Reasons to move to Glasgow (from England)

[Marmaladegin]

DH has been offered a job in Glasgow. We currently live in a naice area in S England but it doesn't have great schools. Bar the chilliness, I love Scotland but not familiar with Glasgow. I'm Irish, DH Scottish. Dc 11, 10, 6. We like the countryside but would be happy to embrace the greater culture available in/near a city, as long as there was easy access to green space.

I'd be really grateful for any thoughts on pros/ cons of Glasgow with a family, and recommendations for areas. Budget would be up to £800k for 4 bed detached house if that helps.

@Piggywaspushed good point! Forgot I name changed to give someone local directions recently. It's where I'm from, not where I live now, so I'm not up to date about the school, I think the town one is still good, but it's probably a bit too long a commute for the OP.

Hope I clarified my initial hasty post. Have always fostered Scottish culture and history knowledge with DD when we lived elsewhere but I can see that it's a controversial area so worth the OP having an awareness of how it can seem and feel to DC who join the system later, as part of the bigger picture. Some of the responses tell you all you need to know about how divisive things can be. I won't post any links but easy enough to Google.

Good luck OP, hope the move goes smoothly if you go ahead and DC settle in quickly.

Giffnock is lovely and the train line to the city is excellent

@redbigbananafeet

Have you visited Bearsden Secondary recently?

I bet Bearsden Academy is still outperforming Easterhouse and Drumchapel etc

Moved from London to working Glasgow and stayed for five years.
Bought a house in Milngavie which cost more than our selling price in the East end of London.
Pros.
Glasgow is a great city and the west End is fabulous
Public transport was great
Scenery and outdoor lifestyle hard to beat.
Easy reach of Northern Scotland for more outdoors
Education system

Cons.
Sectarianism even within my workplace
The wet weather - and I'm a Northerner
Not easy for incomers to integrate. I suspect this was related to where we lived. My Scottish pals were ones who didn't fit in either.
Lack of diversity - again due to the area not Glasgow in general
Very hard to find a good Northern Indian curry!

Bearsden. Lovely area, great schools & loads of lovely little restaurants & cafes, close to Glasgow & plenty of places to walk/country side. Loch Lomond area is just a short drive away too!
Xx

Not sure what all the Burns angst is about when there's Shakespeare-reading-aloud (shudders at memory)

Probably just an attempt by the poster to promote division...

I agree with @Dignorantonio and there’s other things I would add to the mix. If you HAVE to move now with your DH job, I’d keep hold of your current property and just rent in Scotland for the time being, until you see if it’s right for you and your family. Don’t commit to bringing your money for purchasing whilst it’s still a politically turbulent time, you want to have the choice to return and your house in the south will always retain more value long term than the currently inflated Glasgow/Edinburgh markets. There could be trouble ahead, especially if your DH works for U.K. company that’s perhaps- I’m guessing- HQ’d in London. I have lived in Glasgow for big chunks of time whilst young and single, but also older with DC, I’m very fond of it as I know it so well, but I don’t live there now. If you’re set on moving, East Ren and Bearsden, Milngavie would give you more than plenty of buying power for a family home with that budget. Parts of the west end would work too, if you’re looking for those London area feels.

I’m Scottish, my kids are Scottish and every year I have a wee laugh to myself as they try and wrap their perfect wee west end accents round the Scot’s poetry. It’s mostly not burns but Scot’s colloquialisms their middle class modern selves have never encountered. No different from any English kids will find it. (Of course they have the benefit of a parent who actually grew up speaking like that, or conversing with people that did).

OP, I'm in East Dunbartonshire. We're minutes from a good train service, in a 4/5 bed detached with a big garden, which I'll happily sell you for £800k, LOL.

Sugarfree23 But the post isn't about moving to Lanarkshire

I've not got any problem with lots of Scottish history and culture in the curriculum. It's a LOT more useful in the long term than the random local stuff I got taught at school in England about my small market town. Border between Wessex and Danelaw, origin of town name, arguments over who got the Cathedral, John Bunyan... Yep, still remember bits 30 odd years later...

Swap Roman stuff about the Antonine Wall for Wessex/Danelaw and Bunyan for Burns and you've got the syllabus for any primary school in the UK (other famous local poets are available).

As for the Burns supper, my DD with a distinctive west mids twang happily did a solo recital of something in Scots (sair finger???) - although things memorised at school have a very different accent to her normal speaking voice...

I don't like super hot days, London last August was vile! I lived in Devon and Shropshire before Glasgow and I was pleasantly surprised by the weather when I moved up. Yes, wet days are bloody soaking, I've needed a different outfit for each school run before now but there were plenty of bit damp not quite raining but not nice days in England too. I'd not get soaked but wouldn't say they were dry either... I'd honestly say there weren't more "wet" days but when it's wet it's proper wet, rather than a bit drizzly (which I prefer because less guilt for staying in).

As they say, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. I don’t get why so many complain about Scottish weather. I think people forget how far north Glasgow is, look at a map and you’ll find we’re further north than most of Denmark, Moscow and all the major Canadian cities. It should be freezing, but we get the benefit of sitting in the middle of the Gulf Stream, hence the rain.

I couldn't agree with Piggy more. What on Earth is the comment about post 16? Are our qualifications post 16 not good enough for our many excellent universities, or for our kids to attend the also excellent universities in the rest of the UK? Bizarre.

