Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools, Edinburgh

Number of pupils 2,777 Age range Three - 18 Boarding and day pupils, co-ed junior school and sixth form, single-sex senior schools Qualifications Nationals, Highers, Advanced Highers

Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools (ESMS) is a unique family of independent schools for boys and girls in Edinburgh, offering nursery, primary and secondary education.

ESMS children are taught together from nursery to Primary 7, after which they then enjoy the benefits of a single-sex but very closely twinned senior education, before joining together again in a co-educational sixth form.

ESMS pride themselves on providing for young people’s individual, academic, extra-curricular and personal needs.

The schools promote the pupils’ welfare, ambition and happiness through the schools’ nine values – integrity, respect, responsibility, appreciation, commitment, kindness, grace, enthusiasm and confidence.

More than 95 per cent of ESMS sixth-form students gained admission to university for 2017 or 2018.

Based at their Ravelston site in Scotland’s Capital city, boys and girls from Primary 1 through to Primary 3 are taught in a happy, stimulating and welcoming environment at the ESMS Junior School before moving to the Queensferry Road site, where Primary 4 to Primary 7 children develop a greater sense of independence and benefit from additional specialist teaching.

At senior school age, girls attend The Mary Erskine School and boys Stewart’s Melville College.

The schools believe that girls and boys have more freedom to be themselves, gain confidence and achieve their potential when taught separately at the senior school stage of their educational development.

There are a huge range of extracurricular activities on offer for ESMS pupils throughout all levels of their schooling.

That includes about 40 concerts, musicals, dance events and dramatic productions each session, 70 clubs and societies and large numbers of sports teams.

While the schools have a culture of sporting excellence, which includes many local and national successes at the very highest levels, sport is encouraged at every level.

The large number of ESMS teams means that children who simply wish to play a particular sport and be a member of a team enjoy opportunities which would not be available to them at a smaller place of learning.

The schools also offer unique opportunities, such as the chance to perform as a member of the official Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo choir, trips to diverse locations, including Malawi, Vietnam and China, as well as international sports tours.

Daily coach services to ESMS are offered across Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife, with additional pick-ups available from Haymarket Station.

ESMS also offers boarding facilities which are intended to provide a comfortable, close-knit and happy home-from-home for children of Primary 6 age through to sixth form. Weekly and flexi-boarding is available.

In addition, means-tested bursaries of up to 100 per cent of fees are available.