Help Needed: Choosing Between Stewart Melville and George Watsons for S1- Edinburgh

[ksarsc]

Hey everyone,
I hope you're all doing well. I'm currently facing a bit of a dilemma and could really use some advice from those familiar with Stewart Melville and George Watsons schools.
DS was offered place in both the schools, and he is academically bright and also good in Cricket and Badminton.
I'm in the process of deciding between these two schools for S1, and I'm finding it quite challenging to make a final decision. Both schools seem to have their own unique strengths, but I'm having trouble weighing them against each other.
If anyone here has experience with either of these schools or has insights into their academic programs, extracurricular activities, campus culture, or any other relevant factors, I would greatly appreciate your input.
Specifically, I'm interested in understanding:

• Academic rigor and quality of education
• Opportunities for extracurricular involvement
• Supportive faculty and resources for students
• Overall campus environment and community atmosphere

Of course, any personal anecdotes or firsthand experiences would be incredibly valuable in helping me make an informed decision.
Thank you in advance for your assistance! Your insights will be tremendously helpful as I navigate this decision.

The biggest difference I'd have thought is that Melvilles is effectively single sex at secondary level whereas Watsons is mixed all the way through. However I'd say most of the Edinburgh private schools are much of a muchness.
I always like schools which have a large number of the teaching staff's children in attendance. Means disruptive elements or poor teachers tend not to last long.
Watsons had a bit of a reputation under I think former head now for promoting trans ideology. If that's a concern for you, maybe check their policies.

The head pp mentions at Watsons is still in post. New head starts in August.

Unless the poor teachers also have children at the school? Less likely to move on if their children are benefiting from the fee discount

At the risk of having my knuckles rapped again by the August starting Watson’s mum on here, yes, agree with the earlier poster that if you are concerned about gender ideology keep your children far far away from the school.

I tweet under the same user name if you want full details, but in short, the school supported our daughter’s social transition without our knowledge and against clinical advice, although they did tell her older brother “in confidence” that his sister was now a boy at school.

They lied to and they lied about us. Repeatedly. They eventually reported us to social services for not affirming her gender identity and when social services agreed with the clinical advice, the school ignored them and said they were “uncommunicative” and “unhelpful.”

Staff then lied all the way through the formal complaint process, up to and including a regulatory investigation by the Independent School Registrar. They also refused to provide me with my personal data because individual staff refused to share the information (the school claimed they were unable to redact the staff’s own data from minutes, notes etc).

It was pretty much a repeat of the school’s handling of the 2017 parents.

And I wouldn’t get overly excited about Melvyn leaving. The new Principal, Lisa Kerr from Gordonstoun, appears to be just as wedded about gender ideology as Melvyn.

(As an aside, the school opened a consultation on their transgender school policy just over a year ago. The consultation closed over 6 months ago and there hasn’t been any update. The policy has been removed from the website but I know from current parents that it is still very much in place- immediate unquestioning affirmation of pupils and parents only told if the child agrees)

Anyone is free to DM me either here in on Twitter if you want more info

Thanks for valuable suggestions.

just another request, any views on Edinburgh Academy?

We looked at EA for primary but while we were there we looked at the senior school too. We loved the primary. We had no issues with what we saw of the senior but it didnt spark our excitement the same way the junior school did. As others have said, the day schools in Edinburgh are much of a muchness so im sure it was just a personal thing. We have a two friends with kids in the senior school. One family raves about the school and the father attended as a boy. The other family are happy with it but they have commented on one of their kids key teachers being pretty poor - personal opinion? The sports facilities are great and they have lots of access to out of school clubs etc as with all the day schools. The main negatives iv heard on mumsnet is that many of the families are wealthy banker families whose parents attended and its clichey if your not in that set. No personal experience. The other negative that gets commented is that the vast majority of the intake is Stockbridge/Trinity/new town and it can be clichey for kids outwith - im not sure to what degree this is a problem because we are in east lothian and they run buses from here and lots of other places which must be filled to make it financially viable but i guess its reasonable to assume that families who live locally will make up a sizeable chunk. Of the two families we know, one does have a banker father who attended the school and they live in the new town, the other family we know use the bus from east lothian and have never mentioned any concerns about being left out etc. Its much smaller than watsons. Seems to produce good results.

Thanks, finally I keep hearing about Heriots. Any experience with heriots which can be shared so that I can consider heriots as well please.

Well my two DC go to Watsons - currently S3 and P7, both been there since P1 and I have nothing but praise for the school. My two are both sporty, and have thrived at the sporting opportunities on offer and its great having all the facilities on one campus.

My eldest has just done Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and is about to set off on 2 weeks on 'projects' which sees groups of c14 head off to beautiful parts (and remote) of Scotland to take part in outdoor and group activities. I'm green with envy at this opportunity!!

The staff are incredibly dedicated and enthusiastic and both my kids have a great rapport with them. There is the odd teacher they're not so fond of - isn't there always! - but it's not caused any problems.

My youngest is so excited to go to the senior school next year and the transition of P7 to S1 and new intake at S1 is dealt with very well I think.

You will always find people who have good and bad experiences at a school. Case in point being Rogdmum on this thread. I presume you have visited these schools prior to applying? What does your child think? It's very much a gut feeling I think.

When we looked at schools way back for P1, we looked at Heriots, ESMS, and GWC. I thought beforehand that I might find GWC too big, but after visiting them all, I just got the feels for GWC and we put all our eggs in one basket and just applied for there. Thank goodness the gamble paid off!!

