Possible move to Glasgow from London

[banhmi]

Over two years ago, I started a thread in Property/DIY on whether to move to Leeds, Newcastle or Glasgow from London (Leeds, Newcastle or Glasgow? | Mumsnet). I received some really good advice and got most excited about the idea of a move to Glasgow. For various reasons, particularly a slow but steady increase in pressure to return to our offices, a move didn't happen and we were starting to resign ourselves to staying in London at least until the kids finished secondary school. However, I have just been offered a good job based in Glasgow (near the airport) and I need to decide whether to accept it in the next week or so. Argh! I'm negotiating on pay and we also need to decide whether we think DH will manage to get his work to agree to a remote contract. So not in the bag by any means.

In the meantime I'm not sure what I'm asking, really - some general words of encouragement about family life in Glasgow?! Because obviously I am now freaking out about throwing everything up in the air. And maybe some specific advice on potential areas and schools....

We'd be looking to rent, at least initially, possibly long-term (two years) if we decide to let our London house rather than sell up, to give ourselves a back-out plan if we need one. But the rental market looks a bit insane in Glasgow - worried we wouldn't find anything nice where we wanted. So maybe we would just decide to be brave and rent only as long as it takes us to sell up in London!

There was a lot of debate on the thread I started a while back about West End v East Renfrewshire/East Dunbartonshire, especially re schools. I think my instinct, coming from SE London, is still that we would feel most at home in the West End and like the idea of a good comprehensive with a broad socio-economic mix. We would have a very decent budget (£1m) if/when it came to buying thanks to a lucky buy in an up-and-coming area a decade ago, not sure about rental though. Where would people recommend? We live very near two good parks and a small high street with all the essentials in SE London, as well as good public transport so would be looking for as many of these things as possible.

Schools-wise, where would you recommend starting a search in the West End? Are local (state) primaries much of a muchness? Is it a nightmare to get in-year spaces? I don't even know what years my children would be going into - DS is 8 (born December 2015) so I think we'd have a choice (spaces dependant) about whether he went into a year full of mainly older children or mainly younger ones? DD is nearly 6 (born April 2018) so a bit more straightforward for her I think?

Both kids are bright, happy and settled and doing the usual roster of activities (DS - football, cubs, taekwondo; DD - dance, singing, gymnastics, they both do swimming and junior parkrun). Is it relatively easy to get new kids into activities and after-school care or are there masses of waiting lists etc? Are newcomers welcomed or will they find it difficult to fit in with their south London accents?! (they call everyone 'bro' at the moment....).

And when it came to secondaries, what are the main differences between Hyndland and Hillhead? (I think these are the two main state options that aren't Catholic?). And overall, how worried should I be about moving to the Scottish education system at seemingly not a great time: Scottish schools have tumbled from top of the class. This is what went wrong | Sonia Sodha | The Guardian Are there redeeming features compared to England?!

Sorry for the ramble, thanks so much for any advice!

Nope, we absolutely don't have to. But I have visited quite a few times now and overall have really liked what I've seen. I'm interested in this perspective that Glasgow is not at its best right now, as I've picked that up from a few other past threads. What do you mean specifically? Crime, education, local economy, state of public realm, general vibe...? All of the above?! I'm not averse to my kids seeing that social problems like poverty exist as opposed to living in a total middle class bubble, but nor do I want to be naïve about the city's challenges.

All children born 1 Jan to 28 Feb have a right to defer entry to P1. Parents lf children born October - December can ask cor their child to be deferred and many of them do. In fact I’ve never heard of it being refused. We deferred our December child and I’m very VERY glad that we did so, it’s been a great decisions seeing how much more mature he is in S5 and S6.

Hi @banhmi it's well known that the centre of Glasgow is an absolute dump at the moment. Buchanan street is ok but there are so many empty shops in the supposed premium areas. Sauchiehall street is dug up for "redevelopment ".
There's a soup kitchen nightly running from the front of the closed M and S. Beggars and "jaikies" are everywhere. It's definitely not a central London vibe. If you never left the West End you'd never see it, but Glasgow is such a small city with literally 2 underground lines. Yes, it may improve in ten years but I would consider Edinburgh and Lothians if you could afford it and manage a couple of hours commute.

This is incorrect. In Scotland any child not 5 at the start of the school year in Aug is able to defer. So if your childs birthday is mid Aug-end of Feb then parents have the right to defer and the decision is theirs.

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/nurseries-childcare/defer-entry-p1

That’s only from august 2023 - it won’t affect the ages of the children in school now.

So it wont matter to the OP, who is trying to work out the ages of the children in different year groups - her own children are 8 and 6.

If the birthdays are between those months the parents still have the choice. Its on the scot gov website however for some reason its not letting me copy the page.

I agree with @Redglitter about Houston and Bridge of Weir - it's where I live, and where all three dses went to senior school. They all thrived at Gryffe and all went on to do well at university too. They made amazing friends, and loved life here.

It's about a 20-25 minute drive into the heart of Glasgow, but also within easy reach of the coast and the hills. There is a good bus service into Glasgow, and a good train service from Johnstone.

I'm very happy to tell you more or to try to answer any more questions you have, @banhmi - feel free to message me.

I agree that the centre of Glasgow and other areas have gone downhill recently for really all of the points the op asks about, and that the situation will take years to resolve however, depending how often you would need to go into the office, i wouldnt personally want to be commuting from Edinburgh even once a week - maybe thats just me? There are some lovely places not too far a drive from Glasgow as pp have mentioned but if you are looking for that London type buzz, it wont be replicated in Glasgow but id say the west end would be your closest bet.

