Great Scot

I am thinking of tasting the Scottish waters, in particular in Edinburgh, but I’m finding it hard to decide.

Living in London has made me realise that you will have more fun if you choose to live in the areas where there are fellow Antipodeans, such as in Clapham and Shepherd’s Bush.

Are there any areas like this in Edinburgh that I should try to live near?

I was also wondering if anyone knew anything about teaching in Edinburgh. Are there big differences in pay, conditions, vacancies, etc?

It seems strange that in Australia you can move from Sydney to Brisbane or Melbourne without a thought, yet Edinburgh and Scotland feel like foreign lands.

No offence to the Scottish cos I think you’re a bunch of great people.

Jane Herring, via email

Jane

Can I ask why you want to move to Scotland to live with 'fellow Antipodeans'? Are you of the impression that the locals don't have any fun? And as for moving from London to Edinburgh feeling like a move to a foreign land, well I think you might need to live a little more. Scotland is part of the UK, the culture is pretty similar to England, you can spend your 'Bank of England' notes here, and although some of the accents can be thick, the locals do speak English...

I've been living in Edinburgh for the past two years and there isn't anything like the Aussie/Kiwi enclaves of London up here (or anything north of the M25 for that matter). If you want to hangout with Antipodeans may I suggest you book your flight back to Oz and jump on that big ol' tube out to Heathrow!

If you do decide to take a punt on Edinburgh, you won't be disappointed - it's a brilliant little city with friendly locals, great pubs and still plenty of cheap flights to Europe - but you may have to make friends with the locals which may be the biggest challenge of all...

Mark

Dear Jane

After reading your letter last week I have to admit, I had similar thoughts to those put forward by Mark. That is, why travel over here if all you want to do is hang out with fellow aussies? My partner and i lived in London last year for about 3 months before moving here to Edinburgh. We liked London and what it had to offer, but we LOVE Edinburgh. It is a fantastic place to live! Not only due to the beautiful scenery, but it is less chaotic than London and you can actually leave home and get to work within 1/2 hour. No multiple tube rides and expensive travel fees, but the chance to walk easily around the city. All of our friends that have visited have cherished their time here too.

In regards to teaching, there are some very big differences that I feel I must warn you about. I am a teacher and when I moved up here, people told me 'You will not get a teaching job in Scotland!' I thought it might be a little difficult, but then again, you can usually teach anywhere can't you? Well I was wrong! 

Firstly, it took me 3 months just to get my GTCS registration, then I applied for job after job with no luck, was told the supply list was full, was eventually given an interview to get on the supply list, and had to continually give the same documentation time after time. There just isn't the demand for supply teaching here as there is in London, and other vacancies are hard to come across. Needless to say, in the time it has taken to get through all the red tape, I have found work in another area. 

My advice, making the move to Edinburgh will open a whole new world of ideas and possibilities for you. On the job front though, don't expect the transition to teaching to be as easy as in London.

Good luck,

Laura