Anyone move to Scotland from England away from family?

[arewescotlandbound]

Please tell me how it has been?

it’s a dream of ours to move to Scotland. We are looking at Aberdeenshire.

We know someone who moved there a year ago and is loving it, so we would not be completely without a safety net, but wouldn’t want to rely on them. Since they moved we have visited them a few times and it’s really stirred the feeling and desire to move.

We love the outdoors and if we move we can reduce our mortgage.

The only thing stopping us really is that we are close to our parents, and they look after our youngest so I can work part time. The childcare worries me less than leaving them behind - both sets of parents are retired.

Tell me about the good, the bad and the ugly.

The education system is much much poorer than in England

I did but I don't rely on parents for childcare etc and I wouldn't say we're particularly close. It's becoming harder as they're getting older and need more support.

We live in Aberdeen and all our family is in England. You might find it cold and I used to hate the lack of a proper summer!

The schools might depend on where you’re moving from and even how academic they are. Where were you thinking of in Aberdeenshire, it’s not small and will vary a lot in how good schools are, how many newcomers there are etc.

also, if i was moving from England I wouldn't personally choose Aberdeenshire, it's a bloody long way from anywhere south of the border and much of "civilisation".

Disagree re schools and education
No 11 plus, academy, waiting to see what school you are getting into. Free school dinners and teachers better qualified

This is a south of England problem, and it’s only a problem if you want it to be.

The curriculum for excellence is a disgrace, but agree teachers are better.

We did. The thing I most regret has been moving DC from the English school system to the Scottish school system. And we made the effort to find a school with a good reputation, too. The education system here is really bad - little content, very, very low expectations and an awful exam system. DC had some very bad teaching, too, so there's no guarantee there either. It really demoralised DC, despite (or maybe partly because of) DC being miles ahead of the Scottish kids because had been at a standard English primary. There are also serious problems with discipline / violence. Apart from that, Scottish politics doesn't work. Do your research and decide what really matters to you. I don't know where your family lives, but from Aberdeen to anywhere in England is a very long drive and a very expensive train fare.

They have grammar schools and academies up north too!
on what basis are the teachers better qualified??

On family - i regret it a bit. I love Scotland living here is great on the whole but my parents are elderly and have been quite sick for the last few years, it’s been very difficult to be of any use. You end up doing fly by guest appearances and staying with elderly parents is a burden on them. My dc do know their go but it’s really not the same seeing them at best a few times a year.

it is impossible to pop in on someone going through chemo for a couple of hours when they’re having a good day when you live a long way away. Yes you can pay for care, or rely on siblings but it made me feel quite bad about it.

We are thinking about looking at invurie, Alford, Insch type of location.

Thank you for sharing this and I am sorry it has been so hard.

I did it many years ago with my now ex for his work. The school years are different so you need to check which year your children would go into. Two of mine had to "go back a year" due to when their birthdays were.

Buying houses is different too, so you need to check all that out. I moved in the early 90's when no internet, so we were really naïve in how things worked.

We moved to Ayrshire, which is not as far as Aberdeenshire, but it was still a very long way from family. It was a difficult move, but I did end up really lovely Scotland.

I eventually moved back to England about 16 years ago due to marriage break up and parents getting more elderly and requiring more help.

Check local facilities in those areas as the amount of new build that have gone up in recent years has put a lot of pressure on things like school classes, swimming lessons and GP practices. Also, think about the lifestyle your kids will have as teenagers!

Yes we did, but we also have family in Scotland too. And the family we have in England were not providing childcare so a bit diff. We go down and see my in laws twice a year and they come up around twice. It’s a long journey but we then stay there for a few days each time so grt quality time with them.

as others say Scotland is not some idyll. Scots bang on about free school meals etc but you get that in England too, and actually the free school meals stop here when the child is in upper years. In London all primary school kids get free meals regardless of age.

we don’t regret our move but I wouldn’t move to Aberdeenshire. I’d want to be within an hour of a major city like Edinburgh or Glasgow.

I grew up around there.
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE WINTERS!

This poster means secondary teachers I think. In Scotland they can only teach a subject they have a certain level of higher education in. Not like in England where they use PE qualified teachers to plug gaps in KS3 science or make someone with a biology degree teach triple science and A level physics/maths as they can’t find a specialist. Subject specialisms are a strict rule in Scotland. Catchment areas are also so much simpler. Buy or rent within a fixed, known boundary and a place is guaranteed (with rare east ren/jordanhill exceptions). But so much else is wrong with the system - as outlined by others. year groups one to be mindful of as previously said. March to Feb not Sept to Aug birthday groups and they finish school/start uni v young at 17 if born oct-Feb. Teachers are often like a conveyer belt of NQTs who get one year then replaced by the next cohort over and over again, then only unstable fixed term contracts and sporadic supply. It’s a massive issue. I live in England now but friends do all agree education has gone down overall. That’s not to say you can’t find good schools still if you are willing to be flexible on location. Choose the school first and do a lot of research.

