because that was what they preferred...

The relatives who are wealthy on DH's side chose state education in Scotland as the school catchment had a good reputation. They didn't feel the need to pay privately. All DC on that side are adults and done well for themselves academically.

I know everyone loves to have a pop at the Scottish education system, but honestly so much learning comes from the home.

ssd · 25/05/2022 19:05

So true about the gun laws. Its horrific over there.

My washing is out @WouldBeGood 😃

ssd · 25/05/2022 19:08

I know a lot of people using private schools. Seems daft round here as the schools are so good. A lot of it is the status symbol. But a lot go in a different area as parents feel the schools aren't so good there. At the end of the day its all down to money as usual

beechhues · 25/05/2022 19:24

I didn't feel the state schools weren't good, but my dc absolutely drowned in the one they went to and were reluctantly moved private where they are doing much better, definitely not a status thing for everyone...no interest in keeping up with any joneses here!

WouldBeGood · 25/05/2022 20:01

I really do believe that people shouldn’t have to pay to get their children a good education. By that I don’t mean results, but a way to engage them and inspire them.

@ssd I took the dog out in my furry hood parka it was soo cold and blustery 🤣

WouldBeGood · 25/05/2022 20:02

Me in the parka, not the dog

ssd · 25/05/2022 20:18

Im now imagining your dad out in your parka @WouldBeGood 😄

I don't agree with private schools but i don't agree with anything where money gives you an advantage over the person next to you. But i know that's at odds with life these days.

ssd · 25/05/2022 20:23

Not trying to knock you @beechhues , we're all different

beechhues · 25/05/2022 20:28

Fair enough - generally agree with the sentiment that I wouldn't hold any prior views that anyone needs to go private  @ssd Flowers

WouldBeGood · 25/05/2022 21:48

I got sent to boarding school, so would never do that to my kids

ssd · 25/05/2022 22:05

WouldBeGood · 25/05/2022 21:48

I got sent to boarding school, so would never do that to my kids

Sounds roughFlowers

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 09:12

I know people send their DC to private schools for all sorts of reasons but there is certainly element of wanting their DC to ‘mix with the right types’ (or PLU - as one of my friends was told when she mentioned to a horrified friend of hers that she wasn’t going down the private route). One of my neighbours sent her DC to private school because she didn’t want her children mixing with the local children (ie mine) and one reason got that was “they can’t even pronounce their t’s” (they can and they do).

ssd · 26/05/2022 09:15

Ach, you're kids probably didn't want to play with hers anyway Grin

whats a PLU?

ssd · 26/05/2022 09:16

Your

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 09:27

No they didn’t - they were raised better than that Grin

PLU - people like us (or prats like u, as DH says)

beechhues · 26/05/2022 11:44

Well we certainly wouldn't hang around with anyone expressing views like that, but we are all different as @ssd said, I'm sure there are people going to private for snobby social reasons but so far nobody has been foolish enough to express opinions like this to me!

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 11:48

Maybe you’re just not in the PLU WhatsApp Grin

Im joking, obviously. I’d hope it’s a minority but I think it’s certainly one reason for some parents choosing private.

beechhues · 26/05/2022 13:45

I suspect so @SirChenjins !!

Turquoisellama · 26/05/2022 14:24

The Scottish state education system isn't great, in my view. I doubt it's just our school where the children seem to do very little for the first 3 years of secondary. And all the issues with school offering very few advanced highers. The schools are a long way behind some of the overseas school systems I'm familiar with, from an academic perspective. No doubt it's more relaxing for children, which may be a plus.

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 14:38

And yet, despite all this, our poorly educated children from these state schools go on to university, graduate with excellent degrees in a wide variety of subjects and hold down well paid, professional level jobs.

Turquoisellama · 26/05/2022 16:12

Are we not allowed to mention our familiarity with other education systems? And yes, I would expect Scottish students to get into Scottish universities.

Turquoisellama · 26/05/2022 16:22

Just as an example - I know a 16 year old Italian girl, who at her state school is taught history entirely in French (they study French history). English is taught as the second foreign language, and her entire class took the Cambridge First Certificate - which is a higher level than Advanced Higher French in Scotland. Her class have read several English classics in English - eg Pride and Prejudice, and Blake poems. They also study Latin at a high level, as well as Italian of course and some other subjects.

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 16:50

Turquoisellama · 26/05/2022 16:12

Are we not allowed to mention our familiarity with other education systems? And yes, I would expect Scottish students to get into Scottish universities.

That was patently not what I said, nor did I make any reference to the location of the universities attended by Scottish school pupils.

soupmaker · 26/05/2022 16:52

I know @SirChenjins it's an absolute mystery! 😅

AchatAVendre · 26/05/2022 17:32

SirChenjins · 26/05/2022 14:38

And yet, despite all this, our poorly educated children from these state schools go on to university, graduate with excellent degrees in a wide variety of subjects and hold down well paid, professional level jobs.

Ah well, its almost universally agreed amongst university lecturers that Scots students are poor in comparison to students from elsewhere in speaking up in tutorials. Scots schools are generally quite poor in this regard.

But how do you measure the claim in general? That Scots students go on to university and graduate with excellent degrees and so on against a meaningful comparator? How do we know that Scottish universities are providing a uniformly high quality of education? Theres rather a lot of them compared to similarly populated sized countries so it seems unlikely! What is a "well paid, professional level job"? Is it a job which requires a degree or one which requires a degree and membership of a professional association? What do we mean by "well paid"?

One way to measure it might be to look at the numbers of professional Scots who are recruited into well paid professional roles overseas compared to previous times. If that number is reducing, then it would be an indicator that the claim isn't being met. If its holding level of increasing, then it could be a valid claim. Successful business start ups (measured as profit making and innovation) as a measure of entrepreneurialship would be another way of measuring this.

You could also look at the number of Scottish schools which feed into Oxbridge, although this can be an unpopular measure now. Although in other countries Oxbridge remains a mark of success. (you can go very off topic on that one but it certainly used to be a criterion of success in some Scottish state schools). So if you dislike Oxbridge, you could look at how many Scottish schools are feeding into the most highly regarded Masters courses at European and American universities, as many students look outwith their home country for a Masters. You might not get that far with this one however as Masters degrees are relatively unpopular in the UK as a whole, and Scotland fits into this pattern, when compared to some European universities where they are almost a pre-requisite of professional employment.

What you really want to make sure about of course is that Scottish schools are not holding any pupils back by anything that they are doing or failing to provide, when compared with schools in other comparable countries.

What we do know is that university education in Scotland is in turmoil at the moment, with strikes being a continual irritant affecting the quality of university education, and that has been going on for some years now. The problem has not been resolved.

I was also struck by the claim above by MotherofMonkeys that wellbeing and equality are as much on the agenda as exam results. That doesn't sound all that compatible with the above claim and against its fairly unquantifiable, but isn't it society's job to provide these values and the schools to educate for exams? Where does "wellbeing and equality" end and political indoctrination begin?

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