Has anyone here ever lived Edinburgh, or more specifically, have they attended/ know someone who attended George Heroit's School?

June 4, 2009 10:44 AM

Has anyone here ever lived Edinburgh, or more specifically, have they attended/ know someone who attended George Heroit's School?

I'm just looking for some basic impressions of the experience and city, specifically for someone who who would be attending while being the ages 13-17. Many thanks.

posted by Lacking Subtlety to education (7 comments total)

Whoops. Which is not to say I need some giant answer right now. This is more something with the possibility of a mini-correspondence type thing. Again, many thanks.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 10:53 AM on June 4

I live in Edinburgh but I'm way past your age range and didn't go to school here.But FWIW, it's Heriot, not Heroit, in case you're googling.
posted by penguin pie at 11:20 AM on June 4

I grew up in Edinburgh, and knew quite a few Heriots students.

Edinburgh is the centre of private education in Scotland, and there are a number of private schools (also known as independent schools) in the city. To forestall any confusion, private schools are called public schools in England, but private in Scotland. I went to a state school, but participated in youth theatre groups with a few Heriots kids. As with any private school, there's a mix of pupils, from the sons and daughters of the well-to-do to middle class kids to kids on scholarship. Generally speaking, there's a much higher staff-to-student ratio, and a greater emphasis on sport, participation in school activities and so on. The debate on whether private education is worth the money is not one to have here, but every Heriot kid I ever met certainly had a good level of academics and/or general achievement, and nearly all of them got into good universities.

Edinburgh itself is a very livable city, especially in the more central areas. It has the largest arts festival in the world every summer, which makes it a great place to grow up, and work-wise it's a massive centre for financial services, tourism and to a lesser extent media and creative agencies. I highly recommend it as a place to live, if you can cope with pretty long, wet and grey winters. Although, that said, they're longer, wetter and greyer nearly everywhere else in Scotland.
posted by Happy Dave at 12:20 PM on June 4

Although, that said, they're longer, wetter and greyer nearly everywhere else in Scotland.

Ditto the summers...
posted by Chairboy at 1:53 PM on June 4

ooops
eveywhere else, i mean...
posted by Chairboy at 2:04 PM on June 4

my old high school (st. thomas of aquinas) is around the corner from heriots. we used to taunt them with a "heriots, heriots, ra, ra, ra" chant. a bit of class war a la edinburgh style there for you. not much to get worked up about. i always thought heriots was a bit lower down the private school ladder than other more genteel edinburgh institutions of private learning; mainly because some of their pupils got the bus to school with us plebs, but who knows? that might be a good thing if you're looking for a bit of diversity. i also knew of a couple of bona fide neds that went there on assisted places; god only knows what heriots were up to there--i guess the state's money was as good as anyone else's. mind you, this is all more than 20 years ago and i havnae a scooby as to what's up with heriots now. good luck!
posted by iboxifoo at 7:26 PM on June 4

St Tams fer Bams eh? I was a Craigie boy. Mount, not Miller. Used to work with a St Tams kid, and he confirmed they were still throwing things at the private school kids even a few years ago. Class resentment never dies in Auld Reekie.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:36 AM on June 5