Edinburgh and the surrounding areas - where would you choose?

[RhubarbandCust]

Looks like for us a move to Edinburgh is on the cards. I have not lived there since my childhood and feel like my knowledge is very out of date. We currently live in London but ultimately would like our kids to be brought up somewhere less hectic that is greener, safer, cleaner air etc. I have some family dotted around SW Scotland and Southside of Edinburgh. It would make sense to live in Edinburgh south, but I see areas such as Trinity come highly recommended. After living in London and getting used to commuting I am also wondering whether it would make sense to look a little bit further out to get a bit more house for your money? Can anyone recommend any areas we should be focusing our search on? Either in Edinburgh or south/SW/SE of the city? We will rent to begin with but then would have a budget of approx £900K - £1M once we sell our London home. Schools are a big factor. Currently our children are in primary school but conscious high school is just around the corner and need to factor that in. Could go private if we have to but have no current working knowledge of private schools in the city.......Be interested to hear your thoughts/suggestions! Thank you.

With your budget I would look at Morningside, Grange, Newington, Merchiston, Colinton, Murrayfield, Blackhall, Ravelston, Trinity, New Town. All lovely safe family areas.
Out of the city I'd look at Linlithgow to the west and North Berwick and Gullane to East.
Remember Scotland has offers over system and houses in Edinburgh have been selling for 20% over for last few years. But property market everywhere is slowing a bit.

If you grew up here you'll know about the peculiarity in Edinburgh with 25% of secondary children being in private schools. This means state secondaries don't have the same social mix as elsewhere. The "best" state high schools are considered to be Boroughmuir, Gillespies, Royal High, Craigmount.

Also Firhill,Trinity and Balerno get a good name.

If you get in catchment for any of them you really can't go wrong even if you do end up going for private.

The private day schools are all much of a muchness in terms of results but each have their own character so best to go to the open days or arrange to visit. Families often choose by location. Watsons or Heriots for south side and Edinburgh academy, ESMS for north. St. George's if you want single sex girls. There is also Clifton hall, a very small school just outside the city. The other schools all have a lot of boarders.
All the schools have children travelling in from all of the Lothians and Fife.

I'd advise having a serious think about secondary education before you settle for being too far out of the city. If you decide on private your DC may have over an hour travel each way. You will also be taking them in to Edinburgh at weekend for sports matches, parties, social life!

Pick your school first. With that budget I think you'd be bonkers not to go private. They are all good in Edinburgh. It's more about deciding if you want to Scottish or English exam system. Get their brochures, visit then decide on a house/flat that's close by.

Don't discount flats. There are enormous mansion style flats all over Edinburgh and it's so cold a garden's not as much use as in the south of England.

I started a thread just today re leaving the London area to go....who knows where at this point?!

So, I am watching with interest.

Fwiw, we lived in Edinburgh in the late 00s. We lived in the New Town and we absolutely loved it there. It is expensive though. More now than when we were there. Leith is nice too.

Further out, I think some of the area around Haddington is lovely. Musselburgh is very studenty due to the uni there but other areas around there are nice and a few have good train links to the city. That said, I don't know much about the outskirts as we lived in the city and also my knowledge may be out of date.

Thanks all for your replies. Some really good suggestions and points here. Sounds like the starting point is to look at secondaries first. I was state educated when I lived in Edinburgh and think it was alright.....but that was 20 years ago now! 20% over asking price is bonkers....eek!

Absolutely decide on secondaries first that's excellent advice. Both times we went to look for lovely houses near beaches the owners had kids just moving into secondary and wanted to move back in. It's great for their independence to be in a relatively safe city where they can travel about on their own easily.

Ps there are tonnes of similar past threads on scotsnet to look up.

With that budget I’d definitely live in the city for the convenience.

Thanks both. I'll also take a look at the old threads.

Do you think there is much difference between the quality of schooling between the good state secondaries and private e.g. Boroughmuir vs Watson's? Yes, I'd like my children to have access to good education - but equally value good pastoral care, friendships, sport etc. Down here, the parents tutor the kids like mad to get their child into a private or a grammar school. Is it like this in Edinburgh? Tbh this would put me off sending my kids private - but maybe this is a London thing?

There isn't such pressure ime, tutors are common when you get to the upper secondary exams but I've not heard of any intensive tutoring for state or private prior to that. So much depends on what your child/children's strengths and challenges are with schooling, certainly when you've met enough parents in Edinburgh you've heard good and bad tales of every school.

I don't think there will be much difference in quality of schooling between likes of Boroughmuir and the private sector. The difference in results is because most of the private schools are academically selective (to varying degrees) and have small class sizes therefore you would expect their results to be better. In the majority of the Edinburgh private schools approx one third of the year will get 5As at higher and about 95% of leavers will go on to university.

Boroughmuir has an affluent catchment with many professional parents who are engaged in their children's education. Families actively move to get into catchment. IME the stark difference in results snd social mix is seen more in the state schools which are not in the 3 or 4 at the "top" of the league.

I can't really speak for pastoral care but hopefully someone with kids at Boroughmuir can help.

The huge difference between state and private is resources. Some of the state schools are really over full, especially Gillespies.

I always dreamed of living in the Craiglockhart area growing up. Was at the Chesser end of Slateford. We ended up at South Gyle then moving further in towards Corstorphine. It’s been a great area for our now grown up children to grow up in. Parks nearby, Corstorphine Hill. Quick drive to Queensferry or Fife. Our home is probably too big now but we love our location.

with the limited number of places at Scottish unis for Scottish kids, a private education makes students even less attractive these days according to university admissions staff I know. Excellent students from either will get in regardless but ‘good’ results from a state school would be much better for your kids prospects than ‘good’ results from a private school.

Getting into catchment for good state school would be my priority.

@Climatic123 I had no idea this is the case! Are the private kids heading south of the border to get a uni place? Sounds like we really need to try and get the right catchment!

Just as an alternative view to the university debate - my DC’s (private school) has @ 10 St Andrews places this year (about 12% of the year) with many more to Glasgow. Another large private school had about 25 St A’s places and again huge numbers who are now in Glasgow.

In comparison the (in theory good middle class) school that my kids went to before they moved to a private school only got 1 into St A.

Anecdotal of course but perhaps not quite so black and white.

Hello, I need advice on Edinburgh schools please. We are moving to Scotland and looking at independent schools for our young children, nine and 3 years old. We love cargilfield and the option of keeping secondary school options open until we get to know the city and schools. We do however, want them to go to a day secondary school in the city eventually, not boarding, and a bit confused about what the best route is to that. Any advice very welcome. Thanks 😊