Edinburgh Private Schools- Heriots/Watsons/Edinburgh Academy

[LouisePe]

I have had a read through the many posts on this topic but just have a few questions for any parents with DC at/considering heriots/GWC/Edinburgh Academy for their kids.

We are currently based overseas and will be returning to Edinburgh in June. Our son has been offered places at both Heriots and Watsons for nursery, and we are waiting to hear from Edinburgh Academy. We had originally planned on P1 entry but wanting to minimise the number of times we're putting him through a move.

We toured all 3 schools when visiting mid last year. I think the tours left me more indecisive if anything!
He is currently at a nursery in Australia attached to a school I'd say compares most to GH - very academic. I did like that the head teacher said they get their good results through finding every childs strength and working with them on it.

I loved Watsons when touring - their facilities were great and I felt there was a more broad extracurricular offering. Their wraparound care seemed very good.
I worry about making the choice of a more academic school when he is so young and may end up being more sporty/musical/art focussed. Location wise Watsons is slightly better. I felt the big size was ok as the school seemed quite well divided?
EA would probably be my 3rd preference- No reason other than preferring the other 2 and I felt possibly EA wasn't as diverse or inclusive. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

Can anyone please share their nursery/primary experiences with these 3 schools?
Are the demographics of families much the same at the Edinburgh private schools? In Australia it can vary quite a lot.
Is there much movement of kids between the Edinburgh private schools? I'm feeling very pressured to make the right choice for his schooling and he's currently so young.

I'm so appreciative of any advice or guidance anyone is able to provide! :)

DS is in S6 and has been at GWC since nursery.

It has been a great school for him and he is very sad to be leaving.

He is sporty and not particularly academic but managed to do really well in his Highers as there is a good culture of wanting to do well.

If it's the closest of the two I'd certainly pick it.

I think if you were going to move from Cargilfield to one of the other local Edinburgh schools for secondary you'd probably be best to do it for P6/P7 when kids also tend to move from state primary schools to prepare to stay into the secondary school. That way you'd miss the common entrance exam prep they will inevitably do and wouldn't be joining secondary part way through when friendship groups have already formed.

So good to hear from a parent who's been there for so long.
Did you find the all through aspect of the school ok?
That's great re culture of wanting to do well- I just want a (mostly) happy and positive place for my son to learn, have no expectations re outcomes or anything.

Yes, that's what I thought. I don't think the prep school route is for us, seems a lovely small school but quite posh, and we'd rather learning the Scottish curriculum and having Scottish school holidays/term times rather than English!

Another former Cargilfield parent here. It really is very flexible and if you work shifts and rely heavily on wrap around care it’s a good option. Not every child boards and not every child goes onto a boarding school afterwards, we certainly didn’t. The future destinations look daunting but it’s a really down to earth school. They run a good bus service across the city and beyond as well. When we were looking at schools, Herriot's was definitely more academically selective, GWC a big school but supportive of additional needs and EA is my DHs old school so we didn’t look there. The commute to any of the schools can’t be underestimated - getting across Edinburgh is a nightmare at school run times. The holiday camps are open to everyone - over the years my child has been to summer camps at EA, ESMS and non school based. In fact they’ve never been to a holiday camp at a school they’ve attended.

And we moved to a secondary that follows the Scottish curriculum with no problems

Slightly jokey response in that I drive past all three schools fairly regularly on my commute depending on roadworks etc. and EA parents are the worst for poor parking on double yellows, stopping in the middle of the road etc. So, if you don't want to pick up some terrible parking habits avoid there 😉

Joking aside though, I don't have a child in any of those schools, but I do know lots of people with children in all three. The EA parents I know, feel like there's lots of pressure on the parents and it's maybe a bit cliquey, the GW parents have mostly chosen for location as they all live in south Edinburgh, and the heriots parents I know, all have bursaries and are a bit bohemian but don't find that an issue - their kids are thriving at the school.

Maybe not that useful, but thought I'd chuck in my observations as the thread caught my eye being local.

What do you mean by diverse? They’re selective, fee paying schools which doesn’t really lend itself to including a representative cross section of society (of course the reality of postcodes means not all state schools will be particularly diverse either).

DH was a GW boy.
He always says GH was academic but GW focuses on the whole child.
He's dyslexic and was written off by teachers in state primary but the LD department at GW was so incredibly supportive that now you wouldn't really know (once in a blue moon he asks me to spell something and honestly it's usually the kind of word I have to think about myself)

I didn't mean to offend at all, I guess I meant I'd like my child to attend somewhere with a wide variety of different families and I suppose occupations/income brackets. My son is currently at a nursery at a school where this is not the case and I'd like that to change. We're not extremely wealthy or old money, just a normal family sending one child to a private school, if that makes sense.

if you want diversity and income brackets then you need to walk well away from the private sector 🤣🤣

I'm sorry I really didn't intend to start a state vs private school debate. A high % of kids in Edinburgh are private schooled compared to other places so I'm sure there is some level of diversity- it seems there are many people like us just working normal jobs and trying to get the best we can for our children.

