Families of George Heriot’s & ESMS (Erskine Stewart Melville School)

[MrsAmelia]

We are going to be moving to Edinburgh shortly and we are considering both George Heriot’s and ESMS for our three children.

Which neighborhoods do many families who have children attending these schools live? We’ve been looking all over to try to get some sense but there are many lovely neighbourhoods to choose from.

Our most important considerations are making it easier for socialising for our three children (vicinity of potential friends), walkable services and nearby big green spaces for daily long walks with our three dogs.

Thank you

@MrsAmeliathe music department at heriots is great. My daughter lived in that department during her 6th year as she did music a level (they only offered it for 3 years as she was the only one in the class after the AS year. She's still in touch with a couple of the music teachers having left in 2011. My son was an avid rower and was rowing captain in his 6th year. Again I think they have better facilities for rowing than they did although you can't really improve the canal in Edinburgh and the shopping trollies that end up in there 😂.
It was a brilliant school for us. There were a few changes at leadership level after my children left but think that has all settled down now.
My children loved the mixed sex environment they are great friends with each other now as they saw each other a lot at school and apparently looked so alike everyone guessed they were brother and sister. Good luck with the hunt for schools. You need deep pockets too.

Have you visited the schools yet? Sometimes what’s on paper is a good starting point but yiu need to walk round the schools and talks to staff/pupils to get the feel for a
place

I think you’ll find football isn’t offered that seriously at private schools. You’ll be better joining clubs outside of school. But if they’re sporty, all of the private schools offer a vast range of other sports and excel at these.

@Robinredbeast - Yes, we have visited some and we are back in Feb and April to visit more. We are also visiting neighbourhoods too so we get a feel for the different places, distances etc.

Lots to consider and this time we are bringing our children with us for visits of schools, the city and surrounding areas.

Heriot’s does sound like a very good match for you.

I saw up thread someone mention the Balerno area and actually that’s a very good suggestion for you to consider too. Given your additional information about green spaces, I would be looking at:
Balerno
Colinton
Cramond
Morningside (south end rather than Bruntsfield) or Comiston

Cramond would be my pick for ESMS. All others are probably easier for Heriot’s.

Morningside/Comiston and Colinton are likely to give your children more independence as teens.

Finally, feel free to completely ignore this as Heriot’s does sound like a good match for your family, but I saw someone else mention St George’s. On paper, they don’t offer Italian or football, but they are so focused on the individual. Lots of languages are studied there 1:1 (most MFL teachers are able to teach more languages than any school offers). They would 100% support your daughters in Italian. Equally, they are part of several sports academies so would adjust timetables etc to accommodate the football. It’s a great school for girls with niche interests and is far more flexible than a bigger school like ESMS with timetabling.

Heriot’s music department is good, but for music and arts I would still recommend St George’s first. St George’s also offers more in their Classics department.

Here is a link to school coach timetable for ESMS, which may be helpful. It also gives a sense of the wide geographical area children travel from.

https://cdn.vectare.co.uk/media/esms2526/Coach_Service_Booklet_2025-26_-_040825_1.pdf

in terms of children socialising, this means when older, they are likely to meet up in central Edinburgh or at the homes closest to school.

i am not as familiar with Heriots, but believe they do not offer school transport, being centrally located and approx, 15 mins walk from Waverley train station, plus availability of local buses.

Both have excellent exam results.

Good luck with your decision!

I can confirm George watsons college offer Italian to advanced higher level. There is a large cohort of Italian students. There is also a classics department in the senior school which offers Latin. Welcome to message me.

Also a point to think about is the playing fields for heriots are on the other side of town. Near the Stewart Melville grounds on ferry road. They do bus you over and take the juniors back to after school club I think but otherwise you have to pick up from golden acre. There are buses that go back up to school and of course under 22s get free travel in Scotland but it's something to keep in mind. I hated sports pick up days. Got mine on the bus by senior school!

@buzzybuzzybees - Yes, we did notice that they do offer Italian in their MFL Dept too.

