Welcome to Erskine Stewart Melville

This strategic decision is part of our vision for the future. We are a school that has never stood still. In fact, we have evolved ten times since our schools were first founded. The last of these major changes was the move to a diamond model in 1999. This model has served us well for many years, but the needs and demands of society have continued to change and we must evolve to reflect this.

The creation of a single Senior School will allow us to increase the educational opportunities we are able to offer our students in the future, including a broader curriculum, an enhanced wellbeing programme and more opportunities for personal development.

The diamond model requires the duplication of facilities, teaching and activities across two sites, making it inefficient and, in the long term, unsustainable. Merging the Senior Schools will create a more efficient and financially sustainable model that is fit for the future. It will help us to limit significant fee rises, beyond any VAT increases, and it will allow ongoing investment in the sector-leading education we are able to offer your children.

Furthermore, we want our School to be an inclusive community that fosters gender equality and better reflects the world in which we live. A co-ed model will help us achieve this more easily, offering equal opportunities to every student.

Across the UK the demand for single-sex education has reduced significantly over the last few years, with 81% of UK schools now using a co-ed model. We already know from our own student surveys that our students would like to spend more time together. With our co-ed Junior School and Sixth Form, the majority of our students are already learning in a co-ed environment, making this latest evolution a natural and gentle transition for our students.

This was a strategic decision about the best model for the future of our schools. We went through an extensive decision-making process before we came to this decision, and it was heavily scrutinised by the Governing Council and the Edinburgh Merchant Company Education Board who own the school. The decision-making process included:

• forensic scrutiny of the financial implications of moving to a merged school and staying with the diamond model
• research into the educational and social outcomes for our students
• consultation with other schools to find out the impact on their school of making a similar move or choosing to stay in single sex

We also examined the trajectory for single sex education and the reality is that single sex schools in Edinburgh are not growing. Across the UK, 81% of schools are now co-educational, showing that the demand for co-education is now significantly higher. Our own research of parents showed that the main decision maker for parents was not structure but location. As we look to the future it was clear that moving to a fully co-ed model was the right decision for our students and the right decision for the School. We are also aware of the impact that uncertainty has on our parents, students and staff and consulting on our plans would have created significant anxiety which we wanted to avoid.

This decision has been a very carefully considered process, taking into account a huge range of factors and exploring the extensive research on the relative merits of co-education and single sex education.

We have scrutinised the research into academic outcomes and concluded that in a school with a high standard of teaching and learning such as ours there is no compelling evidence to maintain a single-sex environment.

We want our students to learn and grow in an inclusive and diverse community to reflect the modern world and it is difficult to achieve this when the children are separated for five years. Over the last few years, we have increased opportunities for twinned activities but with the students on separate sites this has its limitations. Maintaining equality of opportunity is extremely difficult across two separate Senior Schools, on two different sites. There is also clear evidence that a co-ed environment is better at helping children to develop social and emotional skills.

The diamond model requires significant duplication of resources, which is inefficient and costly.  As part of the decision-making process, we have reviewed our site and concluded that we could operate far more efficiently if we move the Senior School onto one site and the Junior School onto one site. This will also allow us to continue to invest far more in sector-leading facilities for our current students, and ensure that we continue to be attractive to new families.

We have spoken with other schools that have gone down this route to learn from their experiences. We have also reviewed the data on educational models which points to a rapid decline in the number and proportion of single-sex schools in the UK and indicates that the demand for single-sex education will continue to decline. Moving to a co-ed model will therefore ensure that our School remains attractive and sustainable in the long term.

This decision is driven by three objectives. It will enable us to enhance the educational opportunities we are able to offer our students in the future, create a more financially efficient structure that is fit for the future, and establish a more inclusive community that reflects the modern world. Our priority is and always will be our students and the fantastic experiences they gain through an education at Erskine Stewart Melville.

The introduction of VAT on school fees will increase the financial pressure on our current and prospective parents and is likely to reduce the number of new families able to privately educate their children. Merging the Senior Schools and moving our Junior School onto one site will provide greater operational and financial efficiencies, creating a model that is fit for the future. This will help us to limit significant fee rises, beyond unavoidable VAT increases and allow ongoing investment in the sector-leading educational opportunities we are able to offer our students, so that we continue to attract new families.