Thanks so much for the insight into Cargilfield. What made you choose it over the other Edinburgh schools? What schools in Edinburgh do kids usually go to afterwards?
I think its going to be too far distance wise for us but certainly looks like a good school!

@WhatWouldTheDoctorDo you have no idea how hard it was to resist the urge to have a dig at the parking habits of private school parents. Whole row of Teslas parked directly outside Heriots, can't understand why the oiks aren't doing them a favour and letting them out.

@LouisePe DS loves the fact he has been at GWC all the way from nursery as have many of his pals. It doesn't feel as big as it is, and it genuinely feels a wee bit like a family.

We didn't mean to go private originally, but were convinced after he picked up the F word from his friend in state nursery year and when we went in for parents evening, the sign for pupils to leave their coats had been spelled incorrectly. I believe we were unlucky though as the school has a decent reputation.

We were fortunate in that my DPs offered to pay for DS education. We could just about have afforded it ourselves, the majority of DPs are middle class both working. There are some very rich families unfortunately in the crowd DS is now in and that can cause some issues with cost of clothes and allowance and so forth,

@WhatWouldTheDoctorDo are the bohemian heriots families you know very low income? I looked at the Edinburgh school bursery guides out of interest and heriots was the lowest. To get a bursery you need both parents to be working and earning a joint income of less than £58k! I cant imagine even considering private schooling on that salary. For the foundation places where one parent has died, the threshold is £45k.

I guess it depends what you’re classing as “normal jobs” but surely you realise that anyone paying £10-15k a year, potentially for 2 or more children, is not at the lower end of income brackets, particularly when you factor in the price of housing in Edinburgh too! Everyone I know who goes to private schools are still firmly middle class with 2 degree educated parents in professional careers, middle management and above sort of level or self employed, and living in the “naice” parts of the city!
Compared to the catchment area for the local primary and high school they’re definitely not diverse!

As NotFastButFurious says, you’re not going to get much diversity in terms of income levels. Yes, a relatively high % of Edinburgh pupils are privately educated (though quite a few pupils travel in from outside Edinburgh as well- Fife, East Lothian, West Lothian etc) but there is a fair amount of money in Edinburgh in terms of professional jobs in finance, IT, legal and so on so it is mainly middle class professional parents sending their children to the day schools.

The two big factors for us were location (it's the closest to us apart from maybe Clifton Hall) and the support for learning provision. We moved after p4 from village state school which had a poor support for learning as it was so small and we had no luck finding a tutor. As well as the big list of names the more local schools from around my child's time there were EA, Herriot's, GWC, Loretto, Kilgraston, Fettes, Dollar - some of which are of course boarding schools but many of the children are day pupils rather than boarding.

@rogdmum @NotFastButFurious I explained in another comment but I'm absolutely understanding we will not find complete diversity. DS is currently in a school in Aus which is exactly what I do not want- none of the other mums work, very cliquey etc. I have repeatedly said I am a normal working Mum- (certainly no old money wealth here!) with an only child who I'm trying to send to the best and most suitable school I can, and am just looking to be around others who are similar. I can only afford this as we had one child and my husband and I were well established in 'normal' healthcare careers prior to having him.

I would say all the Edinburgh day schools would fit your criteria of working parents op. You will find some old and new money families with more than everyone else and you will find some poorer families on burseries but by and large you will have both parents working in professional jobs.

I would say its the boarding schools when its more the big wealth families. Most professional working families with 2 kids could afford the Edinburgh day schools if they put their mind to it and education was going to be their spending priority. Its cheaper than paying for nursery! But the boarding schools are a different league, i dont think these are in reach of the working families you describe so it seems like you are focusing on the day schools and i would agree that would seem to suit your ideals best.

My child has been to 3 different schools - one state, 2 private. Each of them fell down in terms of diversity - whether that’s ethnicity, class, sex. Outside school activities have gone a long way to address the shortfalls of the schools when it comes to diversity.

I completely agree @Archerfield@Archerfield. Op is hardly going to move to pilton or send kids to a failing secondary so they get to experience a bit more diversity.

Did you send your children to cargilfield from archerfield? Do they run a bus?!

@Glasgowlass93 thanks, my thoughts exactly! We've actually been paying more than the fees for GH/GWC in childcare since he started going at 18 months- at times a lot more! We're currently living in Aus and a lot of families continue onto private schools as its actually cheaper and they're used to paying for it by that point anyway.
I'm definitely not interested in boarding schools, as a Mum of an only child I don't think I could bring myself to... haha. Definitely wouldn't want something the level of posh of Fettes etc either

@Archerfield 100% agree re outside activities- hoping to get him involved in stuff out of school so we can all meet others too!