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.

Well rounded and refusing to join the university rugby team as they are all "private school rahs". 🙄

Can you IMAGINE if someone posted that their child didn't want to go to football or gymnastics or swimming because the rest of the squad were council house kids from Drumchapel?

OMG can you IMAGINE!!!!!

how dare he stick with his local team. what a chip!

You know, you can have your views and I'll have mine. You have no idea what you're talking about in modern day schooling. I work in a very disadvantaged school and, with a few exceptions, have engaged, motivated, hard-working pupils. They are not like your stereotype just because they're working class. Bore off.

My son is entitled to not play sport with a team of rugby players who routinely disrespect rules/ the fair play atmosphere he's been schooled in. The team were more concerned about lauding over the 'oiks' (actual words used) and downing full bottles of port afterwards whilst in their chinos and brogues. He's just interested I his sport. So shoot him.

This is not about me. It's about the OP.

Nope no idea what schools are like at all, given that I have a 20 year old, 17 year old and 15 year old all of whom are either in school or have recently left. Totally no idea. 🙄

The fact is that many, many families choose to middle class areas for the schools. This is not an exclusively Glasgow issue. It happens everywhere. You can have your opinion on whether it's right/wrong, or think what you like about parents who make those choices but at least acknowledge your own prejudices about that.

Have a look at the Glasgow effect. I'm Scottish and my dad's from Glasgow, I know it quite well.

For the record, I should probably out myself as having gone to Glasgow High! Mainly because I couldn't get into Jordanhill.

DSis went to Jordanhill.

I'm not sure if it made me the 'person I am'. I think , more than anything else, Glasgow shaped my identity.

Are you going to tell us what it is oranges?

Because if it is what I think it is ,it's

a) unlikely to effect the OP and her DCs

and
b) quite a manipulative thing to state.

Id do it. Id look round the west end or Bearsden

Yes of course,it is detailed here

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow-effect

It's basically a lower life expectancy while controlling for deprivation.

@Puffalicious the poorer schools I've taught at were much better to work in.

I know it's always been hard to get into Jordanhill but that sounds impossible now. I went there for secondary. Couldn't get in for primary when we moved down to Glasgow from the Highlands and that was the 70s. And we lived in Jordanhill.

I don't live in Scotland now but have made sure that DD is up to speed and always insist that she pronounces Ecclefechan properly once we cross the border. She has a very strange accent as she was born abroad to a Scouse dad and Scottish mum and now lives in the North-East!

We had Burns competitions in the 70s at primary school. The worst thing was in P7 when you had to sing a song rather than recite a poem.

My DSis is in Bearsden. Her kids went to Boclair and had a mixture of friends from different backgrounds. They have lovely walks just out their front door and also very easy access to the countryside. That's where I'd chose.

Yip. Being asked to read burns at school on one occasion is not “excessive Scottishness”.

East Ren gas one of the longest life expectancies in the uK.

exactly. Pretending rubbish schools are just as good as schools with much better results so just silly tribal nonsense. I went to a school in a poor area (I’m from a large council estate). I did so well but it was harder because of disruption and peer pressure not to. I send my dds to good schools because I want the best for them rather than pretend bad schools are just as good to somehow get one over on the poshos.

Except statistics show much much poorer outcomes for those areas. If you think going to a school where those who want to learn are bullied and classes are disrupted constantly is exactly the same as a good school where kids are supported and encouraged you’re in cloud cuckoo land. It may suit your political dogma to think that but you must know it isn’t true in reality.

Wow. It's quite astonishing how proud some on this thread are of their inverse snobbery and prejudices they've passed onto their children. 🤔

Yes, as I thought - so definitely a thing and the wealth and health inequalities in the UK re shocking (se also Blackpool). Unlike Blackpool, there has been an improvement in Glasgow since about 1995. Not enough.

However, to hint that the OP's children might have a lower life expectancy by virtue of moving to Glasgow? I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that?

Looking at the Class Wars from another angle, it's quite useful in some ways to see this played out since I meet many people, Scottish and English who refuse to believe Glasgow has posh bits! So, at least this thread puts that myth to bed.

Ah. Glaswegians whinging about posh people in bearsden and calling the state schooled kids of east ren ‘rahs’. Meanwhile, in edinburgh and at andrews, the students referred to as ‘rahs’ went to very expensive boarding schools and don’t consider it possible that there are actually ‘posh’ people in Glasgow. 🤣

It’s just silly.

This OP has £800k to spend on a house. she’s not going to be sending her kids to drumchapel high.

Whereas the difficulty in getting a place at Jordanhill is more likely to feel relevant to her.

It’s not about class wars. It’ll be more about finding school places near the house they buy outside the standard rounds of admission.

James McAvoy's form Drumchapel. Just a random non sequitur really.

The Glasgow Effect is a thing. But not in the way the PP seems to think. There is nothing intrinsically "sick" in Glasgow as a city. You can't catch heart disease from Kelvingrove Park.

It's the SOCIAL issues and areas of high poverty and heavy industry which has led to this effect. Asbestos illness from shipbuilding. A hard drinking culture. Poverty and drugs.

And as others have pointed out, it's a Glasgow city effect rather than a "greater Glasgow" effect. Inferring that people choosing to move into the general Glasgow area are going to shorten their life expectancy by doing so is just very wrong.