@Musicaltheatremum - That’s very interesting info. I appreciate that heads up. It’s this type of information that isn’t easy to understand and it wasn’t mentioned when we went last time. Sometimes not knowing which questions to ask is tricky. I’ll ask in February when we are back. I appreciate that. Thank you

If your kids are already fluent in Italian then why do they need to study it at school? Most will be starting from scratch and even GCSE/Nat5 level wouldn’t expect a level of fluency.

@MiddleAgedDread - Speaking a language fluently is certainly different than writing it fluently. Italian has more conjugations of a verb than we do in English and is not an easy language. Students in Italy spend many many years learning their language.
Even when I learned to speak English as my native language I was required throughout my education to take English lessons in writing, reading and study the literature of English. Learning any language requires years of study to fully acquire it.

Bilingual or multilingual children need to study their languages as simply speaking a language isn’t enough; one must study to learn how to write and read properly.

In Scotland all kids get free bus travel. I'd prioritise living on a direct bus route to school as this will give your teens independence and make your life easier. Colinton would be a good fit for your outdoor family and GH bus access- it's got proper countryside on the doorstep.

I think at ESMS your kids would be in different locations given their ages. I think the Junior School is going to be at the old Mary Erskine campus and the seniors at Stu Mel? At Heriot’s everyone would be at the same place. Just something to consider for logistics of drops offs or picking up.

My kids are at state school but a few of our neighbours and several of my children’s former classmates are at Heriots. I’m in liberton so super easy to get there by bus. There’s lots of after school activities so great for my neighbours with high schoolers as the boys make their own way home. I’d pick school first then house as at those ages you’ll have two who can travel independently so will make things much easier if there’s an easy bus option.

If you like new housing estates look at West Craig's. New homes,lots of families and quite a few attending ESMS. On the bus route too.

ESMS area is my childhood stomping ground and family members still live there. If you opt for the school I’d live near the bus route on Queensferry Rd - the accessibility to the Fife buses makes a big difference. Cramond was a nightmare as a teen due to the buses but brilliant during Covid. The foreshore Greenspace is really valuable but also accessible from Silverknowes/ D’Mains and bits of Blackhall proper if you do not mind a walk (or you can always drive/bike down).

It’s probably a bit cheaper round there than the Grange/Marchmont/Newington etc which are easier for Heriot’s. Meadows is boring Greenspace. Southside the interesting walks are Arthur’s Seat, Blackford and hermitage of Braid.

In adulthood most friends live handy for Heriots and their kids go there (there are also some at Gillespies and Boroughmuir). Most are positive about it but one family had to move a neurodiverse child (others survived). It is academically pushy and friends’ have alluded to other children struggling in their kids classes.

All the ones I know have really thrived. I know kids all through the school.

I don’t think I know anyone with kids at ESMS. Make of that what you will. Altho’ quite a few use Royal High.

My DD was at St George's, and we moved her to Watson's, in part for the much better music opportunities. Watson's music is quite simply outstanding. Both of mine were at Watson's and were in National Children's and Youth Orchestras.

I went to ESMS and lived out of town on one of their coach routes. It was awful. I spent so much time on those bloody coaches sat in traffic doing my homework and always felt like an outsider. No-one ever wanted to venture all the way out to my house!
It’s very, very sporty too, and it was extra hard to do training during the week after school or attend fixtures at weekends when you had to factor a significant journey on top. I felt so guilty for my parents having to drive me in and out so there were lots of co-curricular things I just never felt eligible for.

To cut a long story short, live in Barton, craigleith, davidsons mains, cramond, inverleith, murrayfield, costorphine or somewhere else like that, if you can!

www.lothianbuses.com if you want to look at public bus routes across town to these schools

In terms of living, Portobello, Joppa or Musselburgh on the east side of the city are at the seaside, on excellent day and night bus routes and close to green spaces, for dog walking. All would be accessible for Heriots, less so for the other options.

Girls football is increasingly popular here, my friend has two daughters playing in an over 18 team now, they both were playing in teams from 12.