Possible move to Scotland from England but should we be concerned about education?

[Wouldliketomove]

Hello Everyone,

As the title says, DH and I are carefully researching a possible move to Scotland for our family (two toddlers currently) but I am constantly reading worrying things about education in Scotland. I'm aware there are also soon to be significant changes, which complicates things further and introduces more unknowns.

Can anyone with experience either as teachers or parents offer a perspective on education in Scotland at the moment please or any further insight into what is to come? I have tried to read what is widely available.

Thanks very much in advance

Same! I hated that book with a passion.

I did John Donne, Thomas Hardy and Tennessee Williams for SYS English. Tess and Far From..all good (had read them previously anyway) but by The Mayor of Casterbridge I was done. I still love Tennessee Williams but John Donne made me want to scream. I got to April then realised I couldn’t be arsed and dumped the course. This was 1990 and at my school few people were fussed about SYS which is a very different story to my DCs school now which strongly encourages at least 3 AH for most.

I've just been talking about this to a German friend. She was absolutely gobsmacked when I told her what my DC did for English Higher (aka practically nothing).

Yoir son sounds like he was really let down, the school sounds really poor. I would have been very unhappy with the experience you describe for my DCs and I think it’s a real issue that schools are able to differ in quality so much.

It's pretty high up in the league table in Scotland. In a fairly wealthy area. The teacher chose what she did for the English Higher books because it was easy and it was an available choice. And nobody in any school is studying anywhere near as much in their English lessons as children are studying in their "whatever language" lessons in the rest of Europe. I'd be prepared to bet a considerable amount of money on that.

It just goes to show I think that league tables don’t say much about the school. My DC’s friend is doing really well at their Oxbridge college if their exam results in their last 2 years are anything to go by, they seem to have been well set up to perform well.

It’s very hard if you feel your child has been let down, frustrating. My DC was looking for some work experience this summer, ended up with a paid internship and the company have given very complementary feedback and have offered sponsorship for the remaining 3 years of their degree with a summer placement every year. It’s not a huge amount of money but DC is pleased, happy for what this adds to their CV and it’s a big company with global offices so potentially a job with some travel at the end of it. They’ve had a very positive educational experience so far, seem happy and confident, had time to improve life skills with part time jobs and other activities in their wider life and I’m grateful for the position they are in. Where we live there are definitely schools considered good and bad and my DCs school falls into the latter category in terms of a straightforward “how many kids who were on the S4 school roll get 5A-C passes at Higher in S5” but in terms of support and opportunity I can’t fault it.

League tables are nonsense.

My daughter is s3 and they’re doing animal
farm just now. She is really enjoying it so is reading a few more books of that genre on her own time.