Weather is weather. As Billy Connolly says 'Get yersel a sexy raincoat and live a little.' You'd be near fabulous coast/ mountains/ skiing/ hiking/ biking- all things we do regularly (we have a camper van and there's so much to do/ reach easily).

I'm out on the school debate. I can't be doing with the league table crap/ best school/ most middle- class area. My DC go to/ went to local, ordinary schools in a very mixed area in the South Side and have/ are excelling. I also teach in a seen as 'rough' school in the East End and it's fantastic with provision for ALL kids (not just those that are academic). But I'm not going on my soap-box (not tonight at least 😉), each to their own. Just saying, keep your mind open.

Just reading the full thread now- Lord, relocation threads really get folk's goat up.

My kids' schools and the one I work in are very diverse- LGBT rights/ Cultural rights are v strong too. The curriculum has Scottish elements, of course, as PP have pointed out, we live in Scotland. Anyone who actually knows the curriculum would not be concerned. I'm an English teacher- I do not ask any pupil to read out in front of anyone, never mind Burns' poetry (he's not my bag) and only about 20% of the literature I teach is Scottish (all of it modern lit). We also teach Scots language, but it's very little and not for S4 upwards. It's all about a rounded experience, and tipping the balance back after generations of not having these things on the curriculum.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I chose to send my kids to -gasp- a school in a working class/ mixed area. I'm working class (DH isn't but I convinced him of the benefits).The kids are balanced, savvy and have friends from all sorts of backgrounds. It's taught them far more than being cosseted by peers exactly like them.

DS1 has decided not to play for his university rugby team as they're all 'Rah, private school'. They begged him to reconsider as he's v good- their loss, the local team's gain. I'm so proud of him. If he'd gone to The High School of Glasgow like his grandma wanted I fear he'd have been a very different boy.

Not to sweep the thread off course- just to temper the VERY middle-class views on here.

Currently have 2 kids there and am very happy with Bearsden Academy. Both Bearsden A and Douglas A which is in Milngavie (next suburb along) are consistently at the top of the state school rankings. Jordanhill is another great option but trickier to get into given their different funding status and entry rules.

I would always recommend someone thinking about making such a major move to come on a research trip - Easter holidays perhaps. Identify your top 2 or 3 areas and spend time there. Walking around the streets, parks, local shops. Get a real feel for the place - you need to do this yourself as the opinions of people online and Google streetview can only go so far.

There are lots of children from all over the world in Bearsden/Milngavie (and elsewhere in Glasgow, to be fair). DH is English, my neighbours are Northern Irish. The "Scots language" thing is really not an issue - in my experience it has been learning a short poem in Primary schools in January to tie in with Burns day and that's it. English at senior school does look at Scottish authors along with wider British and international writers, but writing in standard English.

Oh and I also forgot - Glasgow is considerably smaller than London. So even if you're right on the edges in somewhere like Bearsden or Giffnock, you're still only 25 minutes in the car right into the middle.

@Puffalicious as I fellow teacher I couldn't agree more and I loathe the fact that people move to a certain area 'for the schools' it's the same teachers teaching the same courses ! If your child is capable they will succeed at any school and I believe it's all about having an encouraging home life. My DC are in primary school and will go to our local high school, which has a very mixed catchment area and that's good. I don't want them to grow up in a middle class bubble.

Your DS sounds like he’s inherited your chip on the shoulder.

He probably would have been a different boy if he’d gone to the high school of Glasgow, just maybe not in the way you think.

Hallelujah- I'm not alone. I agree with your every word. My best friend teaches in one of these 'hot spot' areas and it brings its own issues- not least entitled parents and exclusionary cliques. My DN attended Jordanhill and it wasn't a particularly happy place for her- lots of bullying, bowing down to certain parents, drug use and pretty wild behaviour at weekend parties.

An old acquaintance I bumped into was clearly apoplectic that my DS has absolutely excelled even though he was at a 'bog standard place' (her words) as opposed to her child who didnt at all after 'killing myself ' to buy in East Ren. I did try to say it's the same curriculum taught by the same teachers. In fact, teaching in a school where I do - low SIMD, troubled backgrounds- staff go the extra mile for the kids.

If your child is capable they will succeed at any school

I'm sure we've been through all of this before but it's quite plainly nonsense. We can all tell stories about being the motivated child in a school where everyone else wants to bunk off, swear at the teacher and bully those kids who want to learn and do their homework. It's shit. And it's certainly not something I wanted for my own kids. Their experience of being in a school where discipline problems are rare, where students are engaged and motivated and where parents are engaged and supportive has been excellent and if that makes me a "snob" I don't care.

Also agree about the chips on shoulders about people who sneer at the "middle class bubbles" of East Dunbartonshire or East Renfrewshire and seem to think it's great that they have raised children who are equally prejudiced about "rahs".

No chips here. None at all. I've chosen to bring my children up in the way I see fit. Nothing to see here, just an opinion. M

If i may ask, what are you insinuating about my son if he attended a different school? He is an absolute angel of a boy who could not possibly have done any better academically (he received a special award from the SQA), plays high level sport and music, and, more importantly, is the kindest, most well-rounded kid. What is your bag?