I’ve lived in East Ren for too long OP, my kids and most of my neices/nephews have all either been or currently at schools here.
In the Eastwood area all schools get great results, Woodfarm was seen as the weaker school but is now outperforming most other schools here.
In my experience the schools all have a different culture with both good and bad things in all.
St Ninian’s tops the results league table and is hugely academically focused, my SIL teaches here and apparently the school is miles ahead of the others in terms of pupils who get straight A’s.
It can come at a cost though as the school is extremely disciplined by modern standards and pupils who aren’t academically gifted and struggle with discipline find it hard.
Woodfarm seems to have a more supportive environment and as mentioned before now outperforms most other schools. Lots of clubs here and also focused on sports more than most.
There is however some snobbery as it was seen as the ‘poorer’ catchment in ER because it includes Thornliebank. Which is a lot of nonsense really as even in Thornliebank houses near the school go for a comparative fortune.
Williamwood again is quite a good school, my oldest went here and done well, as did most of her peer group. When she was there there were issues with bullying and she spoke of drug use among the pupils, but it would be naive to think that doesn’t go on at most schools.
In her year it tended to be the more well-off kids who would try to bully the not so well-off ones, not claiming that’s always the case but there’s a trend at that school to blame poorer kids for everything and often it’s the inverse that true. Many parents here have an entitled attitude that seems to be passed on to their kids.
Mearns Castle is much the same as Williamwood only in Newton Mearns, not heard many bad things about this apart from racist graffiti appearing from time to time (the school has large numbers of Jews & Muslims so this rears it head sometimes).
The catchment is the most uniform in terms of social background as it’s the school in ‘the posh half’ of the mearns, whether you think that’s a good thing or not is up to you.
Eastwood is the school in ‘The poor half’ (I say this ironically, there is no poor half there. It’s just the fact Whitecraigs/Broom/Kirkhill are more the old money parts) of the mearns. Again it’s a very good school but just doesn’t seem to get quite as high results as the other most years.
Snobbery is rife here as well though with many parents blaming that on the kids bussed in from the less-affluent villages surrounding mearns.
The fact is though that all the schools are amongst the best state schools in Scotland, I if your child is academic and private schools aren’t an option then it is your best bet.
It’s not a magic wand though, if a child isn’t academic it won’t be the best environment for them.
There are also many more important factors that contribute to ER’s success other than the schools.
Namely the kids tend to come from more affluent backgrounds with professional supportive parents who value education.
East Ren as a whole is a great area but feels like a bit of a bubble, some people are great but many others seem to have a questionable grip on reality.
For example I’m in a couple of local Facebook groups and find it hilarious what people complain about, you would honestly think the mearns was under siege by gangs because some kids hit a window with and egg.
Even the MSP went to the press a few weeks ago because of some minor vandalism in Maidenhill.
Good luck in your choice OP!