We launched Our Vision for the future at the start of the 2024/25 session, along with our five new values. Our Vision is ambitious, and our new structure will play an important part in helping us to achieve the goals we have set ourselves.

The new school name and badge was developed alongside the new Vision for the School, which began in June 2022. It was separate to the work that followed around the structure of the School. The use of multiple names has caused confusion for years. To keep costs down we undertook the desk research for the project internally. A creative consultant, who is also a parent of the school, conducted a series of stakeholder workshops with staff, parents, students, former students and members of the Merchant Company.

A single school name was chosen, based on stakeholder feedback, and the same creative consultant then developed a school badge and colour palette.

The new badge is red because it is the colour that features across all the schools (red blazer, red kilt and our PE uniform). The blue background is the MES blue. The badge features elements from all the three founding schools and The Royal Company of Merchants.

While there is no evidence that the merchant ship on our heraldry was a slave ship the image of merchant ships has now become synonymous with the slave trade. We therefore chose the next most prominent symbol in the MES heraldry – the castle. The lion was taken from both the Melville College and Daniel Stewart’s College lions.

As the badge features heraldic symbols it required the approval of the Right Honourable Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court. The Lord Lyon suggested that our lion should hold a torch as a symbol of knowledge, hope and victory which we were happy to support because it is a nod to the passing of the torch at our prizegiving ceremonies.

June 2026

• The Thrift Shop has discounted the current blazers by 50% and Stevensons will be discounting new blazers by 50% from 1 June 2025

August 2026

• P1-S5 students in new blazer
• Senior School students in new quarter zips/V-necks
• All branded clothing items worn by staff
• All operational staff in new uniform
• S6 students can wear existing MES, SMC or red School Officer blazer

August 2027

• All students from P1-S6 in new School blazer (or red School Officer blazer)
• All Senior School and Junior School in new PE kit (consideration will be given to students who will be going into S6 at this point.)

August 2028

• Full transition to new uniform

We are committed to minimising the financial burden on parents so we will be looking to keep changes to a minimum and phase in any changes we do make. However, as we move to one school our uniform needs to reflect this.

Absolutely, we have had some great feedback from parents on the current uniform and as we look at any potential changes, we want to make it is the perfect time to see where we can make the uniform more practical and modern, while staying true to our heritage. We are very conscious of the financial burden on parents so these changes would need to be phased in but there is a real opportunity to address some of the practical issues, for example addressing PE items that act as a barrier to getting involved in sport. Over the course of the summer term we will be consulting with students, parents and staff to determine what changes we should make.

There is no plan to close the thrift shop. With a phased introduction of the new uniform, there will continue to be a need for second-hand items in the years ahead. We’re also exploring responsible ways to manage any surplus stock sustainably, including donating to charity or recycling programmes.

Pastoral care in the new Senior School, which will be structured in a year group or ‘horizontal’ format. This will mean that Heads and Assistant Heads of Year will remain with their cohort from S1 to S5. Students will then make the natural transition into the Sixth Form at the end of S5, which has its own unique guidance and support team to ensure a smooth transition to the next life stage. This new guidance and wellbeing structure is intended to nurture and sustain strong working relationships between guidance leaders, children and parents throughout their time with us, providing a source of continuity and familiarity

We’re working to create dedicated wellbeing spaces at both the Junior and Senior Schools. These spaces will provide a calm environment where students can step away from the pace of the school day. They’ll be used for quiet study, PSHE lessons, informal drop-ins, and small group workshops. They will also be home to a number of key teams, including our Wellbeing Support Assistants, Place2Be counsellors and Support for Learning staff.

We’re designing these spaces to be inclusive and open to all – not only for students facing a challenge, but for any young person who needs time to reset. As part of this, in the Senior School we’ll be introducing some gentle routines, such as quiet morning starts and lunchtime drop-ins, to help normalise the use of the space. It will also be a place where we hold evening events for parents to help them support wellbeing at home.

We’re aware that students need different kinds of spaces at different times, so in addition to these indoor spaces in the Senior School, we’re also looking carefully at both sites to ensure we have outdoor spaces that are quiet places to be. Plans are underway to clear some of the outdoor storage areas to make space for seating, picnic tables and quiet spots to relax. We’re also thinking about how we can make communal areas feel more comfortable for those who prefer to spend breaktimes in smaller groups, or in quieter settings. Not every student wants to be in the thick of it and that’s something we want to actively plan for.

