Good to know
Good to Know
- Edinburgh's private-school scene is dominated by traditional Scottish/British-curriculum schools (GCSEs/Highers, then A-Levels or Highers) rather than American-style or large-scale IB 'international schools' — only a handful of schools (e.g. Fettes College, St George's School for Girls) offer the IB Diploma, and only as an alternative in the final two years, not as a full-continuum IB school.
- Roughly one in four Edinburgh children attend an independent school — an unusually high share for the UK — so competition for places and waitlists at the well-known schools can be significant; apply well ahead of your move.
- There is no dedicated full-time bilingual day school (e.g. French or German immersion K-12) currently operating in Edinburgh itself; bilingual families typically rely on part-time Saturday/heritage-language schools alongside mainstream English-medium schooling.
- State (public) schooling in Edinburgh is free and generally well-regarded, following the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence — many long-term expat families choose this route rather than paying private fees, especially once settled in a specific catchment area.
- If you're relocating for a specific school year, start the private/IB school application process (entrance tests, school reports, ESOL assessment if relevant) many months ahead — popular schools run waitlists and don't guarantee a same-term place.
- Renting before checking catchment boundaries is a common mistake: the nearest school to a flat is not automatically the catchment school, and out-of-catchment requests to Edinburgh's council schools are granted case-by-case, not automatically.
- If you're on a visa route tied to boarding-school sponsorship, check whether the school requires you to use a specific immigration-specialist firm (often at extra cost) — day-pupil places typically aren't visa-sponsored.
- Homeschooling is fully legal in Scotland with no teacher-qualification requirement, but if your child has already started at a Scottish state school, you need the local council's consent to withdraw them (a formal but usually navigable process) — this consent step isn't required if the child never enrolled in a Scottish state school to begin with.
- We found one detailed first-hand account of an active Edinburgh/Lothians home-ed parent network, but couldn't independently verify its current size or how easy it is to join — treat it as a promising lead to research further rather than a guaranteed instant community.
Schools
Fettes College
- Ages
- 5 to 18
- Type
- Independent, co-educational, day and boarding
- Curricula
- Scottish/British curriculum through to GCSE-equivalent, then a choice of A Levels or the IB Diploma Programme in the Sixth Form
- Source Note
- Curriculum details confirmed via school-focused directory entries
- Tuition Notes
- No single school-specific figure independently confirmed at the time of research; Edinburgh's most prestigious day/boarding independent schools generally fall in the £14,000–£25,000/year (day) and £30,000–£50,000/year (boarding) range cited for the city's top-tier private schools — see “General Fee Ranges” below for currency conversion.
St George's School for Girls (Edinburgh)
- Ages
- Nursery through Year 13
- Type
- Independent, girls' day and boarding school
- Curricula
- British curriculum (GCSEs) with the option of the IB Diploma Programme in the final two years
- Source Note
- Curriculum confirmed via an expat-schools directory
- Tuition Notes
- School publishes detailed fee tables (day, nursery, flexi-boarding, full boarding) directly on its own site; a non-refundable registration fee and a separate entry deposit apply. Exact current per-stage tuition figures were not independently re-verified at the time of research — check the school's official fees page for the current academic year.
Merchiston Castle School
- Ages
- Junior School to Sixth Form
- Type
- Independent, all-boys, day and boarding
- Curricula
- Blend of the Scottish and English systems, leading to GCSEs, A-Levels, or the Cambridge Pre-U
- Source Note
- Curriculum confirmed via an expat-schools directory
- Tuition Notes
- Falls within the general Edinburgh prestigious-school fee range noted below; specific current figures not independently verified at the time of research.
The Edinburgh Academy
- Ages
- Nursery through Senior School
- Type
- Independent, co-educational, day school (with nursery)
- Curricula
- Leads to GCSEs and A-Levels (English-system qualifications rather than Scottish Highers)
- Source Note
- Curriculum confirmed via an expat-schools directory; fee structure confirmed via the school's own official fees page
- Tuition Notes
- Fees are billed termly/quarterly with extras such as a technology supplement (£140/year) and lunch charges; exact current tuition bands not independently re-verified at the time of research — check the school's own fees page.
Independent, Day School (Single-sex Junior Streams, Co-educational Senior Years)
- Ages
- Nursery to Sixth Form
- Name
- Erskine Stewart Melville Schools (ESMS) — comprising Stewart's Melville College and The Mary Erskine School
- Curricula
- Scottish/British curriculum; families with 3-4+ children enrolled simultaneously receive fee discounts
- Source Note
- Fee structure confirmed via the school's own official fees page
- Tuition Notes
- Fees are charged annually (payable monthly or upfront, with an early-payment discount); exact current tuition bands not independently re-verified at the time of research — check the school's own fees page.
Edinburgh International School
- Ages
- Nursery through Year 13
- Type
- Described in expat-focused directories as offering an international curriculum
- Curricula
- Marketed as offering an 'international curriculum' for expatriate families, but specific exam-board/curriculum details (IB, IGCSE, or other) were not independently confirmed at the time of research
- Source Note
- Named and described only briefly in an expat-schools directory; curriculum specifics unverified
- Tuition Notes
- Not independently confirmed at the time of research — contact the school directly for current fees.
