Search Q&A
Choosing a School in Glasgow Scotland Whilst on Secondment?
I am going to be moving to Glasgow in Scotland in early January for a 1 year secondment with my job. This is an internal transfer within my company and they are willing to pay all expenses for myself and family to move.
Luckily this means that they assess our current household setup and will expense replicating it. My child currently attends an independent school and the company is willing to pay fees of up to £10,000 (currently around €11,200) per year for school fees.
Whilst I'm ecstatic that my child's high quality schooling will now be "free" I am very concerned about where to place her. I had a look at the following site which gives reviews and information on Glasgow private schools https://www.educators.co.uk/private-schools-glasgow/ and it looks to me like 'The High School of Glasgow' is the best choice. However I won't have any time to visit open days or tour schools. How am I supposed to gauge the quality of schooling from a distance??
We are from the UK and native speakers so there's no language issues, I just don't know much about the city or its schools. Any advice much appreciated!
I'm even considering a state school if the quality of teaching or pupils turns out to be better.
From our experience in the UK getting in to a good school in England is extremely difficult. Certainly living in the catchment area of a great school doesn't mean you have the right to get a place we lived very close to an excellent secondary school and our son was reapeAtedly refused a place the alternatives we were offered were appalling in the end we paid for a private school. We hadn't put his name down when he was the right age and all the local authority has to do is offer you a place somewhere. However Scotland is different country for education so I'm not sure if that applies there also good luck
To be honest, with this much notice, and at this time of year, your biggest problem is more whether the schools have any places. You will just have to call them and find out. All of the schools listed on that link are "good" schools, and it will really depend on 1) whether they have places, 2) whether they are happy to take a child mid-way through the academic year, and 3) where you're going to live around Glasgow.
All those schools will be fine, your child will be amongst the most privileged children in the city, so just find a place and a place to live nearby.
I'd start by plotting each school on a map, looking at work, plotting anything significant like location of a child's after school activities, then start with the most convenient of those schools on the list.
I had the possibility of going to school in Glasgow and went there and had a look at a few. The Academy stood out to me..... but this was some time ago and things might well have changed.
Yes that's the problem you're going to hit I'm afraid if you go to appeal you have to prove your child's need is more than that of their peers to not be in a larger class as I said we moved when our son was 11 and no way to get him in any good school and we did that year on year applying and turned down and the local authority don't care because they want to fill the bad schools. If your child is good student you will do better but I'd also start looking at private education if I were you
Also I dont know about Scotland in the UK if your in the armed forces they are more helpful from what we were told but certainly our experience was we paid out a school fee for five years and it's quite a lump to pay until we came back here but of course nothing like what you'd. Pay for BSB ISB or St Johns which high due to local tax and not able to claim charitable status