We’ll continue to update you as plans take shape. But the aim is simple: to make sure every student has a space where they can feel calm, supported and themselves without needing to ask for it.

This year we were awarded the Gold Carnegie Centre of Excellence Award for Mental Health in Schools, recognising the importance given to wellbeing across our schools. Both Stewart’s Melville College and The Mary Erskine School have a similar approach to student mental health management, with Mental Health Ambassadors, the same counselling service and guidance staff trained in mental health first aid. The creation of the new Senior School will enable us to create a new wellbeing area for all the community to use, which is an exciting development.

The Junior School approach to supporting children though change of year group and site will be carefully managed as it has always been. Presently, we are used to mixing up year groups as they move into the following year at various intervals. Moving from P3 to P4 also involves a change of site, as does the move from P7 to S1.

For class mix up we now employ a carefully constructed approach involving a form home for parents and children to complete. This allows them to select a group of friends – with the knowledge we aim to guarantee at least one in the new class. There is also a chance to note any information or concerns for us to take into account.

In order to enable children to get used to a change of site, we have constructed a programme of events to help them become acclimatised to the new location. We arrange events and visits for the classes to make sure they will be comfortable ahead of the change and happy, after the move. we do this at present and we will continue to make this our priority in the future.

The medical centre always provides discretion and dignity for our students, and the accommodation and triaging of medical issues will continue to be dealt with sensitively, providing privacy from other students when required or requested, and gender will of course be a consideration. A number of our students seek emotional support from our Medical Team so we are pleased to let you know that we will have a dedicated Wellbeing Hub to support students requiring such support

Next session we will be inviting our neurodiverse students and their parents to come into school so that we can show them the new site. We will also be providing students with transition booklets which are being developed with our neurodiverse students in mind. There will be enhanced transitions for our neurodiverse students, including the opportunity to visit the new site in small groups before the start of the new 26/27 session.

There is an Neurodiversity Peer Support Alliance (NDPAS group at Stewart’s Melville College and there will soon be one at MES. These groups will offer a peaceful place where our neurodiverse students can come and hang out, be themselves and talk about any worries they have, including any concerns they have about the merger. On a one to one level the students will also be supported by our Wellbeing Assistants, our Support for Learning team and our Place2Be Counselling service.

The new School will be called Erskine Stewart Melville. While students will continue to attend Stewart’s Melville College, The Mary Erskine School and ESMS Junior School until the School merges in August 2026, we will begin the communication of this new brand to our new families with immediate effect.

The decision to change our name was actually taken long before any discussions were made about the structure of our schools. We undertook a review of the brand in 2023 which involved feedback from parents, staff, students and former students. The conclusion of this review was that current use of multiple school names was confusing and there was limited awareness of the ESMS brand. Several options were considered but there were such strong arguments for retaining the Erskine, Stewart and Melville names that our final choice combines all three.  From August 2026 we will have one School, with one name, one community and one culture.

While our name will change, it honours our founders and we will continue to honour our heritage by retaining many of the traditions that are so much part of school life, from our Christmas panto to our school songs. Our new logo was created by Andrew Wolffe, one of our school parents. It borrows elements of the heraldry from each of our founding schools and the final design reflects our heritage but sets us apart from other schools, showing that our eyes are on the future. Our school colours, including The Mary Erskine School blue and red and the Stewart’s Melville College black, red and gold are a huge part of our heritage, and we will take them with us on our journey.

When we move to a fully co-ed school in August 2026, Anthony Simpson will be Principal of Erskine Stewart Melville. Frances McCrudden, who is currently the Head of Stewart’s Melville College, will be our new Head of Erskine Stewart Melville Senior School. Mike Kane, Head of ESMS Junior School, will become Head of Erskine Stewart Melville Junior School. Kirsty Nicholson, who is currently Head of The Mary Erskine School, had always planned to retire at the end of the 2025/26 session. However, she will be working closely with Frances McCrudden to ensure a smooth transition for our Senior School students, parents and staff.

As we merge the Schools, the number of staff we require will change to meet the needs of the new School. We will also be making changes to some of our support staff structures to create a more centralised approach. We will be consulting with all staff whose roles may be affected by the development of new staffing structures.