Bilingual Options
- Summary
- There is no full-time, dual-curriculum bilingual day school operating within Edinburgh itself that was identified in current sourcing. What does exist are part-time, supplementary heritage-language schools/Saturday programmes for bilingual families (for example French and German community-run classes), rather than a full bilingual K-12 institution.
Examples
- La Petite École d'Edimbourg — volunteer-run French classes for children of French-speaking parents
- Allemann Fun — Saturday German-language school for German-speaking families, based at a local high school
- Institut Français d'Ecosse — offers exam-revision and language courses rather than a full bilingual curriculum
Homeschooling Legality UK Scotland
- Legal Status
- Fully legal and regulated
Framework
- Home education is lawful in Scotland: the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (building on the 1945 Act) requires every child of compulsory school age to receive an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude, but this can be delivered by means other than sending the child to school.
- Parents do not need any teaching qualification or training to home-educate, and Scotland has no prescribed home-education curriculum — following the Curriculum for Excellence is optional, not required.
- If a child has never been enrolled in a Scottish state school, parents can generally begin home education without needing local authority permission first. If the child is already on a state school's roll, Section 35 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 requires the parent to get the local authority's consent to withdraw the child, which involves writing to the council with a proposal for how the child will be educated.
- Local authorities are not legally required to routinely inspect or monitor home-educating families, but the Scottish Government's official home education guidance says councils should have a mechanism to satisfy themselves the child is receiving suitable and efficient education and can make informal enquiries if concerns arise.
- There is no legal requirement for home-educated children to sit any particular exams; if parents want their child to obtain SQA, GCSE or similar qualifications, they need to arrange this separately (e.g. registering as an external candidate through an approved school, college or training provider), and early planning is recommended since not every centre accepts external candidates.
International Bilingual School Enrollment
- Overview
- Edinburgh has no schools that specifically target one national community; instead a handful of independent schools offer IB or similar international-facing curricula alongside boarding/day options, and these are what most relocating foreign families use rather than a dedicated 'international school' sector.
- Waitlist Reality
- Admissions for Edinburgh's more sought-after private/international-curriculum schools tend to run waiting lists, so relocating families are commonly advised to apply as far in advance as possible rather than waiting until arrival in the city.
Application Timing
- Some independent schools (e.g. Edinburgh Steiner School) accept admissions and new starts at any point in the academic year rather than only at fixed intake dates.
- For the more selective/popular independent and IB-offering schools, places can fill up, so families are generally advised to apply well ahead of their intended start date rather than assuming a place will be available on short notice.
State School Route For Expats
- Edinburgh's state (council) schools are free and organized by catchment area — the school geographically closest to a rented flat is not necessarily the catchment school for that address, so it's worth checking catchment boundaries before signing a lease.
- Placement requests for a state school outside your catchment area are possible but are decided case-by-case and are not guaranteed, and schools can only reserve a place for a family moving into catchment if capacity actually exists at that time.
- New Primary 1 (P1) or Secondary 1 (S1) starts are handled by the City of Edinburgh Council's Schools Transactions team; for other year groups, families apply directly to the individual school using the council's request-for-place form, and receive a decision letter from the Head Teacher, with extra processing time likely around school holidays.
Typical Process And Documents
- Independent schools commonly require entrance testing rather than a simple document-only application: applicants sit assessments of English and mathematical ability, and students for whom English is not a first language also sit an ESOL assessment to check they can access the curriculum. Places are then allocated based on those results plus a report from the child's previous school.
- For families needing a study/dependent visa route, at least one Edinburgh independent school requires visa applications to go through a named immigration-specialist firm at an extra cost, and notes that visa sponsorship is only offered to full-time boarding students, not day pupils.
- Regardless of school type, it is the parents' own responsibility to confirm their child's immigration status actually permits them to study in the UK before applying for or starting a place — schools and local authorities are not required to check this themselves.
Edinburgh does not have a large 'international school' sector in the way Dubai, Singapore, or Bangkok do. Instead, expat and nomad families overwhelmingly use the city's long-established independent (private) schools, most of which teach the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence / GCSEs and A-Levels, with a small number offering the IB Diploma as an alternative route in the final two years. Around one in four Edinburgh schoolchildren attend an independent school, the highest proportion of any UK city.
General Fee Ranges
- Boarding Per Year
- £30,000
- Day School Per Year
- £14,000
- Boarding Per Year Upper
- £50,000
- Scotland Average Day Low
- £10,000
- Day School Per Year Upper
- £25,000
- Scotland Average Day High
- £20,000
- Description
- Because exact current per-school tuition wasn't fully re-verified for every institution, use this general range as a planning benchmark for Edinburgh's private/independent day and boarding schools.
Local Homeschooling Community
- National Resources
- Scotland-wide (not Edinburgh-specific) support organizations that Edinburgh-based home-educating families commonly turn to include the charity Schoolhouse and the Scottish Home Education Forum, cited by tutoring-industry sources as established points of contact for navigating local authority permission and curriculum planning.
- Edinburgh Specific Note
- A first-hand account from a locally-run Edinburgh parenting blog describes an active, informal home-education network specifically across Edinburgh and the Lothians, with families meeting regularly and connecting through an online presence — but this is a personal blog report rather than an official registry or verified membership count, so treat the existence and size of this specific network as anecdotal rather than confirmed.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.