Good luck with your decision!!

Heriots has just had a school inspection. Full report due in a few weeks. Fully expect it to be glowing.

But agree it’s best to visit and see what kind of feel you get.

Sorry for everything you’ve gone through ROGDmum.
I would warn everyone reading this to make sure you really understand the school policies regarding lgbt+ and whether they are aiming to get a silver/gold charter from LGBTyouth Scotland.
our child was affirmed by the school and her story used as evidence for the school to get their charter. She has suffered terribly mentally because of this, so have we.
this isn’t her but is an example of what is happening in Scotland schools.
and before you write me off as being a nutter, I thought this was ridiculous, our school would never do this, our child is too sensible.
I was totally naive. Please cont be and check it out.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/my-daughter-was-radicalised-by-scottish-lgbt-club-in-school/ar-AA1niIgA

@Dontknowhowtodo was this one of the private schools where you had your experience? This is extremely shocking.

@Dontknowhowtodo - I have just read the article you posted. I am extremely sorry to hear what your daughter and whole family has been through. This is a total disgrace and this deliberate brainwashing of vulnerable children has been hidden in plain sight of parents.

The CASS review identified that the huge increase on the waiting list for gender services for children, was driven by young females, many of whom are neuro diverse. This has been a significant change over the last 5 years I believe.

Some of our most vulnerable children, who may find it harder to fit in socially have been caught up in this medical and social experiment on our children.

Describing it as a cult like ideology is spot on and I hope that those who have placed vulnerable children on a medical pathway to transition, which is not evidenced based will have to defend their actions in court eventually.

The dangerous social experiment described in the above article is just as dangerous as it is has been a gateway towards the medical pathway.

@Minerva14 i couldnt agree with your message more. The article posted by @Dontknowhowtodo was also in the telegraph and other various news channels yet i would have completely missed it because for whatever reason this kind of stuff is kind of being hidden. I spent the morning googling and the majority of schools in Scotland - private and state are signed up to LGBT Youth Scotland. Lots of schools also signed up as unicef rights respecting schools which seems to be the guise many of the schools are putting this under. Sorry to derail but how can we get our schools to break away from teaching our children this dangerous crap??

Visited both ESMS and GWC last year on their Open Days. Liked both but in different ways. We were leaning heavily towards ESMS following the Open Days but then the assessment process swung us the other way and we accepted an offer at GWC.

I know parents who have children at all the Edinburgh Day Schools and all are happy with their choice so it really comes down to your child, your situation, logistics for managing school runs etc as they are much of a muchness for results, teaching, facilities etc.

Thanks , if you can let us know more about esms assessment process which made you chose Gwc?

Thanks eastcoastie and minerva for listening, it helps me feel less alone, especially as marriage getting rocky because of this.

Of course everyone hopes their child will have a good experience at whatever school they have chosen and people go by their gut feel after visiting the school, attending the assessment day etc. However, my advice to prospective parents would be to really dig into how a school handles it when things go wrong. I’d be asking for information on number of parental complaints, including how many get escalated to the Governors. How many are upheld? How many result in changes? Is the complaints process a one way interrogation or does the school actively engage with the parents to understand the issue? Can you speak to parents who have had serious complaints, both those where the complaint was upheld and where it wasn’t?

For us, it was just as much about how we were treated when we raised concerns, as it was the supporting our daughter’s social transition without our awareness and then reporting us to social services. We found that staff refused to discuss it with us, they didn’t even make any records about the social services referral (to this day we still have no idea why they felt not supporting her social transition put her “at the threshold for child protection” because they did not document anything and this was defended by the governors. We had staff lying for the submission to the independent registrar, stating they had been “unable to persuade” us to meet, despite there being an email trail showing we were the ones agreeing to meet while the staff member ignored our emails.

In our experience, there’s a cultural environment of dismiss, deny, discredit and cover up with the school not learning from 2017 when there was a terrible bullying case which was raised in Parliament by Andy Wightman and subsequently received National press coverage. I remember thinking at the time just how awful the senior management treated those parents but staunchly defended the school as we were having a good experience with our son but quietly thinking thank goodness we’ll never have to deal with these people.

Is any private school any better? I have no idea, but prospective parents should bear in mind that ultimately while technically charities, these are really businesses and are very much run as such.

@ksarsc to be honest I was led on how my child felt about each one. He found ESMS quite formal, as did I. It was a shorter assessment but he felt like he was sitting an exam and was riddled with anxiety before and after. He spent a morning at GWC and found the interactive session really engaging and came out buzzing. Although he said the exam element was almost the same.
GWC is actually closer to us so it ended up making more sense anyway.

They might be cliquey but I don’t think they’re clichey

congrats on the new word.

Ironic when talking about education

My daughter passed both Watson and ESMS entrance. We live in morning side and wants to send my child to Watson. After reading the post about Trans Ideology, I am really concerned. I personally feel that watson is like a college and they will not really push your child for good academics results. Don't know much about ESMS? Which is better?

Watsons apparently had 34% of 5th years get 5 or 6 As at higher. Not bad for a non-academic college. I have no personal experience of Watsons tho so can’t comment on trans issues.

Are they not both run by the Merchant Company so likely to be similar?

And no direct experience of ESMS but a colleague of mine sent his children there and he definitely thought they didn’t push as much as he’d have liked. Though he went to a famous boarding school.

Have had 3 kids at EA - all joined at different points and can’t fault it. The Headmaster is humble and caring and the school supports kids with different interests and abilities. It’s small and very oriented to community - culture.