Remind me what's good about living in Scotland?

[CoralPaperweight]

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.

Looks fine to me, really, for our area at least!

I'm also in Aberdeenshire and my 7 year old struggles to pick from the options most days. Apparently it's bland. They give out stickers to the kids who clear their plates, he's had 3 from the start of p1 to now.

I'm Edinburgh born and bred- live just on edge of Leith. I'm 76- disabled. To say 'we are not friendly'- whit rubbish. We all talk to each other, I'm in a wheelchair and folk help me all the time.! I love my city though a bit of moaning re trams and roads just now. PROUD of being a Scot.!

I feel Scotland isn't a particularly united country - it might seem that way if you live in the central belt and tootle north or south for days out and holidays but i've lived NE, Edinburgh, SW and there is nothing particularly that joins these areas, different dialects to this day, similarly areas of England, Yorkshire for example, no doubt feels little affinity with London.
And imv much of Scottish history revolves around religion (England too) which is converted to good Scots bad English too often. If Bonnie Prince Charlie had returned as king we might all be Catholic as that was what he was. Strong feeling still in our football teams.
Better to be a more united UK (ignoring London a law unto itself, which does produce most of the tax wealth but not much of that trickles down) of interesting regions. Glasgow prob has more in common with Liverpool than Edinburgh or Aberdeen, NE Scotland more in common with industrial ?Teeside.
But I'm not too bothered now about whether I end my days here or in England - the Scots Gov is a disappointment - all these crazy wee schemes eg hate speech - trying to convince the world we are nice people, - a nanny state. Yes we are very welcoming to immigrants - but mostly because we have very few - immigrants will go where the jobs are and they aren't here. Of course the English are still denigrated by some. Not very welcoming.
If the gov would try to improve schools, policing, roads instead of frittering money on showing off it would help. Anyway, roll on a Labour Gov, there is some hope.

That’s an ignorant comment. Many children are not given opportunities to do those things at home. Many are not even fed properly, let alone taken to the pantomime.

Leith is great 😊

Agree @Ferngreen the last article I saw re the 1745 interpreted them as religious wars rather than anything as simple as national identity.

where is united these days though? France, Italy, Germany - huge divisions. We need to reassert the centre ground, compromise and toleration more.

So spend money on feeding them properly, not taking them to the panto. There are lots of things my kids don’t get to do outwith school, but I see that as my job to introduce them to these things, not the school’s. The school is to teach them.

Education is about more than academic qualifications , it's also about introducing them to activities them might not get the opportunity to do otherwise. Skiing, drama, trips to art galleries, trips abroad, visits to the theatre.

But school is mainly about learning key skills, and Scotland is letting down children from the poorest backgrounds the worst on the key skills you need from school. The extras are nice but if the fundamentals aren’t there isn’t that poor prioritisation?

It's possible to do both!

In theory of course that’s right and how it should be! but the Ed Scotland stats show that whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it dismally…so many be they should focus on the key skills…

When they have a grand total of 25 hours teacher contact time, I definitely resent them being sent home with homework and then hearing them talk about watching a movie in school! I’ll support my children with their homework but there’s a lot of families who don’t, that then pushes these children further behind.
School needs to be a balance and at the moment it has swung too far away from the academic side and is focussing on health/ wellbeing/ mindfulness. My child is hugely frustrated at school, the school spent a huge amount of time on rights last year, but as they pointed out school is the place his rights are respected least. Being witness to violence, poor quality school meals, not receiving work at their academic level, not having resources for their level and each year manipulating friendship groups into new class groups leaving the children spending weeks each year unsettled. Schools currently are hugely under resourced both in terms of learning resources and staff numbers. We need to invest in Scotland’s future, be proud of our past and perhaps look to it to move forward.

I do think finishing on a Friday lunchtime is a ludicrous waste of time and must be so hard for parents who are working. It makes no sense at all.

We haven’t got the Friday finish……..yet! We’ve had the announcement from the council that total time at nursery is being cut.

I thought they had ruled out any further councils moving to a midday Friday finish about 5 years ago. They seem to have conveniently rowed back on this.

Being witness to violence, poor quality school meals, not receiving work at their academic level, not having resources for their level and each year manipulating friendship groups into new class groups leaving the children spending weeks each year unsettled.

God yeh, I agree and have experienced ALL of the above. The way my child sobbing for weeks at being parted from they friends again that year is written off as ‘building resilience’ makes my blood boil. Who thinks up these diabolical, damaging policies? Have they ever met any kids?

We moved here 15 years ago and I never thought I may consider moving. The schools we have right now are not too bad, especially considering some of the stories I hear from other parents with children with ASN but I had to push for the supports that are needed and knew what to ask for. The public sector is so underfunded it scares me, especially healthcare. It does feel quite bleak just now.