Fountainbridge development, Edinburgh

[RollerPolarBear]

Just noticed something about this on Nextdoor and am curious to know what the proposal for schools would be. I couldn’t see anything on the info currently available (might have missed it). I was wondering if the plan would be for the kids to go to Boroughmuir (given its proximity) but what primary school and could there be space given Boroughmuir is so full anyway and that site must be pretty much maxed out by now? Just being nosey, my DCs aren’t at Boroughmuir.

Can't see any info online, but agree boroughmuir is surely maxed out. I'd guess maybe Tynecastle for secondary and tollcross for primary?

There was a post from a MNer moving up to Edinburgh who (from memory) was round about there and had been offered Tynecastle, iirc?

I reckon it'll be Tynecastle.
The new Boroughmuir building is right on the edge of its catchment area. Its catchment is really south Edinburgh

I can’t see how kids living across the road from Boroughmuir can be sent to Tynecastle. I think a few streets around the new Boroughmuir site were moved into the catchment, presumably because they were right beside and had to put up with disruption from the building.

Tollcross Primary feeds into James Gillespie’s so if the kids were going there then they wouldn’t be going to Tynecastle.

The problem I guess though is that where they built boroughmuir is barely in its catchment so it's confusing, the vast majority of kids who go there don't actually live anywhere near it! But changing catchment areas is a massive deal and they don't do it unless they really feel there's no alternative. Who knows what they'll do!

That’s what intrigued me so much about it. My initial thought was they’d go to TC primary then I remembered that was a JG feeder - another school full to bursting - while the development is right beside Boroughmuir.

Maybe Dalry primary then tynecastle would make more sense... I think it highlights a wider issue with catchments in the city. I reckon we need a new high school in the south of the city that takes kids from the top end of the boroughmuir catchment and the east side of the firrhill catchment. Then the catchment area for boroughmuir could be looked at to take in more local areas to boroughmuir, like the development at fountain bridge.

I know. That would seem the simplest thing, to create a new school there, because there would be fewer issues with changing catchments and existing school reputations - rather than the existing approach which seems to be to cram more and more kids into expensive city centre sites.

page 6 www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/24994/fountainbridge-development-brief

Thanks emma, that’s a pretty old document (Orwell Primary definitely doesn’t exist now) and must have been written long before the actual building of the new Boroughmuir site started.