Glasgow Private Schools vs East Ren state schools

[Lifeisfullofsurprise]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone Glasgow based had any experience of private secondary schools in Glasgow, particularly Huchensons'? Also of the state secondary school Eastwood High?
We attended the Huchensons' open day on Sat. I was pretty underwhelmed tbh. The building was really old, outdated and I was surprised it was lacking resources. I felt the staff were giving a sales pitch, so unsure what we would be actually getting. The young student who was guiding us round each department, said she had a "chaotic" start to her education at Huchensons' and she came across as very anxious and overwhelmed by the school system they have in place there.
I discussed the style of teaching some of the departments had with teachers, and for example for Higher Biology, they seem to get alot of teaching time and homework. I cannot remember how many periods of Higher Biology I received over 20 years ago! I am a state school, Russell Group uni educated; DH is grammar school educated, top 20 uni educated, computer scientist now. We support the state school system, and we believe our daughter would perform academically well in either sector. My reasons for exploring the private school system are, a) I had never even walked into a private school until this past weekend, thus, had little to no knowledge of how one operates b) I am wondering if my daughter would gain more confidence and thus opportunities within a private school which possibly are unavailable to her in a state school.
Any advice based on experience would be great!
many thanks!

We went private (not Hutchesons- too big and didn’t really feel any different from state.) after a different East Ren school. They’re just so big and the behaviour of some pupils was really awful. Bullying is a real issue and carrying knives to school.

So opted out and went for somewhere a bit stricter. Child is happier as feels safe.

See what child fancies/where you live might dictate the better option for you as a family.

Try some of the other, less huge, private schools before you make up your mind. St. Aloysius' is warm and nurturing but still gets excellent results.

Thanks for the replies!

@YourLoudLilacGuide do you mind me asking which school your child ended up attending?

I had 2 children at Hutchie from P1 all the way through to S6. Eldest at Uni now, youngest in S6.
Overall we were pleased with Hutchie, although it's not perfect. The numbers in each year are big but the class sizes are small. Excellent music and drama. Sports good for rugby and hockey but rubbish for anything else. Some really excellent enthusiastic teachers. All subjects available for Highers/Advaced Highers ( some of the state schools don't offer all the sciences to AH) French, Spanish, Italian, Latin all taught.
Some bullying mainly among teenage girls of the " you were my best friend last week but but I'm not talking to you this week" sort. We live in Glasgow city so for us the major advantage of Hutchie, sadly, was classes not being disrupted by bad behaviour, and physical violence between pupils much less likely than in our local state schools. Also teachers less likely to go on strike. Hutchie has a new Rector this year so interesting to see if there are any changes.

Do not recommend Eastwood. Easy to get lost in the crowd there.
no experience of private schools but some east ren schools have a better approach than others. I would look at st Ninians or woodfarm. Barrhead high also seems to be going up the ranks.

@Lifeisfullofsurprise I would not spend all that money on a school if you felt pretty underwhelmed at the Open day.

Sorry I can't help with Hutchie specifically as I'm in Edinburgh but my kids have gone into the private sector for secondary.

We looked at 3 schools. There was one we felt the same way you did about Hutchie, one we liked and would have been ok with, and one we fell in love with and could really see our kids doing well there.
After the Open day, which tended to showcase the great facilities, we went back for a week day visit and we could see the classes were small, staff knew the kids individually and the atmosphere was calm, ordered and happy. That was what we were looking for and we felt we'd found it.

I think you haven't found what you're looking for yet

@Lifeisfullofsurprise I’ve had 3 children and now 2 stepchildren at a few East Ren High Schools, I however sent my eldest daughter to a Glasgow Private School.

I wouldn’t say I regretted it as she had a good experience but I wouldn’t do it again.

In comparison to Williamwood and the school my Stepkids go to I really don’t think the fees are worth it unless sports/music are likely to be your child’s main focus.

Education is pretty much the same, in fact my state school kid’s peer groups got better results than the private ones.

People will claim some schools in the Eastwood part of East Ren are ‘better’ than others but they’re all much of a muchness really.

The league table results may change slightly year to year but all of them are ranked in the top 3% of high schools in Scotland so if a child will do well in one then they’ll do well in all.

Still a bit of snobbery around here against Eastwood and Woodfarm due to some alleged ‘less-affluent’ parts of the catchment, which again is a lot of nonsense as at over £300k for a semi-detached in these parts now I don’t think there are any less-affluent areas.

Woodfarm especially tends to outperform most other schools here now.

There are issues with bullying (although I definitely haven’t heard of any knife crime) and the same issues you get with teenagers everywhere, because the schools are so big these can often get amplified.

Personally (as someone originally from somewhere very different) I still find the entitlement shown by many here irritating, but the private sector has no shortage of entitlement/obliviousness either.

Hand on heart though it all depends on what the individual child is like, East Ren tends to produce either really confident kids who don’t get phased by much or nervous wrecks who struggle to make eye contact and drag themselves away from the phone.

Which I think is down to the culture/environment and the fact they’re always just a number in some huge schools, OLM Primary for example is bigger than most high schools in the country. Not the best environment for a 4yo IMO.

East Ren is also busy and feels like you’re in a Stepford Wives bubble sometimes.

Whereas with private you can live in nicer areas for (a lot) less expenditure.

Good luck.

used to work across several secondary schools across several authorities. East Ren secondaries are HUGE and a child could easily feel overwhelmed and lost. I was horried by the dining area, an absolute pigsty when the bell rang, compared to smaller schools in more deprived areas.

We looked at Lomond School for DD and loved it but ultimately decided against it as DD did not want to leave her friends at state school.

I have friends with kids at east ren schools. The academically very capable ones have/are flying through school. Ones that are not finding academics straight forward are finding it tough as not school focus (not individual teachers fault- very much council driven) …. And have been warned they may not be presented for N5 for example in subjects they are borderline pass if don’t pass prelim. Obviously my known sample size is small in comparison with the huge schools.

Thank you all for your replies. I have found the mix of replies really helpful. We live in East Ren, hence why our default position would be an East Ren state school. My daughter has consistently sat in the top set through-out primary school, so in terms of academics, we are not concerned; we just want all opportunities available at school. If we go private, every penny has to be worth it!

@Lifeisfullofsurprise In that case it’s probably not worth it.

If your child is able academically and you already live in East Ren then a private school is probably a waste of money.

Assuming she’s settled, happy and has friends then you’d be taking her away from a good academically focused school to put her into another good academically focused school that you’ll pay a fortune for.

It becomes more attractive if you live somewhere cheaper but given the fact you already live here then you’d be paying 2 premiums for not much (if any) benefit.

In your shoes I would stick with state unless you want to spend the next few years running your DD around the west of Scotland. I attended one of the Glasgow independents and my classmates lived in Newton Mearns, Ayrshire, Lanark, Bearsden, Elderslie, Bridge of Weir, Pollokshields, Rutherglen, Hamilton and so many other places. Needless to say I had my first driving lesson the day after I turned 17.

You can always do what we did and try the default (high achieving) state school and if they don’t like it/it’s not a good fit then move at a later date.

If you already live in East REN Mearns castle is a good state school, both my kids did well there. They got better exam results and therefore wider choice of uni places than friends children who went to Hutchie. It may be in private schools there may have been more opportunities sports wise etc I don’t feel they missed out at all, and I didn’t have expensive school fees!