This will be a difficult part of the journey for everyone involved and we will be working hard to support our staff and students as we navigate this change.

We recognise that while our three schools have always shared the same Vision and Values, they have each developed their own unique culture. We will work closely with our staff, students, parents and alumni to weave together the best elements and strengths of each of the three schools, creating a shared culture for the new School.

Our diamond structure was unique in Scotland, but it is not our structure that sets us apart but it is the breadth of opportunities that we offer our students, our dedicated teachers and our focus on nurturing the individual talents and passions of every child. Our new Vision is exciting and ambitious, pushing the boundaries of traditional education, setting the stage for students to dream big, set ambitious goals, and exceed their expectations.

With our co-ed Junior School and Sixth Form, the day-to-day experience for many of our students will be very similar. Students will continue to access the same broad range of subjects, sports, trips and opportunities but the new model will ensure equality of offer and over time a broader offer.

The organisation of pastoral care in the new Senior School will be structured in a year group or ‘horizontal’ format. This will mean that Heads and Assistant Heads of Year will remain with their cohort from S1 to S5. Students will then make the natural transition into the Sixth Form at the end of S5, which has its own unique guidance and support team to ensure a smooth transition to the next life stage. This new guidance and wellbeing structure is intended to nurture and sustain strong working relationships between guidance leaders, children and parents throughout their time with us, providing a source of continuity and familiarity.

Sport at Erskine Stewart Melville will continue to be a very important part of our culture. With equality of access to sports facilities at Inverleith and Ravelston, and over time a broader offer, our students will have extensive opportunities to play competitively and have fun playing sport with friends.

The catering team will continue to provide lunches on both sites and students will continue to have the opportunity to provide feedback on this.

In the Junior School, the change will improve access to facilities that are important for each developmental stage. For example, younger students will have more space for outdoor learning and outdoor play and activities.

The combined Senior School will be able to accommodate up to 1600 students.

We are not increasing class sizes as a result of the merger. Form groups in S1–S2 will remain around 20–22 pupils, as they are now. As students progress up the School and choose more tailored pathways, classes naturally become smaller, particularly for Higher and Advanced Higher levels, where we often see sets of 8–10 students.

Our House system is a much loved and valued aspect of life at MES and SMC and it will continue to be so at ESM. Our House names, colours and challenges will remain an integral part of our students’ school experience.

Weekly assemblies will still play an important role in School life. When all Senior School students move to Queensferry Road there will not be a large enough space for regular whole School assemblies. However, we will continue to have weekly assemblies in different groups. The whole School will continue to come together for events like Sports Day.

Buddying is an important part of school life and will continue between our Sixth Formers and the Junior School, as it always has.

Bringing the Junior School onto one site will also allow the older children in the Junior School to be role models for the younger children.

The apostrophe was a legacy from Daniel Stewart who founded Daniel Stewart’s College. In choosing a name for the new School we decided to update the name to ‘Erskine Stewart Melville” to celebrate the legacy of all three schools equally under one banner.

The new School will have a new logo, which includes the heraldry of all our founding schools, set in a progressive design that sets the School apart and shows that our eyes are on the future. We have not yet made any decisions about our School motto because this is a decision that should involve the entire School community.

Creating a close-knit community for our students is something that has always been important to the School.

Every decision we’re making is designed to ensure the Senior School still feels small and personal. Our students are already used to being part of year groups of 200 or more in the Junior School, and they flourish, not in spite of that, but because of the many opportunities it offers. They have their form group, but we also inspire a strong sense of belonging through our co-curricular programme, whether that’s being part of a sports team, a club or one of our many shows.

The advantage of a larger school is that it offers more ways for students to find people they connect with.

In the new guidance structure for the senior school our Head of Year and Assistant Head of Year will remain with their cohort from S1 to S5. Students will then make the natural transition into the Sixth Form at the end of S5, which has its own unique guidance and support team to ensure a smooth transition to the next life stage. This  approach will help to ensure that students feel known and supported throughout their time in the Senior School, while also benefiting from the additional resources and opportunities that the merger will provide.

We will not be separating our students for STEM classes when we move to a fully co-ed school but our strong focus on inspiring girls to pursue STEM will continue when we move to the new senior school.

