Schools in Edinburgh
Scotland operates an entirely separate education system to that of England and Wales. Most Scottish universities demand 4 years to complete a course rather than the 3 in England.
Instead of GCSEs and A Levels, Scottish schools usually use a system based on 2 tiers of exams called the Standard and the Higher. To complicate things, these exams can be added to by taking more advanced versions of them the year after. For example in S6 (final year), a student can take an Advanced Higher – the main exam result used for entering university.
To complicate things even further, many Scottish schools also offer GCSEs and A Levels in parallel with the Highers and Standards, while some offer a mix.
Another idiosyncrasy of Scotland is that many of the top schools include nurseries with places down to as young as 2. While, at the same time there are no sixth form colleges in Scotland, so a person could easily spend almost their entire childhood at a single independent school.
In contrast to England and Wales, the Scottish Executive refuses to compile official league tables for schools. Instead it will list individually which exams were taken at each school. Due to the mix of English and Scottish exams, and the ‘expandable’ nature of Scottish exams, it is difficult to compare like with like.
However, this autumn the Scottish Executive has announced it is to create a special Gold Standard which will help identify the top schools, although it is doubtful league tables will come back in fashion.
Overall, Scotland is regarded as having a good education system with some very fine independent schools. There are 70 independent fee-paying schools in Scotland and around 2,000 state schools serving an overall population of 5 million.
Edinburgh has around 20 independent schools, the best being The Mary Erskine School which charges up to £4,823 per term for boarders and £2,418 for day students.
Edinburgh also has a number of good state schools. The best is the Boroughmuir High School and many state schools achieve equal or better exam results than their private rivals. Despite the complexities of comparing Scottish schools, below are those found in the recent Sunday Times ‘Parent Power’ survey published in late 2004.
| |
Type |
|
% A/B Highers |
% 1/A Standards |
| Mary Erskine Sch |
Ind |
Girls |
74.7 |
70.9 |
| Stewart’s Melville Col |
Ind |
Girls |
67.9 |
65 |
| George Heriot’s School |
Ind |
Mixed |
67.4 |
66.2 |
| St Margaret’s School |
Ind |
Mixed |
67.2 |
49 |
| Geroge Watson’s College |
Ind |
Mixed |
66.4 |
65.9 |
| St George’s School |
Ind |
Girls |
66.4 |
69.2 |
| Boroughmuir High School |
Com |
Mixed |
49.6 |
54.3 |
| James Gillespie’s High School |
Com |
Mixed |
49.3 |
56.3 |
| St Serf’s School |
Ind |
Mixed |
49 |
33.8 |
| Balerno Community High School |
Com |
Mixed |
43.3 |
53 |
| The Royal High School |
Com |
Mixed |
42.3 |
59 |
|