OP have you considered the commute to work? If you're going to be working near the airport then from the west end it would be a slow drive, the motorway can get really queued up in the morning rush hour.

West End is (to me) similar to a North London vibe whereas Southside is more culturally diverse. The towns and villages surrounding the city are also worth looking at as mentioned upthread. East Renfrewshire has a good reputation academically and an area like Giffnock might be worth a look as well as the west end.

I really don't think you're going to get a multicultural vibe in leafy Renfrewshire. (Perhaps the less leafy bits..)

The catchment for Hyndland sounds perfect, especially as it's a significant budget for Glasgow.

In Glasgow you're always going to get the privileged and the not so privileged living cheek to jowl, so our comprehensive schools are often quite mixed, but it's not all the slum that previous posters have suggested.

“DS is 8 (born December 2015) so I think we'd have a choice (spaces dependant) about whether he went into a year full of mainly older children or mainly younger ones? DD is nearly 6 (born April 2018) so a bit more straightforward for her I think?”

DS would be in current p3 or p4, moving up in Aug to p4 or p5. His P3 class would be mostly kids born March 2016-feb 2017 but include deferred children Lots from Jan-Feb 2016 but also some Dec 2015 birthdays like him. He would be one of the oldest in the year.
if you put him into p5 he’d be technically in the older third of the year but because of the numbers of kids deferring generally, he’d actually have plenty some 6-9 months or even a year older than him. That year should be March 2015- Feb 2016 but in reality it’ll be more like Dec 2014 as the oldest in year.
did that help at all or just confuse things??? You said he’d do better being one of the older I think, so in that case I’d try get him in the p4 class.
dd April 18 easier she would be one of the older ones but not by much and all the deferred kids would be older than her. She would go into p2.

Agreeing with previous posters regarding Bridge of Weir and Houston - ten minutes to Glasgow airport, 20/ 25 minutes to Glasgow city centre, excellent Gryffe High which is way up there in Scottish league tables consistently. My children and their peers excelled here and in the local primary schools which are also brilliant. Few nice eateries too. Kilmacolm, village next to Bridge of Weir (which comes under Inverclyde council) is lovely and has private primary/secondary as well as state primary.
Beautiful scenery surrounds us here and fairly close to the coast too. More bang for your buck in the property market too in comparison to the West end of Glasgow. Check all areas, don't pay over the odds

Would recommend Bridge of Weir & Houston beautiful places, I live in Lochwinnoch it's so lovely. Excellent walks & bird sanctuary 10 mins from Glasgow Airport. Stunning scenery, we are very lucky. Stay away from Johnstone and Paisley 😵‍💫

Waves to @Lillipops from Houston.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius hallo!! 🤪

Waves to @Lillipops and @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius from Crosslee 👋

I would stick with West End if I were you. We moved out a couple of years ago and I think coming from London/SE you'll find most other places a bit vanilla. I wouldn't bother with Edinburgh either. Not sure where your job is but guessing Inchinnan or Paisley and both would be a much easier commute from Edinburgh.

Sauchiehall St in Glasgow is a mess at the moment but is being renovated. Lots of new developments in pipeline too.

For primary school I would go Hillhead over Hyndland. But for secondary I would say Hyndland ideally. (We have direct experience of both Hillhead primary and secondary). Quite a lot do state primary and private secondary. We have kids in both and would generally go state if you can.

For what it's worth the latest league tables for secondary is here https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scotlands-best-high-schools-2024-31601983

I'd be a bit cautious with them though. Not everyone will sit Highers so not 100% accurate.

I agree about being careful with that league table. The results at highers at more important than 2 AH at S6. The only kids who will take 2AH are a small proportion of the most academic who are going to university.

Lots of kids at the tops schools get good grades at S5 so they already have the results to get into college / uni / an apprenticeship and will use S6 to so some vocational subjects related to their career. Only a minority of courses and unis require 2 AH in s6 .

Others will have changed their mind about their career / course and will be doing some more highers.

These are all worthwhile uses of the year in S6 . I actually think it’s quite odd that 80% of pupils at one school are doing 2AH. What about the kids who are going to uni to study a subject where there’s no obvious AH that would help them? Wouldn’t it be better to broaden their qualifications ?

I would only need to be in the office a couple of days a week and if we were in the West End then it looks do-able by electric bike via the Renfrew ferry? Would love to hear if this is realistic though, no idea how reliable it is. Obviously if it was chucking it down I'd have to go by car but I am relatively hardy about rain. That said, sounds like we should definitely also consider the Southside.

This helps SO much - thank you!!

This sounds absolutely lovely. I just think coming from zone 2 SE London there is only so much change we will be able to take in one go! Perhaps we will start off in the city and then consider a move out in a couple of years. But being very car dependent is a big negative for me unfortunately, so that may keep us in the city.

Commuting by bike from west end to airport area is definitely doable. You can cycle through the Clyde Tunnel (separate from cars) and they're building a bridge from Yoker.

@banhmi - we moved from a very busy town, which was on the verge of becoming a city, and we didn't find the move too discombobulating. Glasgow is so close that we can get there easily any time we want, and we live in a lovely community.

I think sticking to the city at this point is the right move. You can get round city fairly easily. If you are in the West End lots of places are walkable.

The Southside has different areas. Shawlands/Pollockshields are more city . Clarkston/Newlands are a bit more suburban. Further out you go more suburban it gets.
I'm sure you'll want to have access to a car at times, not least to get to highlands and coast, which is a large part of attraction of being here when it's not raining and you can actually see the sea and mountains