There are a number of areas that we are looking at to ensure that all our students continue to thrive when they move to the new school.  It is of paramount importance to us that both SMC and MES students are treated equally and fairly before and after we become Erskine Stewart Melville.

At MES, we have always nurtured the confidence of our girls, helping them find their voice, and this focus will remain strong as we move to a co-educational setting. Our dedicated teachers will continue to inspire students to pursue STEM subjects and provide them with the same opportunities and initiatives that allow them to flourish.

We want the new Senior School to feel new and fresh for all our senior students. With this aim in mind, most subject departments will be relocated to new areas of the Queensferry campus so everything will feel new to SMC and MES students alike. Our current SMC students are of course very familiar with the senior school buildings but there are large areas of this campus that they will not know so well. We are currently forming focus groups to gather the views of our MES and SMC students on how we use indoor and outdoor communal spaces at Queensferry Road so that our decor, outside seating and landscaping reflects how they would like to use these spaces. We will also be seeking feedback from students on what they want to take with them to the new school and what they want to change.

As part of our feasibility work we looked at a gradual introduction of co-ed, allowing current students to remain in single-sex education for the remainder of their years. However, running two parallel systems would have created unsurmountable operational and logistical challenges and required duplication of resources, staff, and facilities, which would eradicate any operational savings we are seeking to achieve to help us limit substantial fee rises, beyond any VAT increase.

It could also lead to inconsistencies in the educational experience between different cohorts of students, creating inequality in the education and extra-curricular opportunities. By moving to a co-educational model more swiftly, we can ensure that all students benefit from the enhanced educational and social opportunities that the new structure will provide, while maintaining the highest standards of teaching and support.

Yes, we will continue to have specialist teachers for our specialist subjects, just as we do now.

We are not increasing class sizes as a result of the merger. Form groups in S1–S2 will remain around 20–22 pupils, as they are now. As students progress up the School and choose more tailored pathways, classes naturally become smaller, particularly for Higher and Advanced Higher levels, where we often see sets of 8–10 students.

We will be a larger Senior School but every decision we’re making is designed to ensure it still feels small and personal.

We’re building on what already works well. Our students are already used to being part of year groups of 200 or more in the Junior School, and they flourish, not in spite of that, but because of the many opportunities it offers. They have their form group, but we also inspire a strong sense of belonging through our co-curricular programme, whether that’s being part of a sports team, a club or one of our many shows.

The advantage of a larger school is that it offers more ways for students to find people they connect with.

We are putting strong pastoral systems in place that will scale with us so that every student is known. They will have familiar, consistent adults around them – teachers they see regularly, and pastoral staff who track their wellbeing and academic journey closely. There will be clear points of contact, and a shared responsibility for making sure no student falls through the gaps.

As part of our Operations and Processes workstream we are planning to gather feedback from students, parents and staff on the success of the merger once the schools come together. This will take many forms including surveys, feedback from PLCs and more informal feedback at parent events.

With our co-ed Junior School and Sixth form, the changes we are making will be a gentle transition and for many of our students our transition activities to prepare them for the next year will run as normal.

We will run an extended programme of transition events throughout 2025/2026 for our senior school students, which will include social events, shared talks and academic and sporting activities, focused on team building and familiarisation with the School site.

Activities will be run co-educationally wherever practically possible to maximise opportunities for our senior students to reconnect and spend time together before they are based together full time.

We will also run an extended programme of transition events for our P4-P6 students to prepare them for their move back to our Ravelston site.

With our co-ed Junior School and Sixth Form and twinned activities in the Senior School, our students already have lots of experience of learning, working and socialising together.

Our teachers and guidance staff will be working hard to deliver an extended transition programme to help the students prepare, and we will have a very strong wellbeing provision in place for every year group as we move to become fully co-ed.

We already have a strong PSE programme in place, including sessions on sex and consent that evolve with age and stage.

Although we currently teach in single-sex classes in S1-S5, our Sixth Form lessons and some of our S5 classes are co-ed lessons, so many of our teachers already have experience of teaching in a co-ed environment. We will be running additional sessions for our teaching staff as necessary, but our teachers are already very highly skilled and experienced, and we are confident they will transition well into the new structure.

We will be arranging a series of opportunities for members of our School community to come and see the new plans and tour the new School. There will also be opportunities to shape some of these the plans, such as the development of a new school uniform.