I immigrated to Scotland from the states and agree you should spend a decent chunk of winter here before making a move.

personally I think it will be really hard to go from that level of support to nothing - and soon your parents will be the ones needing support and you’ll have a massive juggle. We are hitting that stage now and it’s really hard - we can fly to the states for an emergency once in a while, but it’s so hard to decide which thing is the emergency.

my kids were born here so I don’t know the differences in education but it seems really, really different.

Honestly I wouldn't do it - being many hours away from elderly parents is very hard and a nightmare to organise anything for them at distance.
Education in Scotland is a massive problem- outcomes are going down. The NHS is definitely no better than in England and if you move rural Aberdeenshire you'll have to travel to Aberdeen for anything specialist.
I love the north east but it's very, very dark in the winter!

We’re on holiday in Alford at the moment and the kids have nicknamed it Vampire Town!

We live in a naice town in Yorkshire and came up for a family reunion.

We’ve been very surprised by how little is actually here, we’re used to villages which are quite lively, pubs, coffee shops, places for the kids to hang out. That’s definitely not what’s going on here!

We went to Invurie one day and that felt as if it had a lot more going for it.

I obviously can’t comment on the school system, but the schools we’ve seen all look very fresh and new!

As people have said it is a long way from anywhere really, took us 7 hours and that was with really good traffic.

I did, moved back as got too old for the drive & am main carer for parents.

Loved living there but got pretty homesick. Was always mistaken for a visitor too.

Don't underestimate the difficulty of managing family relationships at distance.

Teachers in Scotland have to have a PGDE, which is a level higher than the PGCE required by England/Wales.

Don’t just assume people are exaggerating about Scottish state schools. They really are in an appalling state. Teachers are great and are trying their hardest, but the curriculum for excellence has failed children, violence and classroom disruption is off the charts, and instead of addressing the problem, the Scottish government are denying there’s a problem.

The NHS is worse here too.

@examiner76 primary teachers are also better qualified. PGDE rather than PGCE - though that may be a moot point given everything else.

My dh says he’d make the same decision to move here fwiw - and we do love it here but I had to race down on begged for unpaid leave (firms don’t have to give you time off for parents unless they die) with both dc to find my mum wasn’t being fed or cared
for properly in a London specialist hospital - she was too poorly to get her food order right, had
nausea no one had dealt with, and wasn’t being encouraged to eat and was in a lot of pain. my sibling helps but she was worn out by that stage and not coping herself and thought the hospital would be on top of it. When a parent is sick, one sibling can’t do it all.

that's leaving aside the times we’ve been called
to say one parent or other has collapsed and in hospital - over 15 years there have been a lot of health events.

one family death I was on the train on the way to hospital when I got the call to say they’d gone. Ok, what could I have done but, I get a horrible feeling just typing that and it was years ago now.

and over the school years, there are so many things the grandparents have never been to, birthdays, school events etc.

I live in the bit of Aberdeenshire you’re interested in. It’s our home now, but neither my husband or I are from the area. My parents are Home Counties, his central belt of Scotland.

Good things:
House prices lower than many areas.
Towns and villages with a reasonably strong community identify.
Aberdeenshire countryside is gorgeous. As are the beaches.
Life feels slower, but in a good way.

Things you may find difficult:
It’s dark, and cold in the winter. We live in a modern development, walking distance to station. We still need winter/all season tyres. Have de-iced tye car this week. Normal in winter to get a week when never gets above zero.
Very strong links to oil & gas and farming. Those two industries dominate the area in a way I’ve not come across anywhere else.

Differences:

1. Tax is quite different for some income brackets. Worth looking into.
2. Education is far far more different than you would think. Worth looking into. Different school year cut offs. Different school leaving criteria. Fundamentally different approach to curriculum and exams. Much more flexibility on what school year child goes into so wider age spans in the year groups. Much more emphasis on going to your zoned school. Every home has a zoned school. That’s where you’re expected to go.
3. Healthcare provision is struggling. There’s a shortage of GPs (as in lots of vacancies go unfilled). So think about where you are, in a lot of England GPs are starting to struggle to find jobs. And fully staffed services are struggling. Imagine with vacancies. Private is limited, and sometimes only available in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Eg. For children.

Some tips:

1. look at what an unplanned journey in a rush would involve.
2. add a few places you’re interested in to your weather app and keep an eye on sunrise / sunset times vs where you are now, and temperature. It’s a good time of year to do this.

Happy to chat more on private message, will limit details of personal and family life on public forum.