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! :)

Yes another one thinking that central Edinburgh state or private isn’t diverse (and have experienced both). But you’re absolutely right about the wraparound and holiday club care.

Ahh - We are in Fife, so the other side of Edinburgh to Archerfield ( it’s a random name I picked from the bag a present came in!) but we used the Cargilfield bus for years. They do review the bus routes and consider requests for additional routes if parents request them

Agree, I don't think we can win, every school will lack some sort of diversity.
I did look at the state nurseries and primaries near where we're looking at buying and although they looked good we just couldn't make it work with the lack of wrap around and holiday care.

Even if they exist, you often find that not many of their classmates are in them as some central state catchments have high percentage of parents with flexibility, and they can fold, change hands, don’t run on some holidays unexpectedly due to demand (all of these things happened to us) and if you have no back up or bandwidth it’s panic inducing. I’d go for the closest one between GH and GW.

Yep reliable wraparound is critical for us. When we visited our local primary we had lots of questions on it and the headmistress couldn’t care less and seemed annoyed we were even asking..said it wasn’t run by the school so she couldn’t help with questions on it. So we asked the kids who gave us a tour of the school whether they used afterschool club and they both pulled a face and said they hated it 🙈. I’m sure that’s not the experience everywhere but it gave us enough of a fright to look at private which was pretty much the polar opposite.

Hi OP, our DS will be going to GWC this year (P6) and we considered both GWC and ESMS. I actually really liked both but we have settled on GWC. For the reasons already mentioned on this thread, facilities are amazing, it's co-ed and support for leaning.

It is quite common for kids to join in P6/P7/S1 like we are doing so something to consider if you do have a great state school near you. But if finances aren't an issue then by all means start as soon as they can. As you've already alluded to, private school is quite common in Edinburgh so the day schools aren't full of the elite (definitely wouldn't put us in that bracket!).

Melvyn is in the papers again pushing a certain group of middle age men with a paraphilia as justification for their policy of supporting social transition for (mostly) vulnerable adolescent girls with or without parental knowledge or consent.

At least no one can say they weren’t aware of the environment at that school now, unlike us when it was hidden from parents.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4994401-transgenderism-not-a-modish-fad-because-jan-morris

Whenever GW is mentioned in MN you post about your bad experience. It's come up in many threads. Sorry you have had a poor experience but you may need to accept that it was an isolated incident. Like you say the school was great until your issue. As far as I'm aware there will a new HT from August anyway so hopefully that will give you some comfort.

I used to wax lyrical about Watson’s when my children first went there. It would be remiss of me to not counterbalance that with what eventually happened. It’s not an isolated experience - I know that from other parents.

New parents should not be reassured by the appointment of Lisa Kerr. The policy at Gordonstoun argues that supporting social transition will improve the child’s academic performance and makes clear that they want to put trans identified children in dorms to match their gender identity- they are actively working on making these accommodations when renovating existing buildings or building new ones.

@rogdmum i just read that article your linked thread refers to in the times. I cant believe he would say that in a national newspaper

Hello, which school are you going to choose?