As we develop our plans for the new school, we will be keeping parents regularly updated and consulting with parents on key changes such as uniform.

Our commitment to high standards in the classroom doesn’t change because the school is changing. No ESMS teacher would allow their standards to slip in the classroom. It’s just not who we are.

It is important to know that most of our teaching staff are not involved in the operational side of the merger at all. Most of the day to day planning is being managed by our Professional and Operational staff.

We’ve now appointed our academic heads for the new Senior School. These leaders, together with the wider senior leadership team, have designated time within their working week for future planning. This careful scheduling will allow us to protect the quality of teaching and learning in and outside the classroom.

While we plan for the future, we continue to invest in the present. We’ve long believed that the best teachers never stop learning. That’s why we established the Sparks Professional Learning Group last year, bringing together teachers from across all three schools to explore the latest evidence-based approaches in education and translate that into classroom practice. This shared approach is already embedding a common language across the schools and a common understanding about what ‘great teaching’ looks like in every classroom. For our students this means consistent, high-quality lessons and teachers who know what works.

Relationships between teachers and students have always been important at ESMS. As part of our transition plan, staff have been visiting each other’s schools, beginning to build relationships with students they may teach in the future. We will also be increasing the number of twinned activities in the Senior Schools over the next few months, giving students the chance to reconnect and rebuild the friendships that were forged in the Junior School.

We did consider whether it would be possible to transition some students earlier but as much of the move will have to take place over the summer of 2026 this was not possible.

Academic studies have concluded that there are no clear advantages to single sex schooling from an academic perspective. While the current diamond model is therefore not fundamentally flawed, there is equally no compelling statistical evidence to retain the current single-sex approach based on academic achievement. However, the merger will unlock a number of exciting developmental projects which will be transformational to the overall offering for our students. It will allow us to offer an even broader curriculum in the future, enhance our wellbeing programme and provide even more opportunities for personal development.

Our dedicated teachers provide a high standard of teaching and learning across our three schools, inspiring students to work hard, challenge themselves and develop critical thinking. This will not change. Many of our students are already learning in a co-ed environment, including our Sixth Form students, and they achieve excellent results. We launched our Vision for the future at the start of the 2024/25 session and this includes a series of ambitious plans to further enhance our teaching and learning, in and outside the classroom, to maximise the potential of every student.

Lessons in academic subjects will continue to focus on sound preparation for SQA, so that those taking examinations in 2025 and 2026 are fully prepared as normal. Our current S2 students will be at the halfway stage in their National 5 courses when the change occurs, so they will remain in the same Nat 5 class as in S3 to avoid any unnecessary disruption. Our current S3 students will begin their new Higher courses together when they go into S5 but there will be twinning activities over the next few months to help them get to know each other ahead of the move.

It is extremely important to us that our students are known and supported as individuals, so we will continue to keep our class sizes smaller than schools in the state sector.

At Queensferry Road and at The Dean we have a number of large spaces which can accommodate students sitting examinations. Our dedicated SQA examination team will ensure that logistically we can support all that is required.

As a result of the work done through our Sparks Professional Learning Group we have already created a consistent learning experience, across the three schools.

Our senior student survey is a good temperature check, and we were delighted that in a score of 1-5 there was no average score across either of the Senior Schools that was below 4. But we can always improve and now we’re aiming for 5 across the board. We’ve already developed our sessions on metacognition and we’re also looking at a programme of meta skills.

Our professional development provision is very much geared around teaching and learning and we can prove that we’re getting it right because we have ongoing lesson observations where staff are observed and then receive feedback.

All of this will help to ensure that when the Senior Schools come together in August 2026 the classroom experience will feel very similar. What will change is the amount of support our students get because moving to one Senior School will increase capacity for the drop-in support we will be able to offer.

We have already begun looking at our curriculum and opportunities to extend it over the next few years. As a first step we have asked students for feedback on the subjects they would like to see added to the curriculum and we will be progressing this further over the next few months. Any immediate changes to the curriculum that will affect the 26/27 school year will be announced in the Autumn term, giving the students plenty of time to make their choices

At the new Senior School, we are committed to ensuring that both girls and boys are equally supported and encouraged to pursue and excel in STEM. Staff from both schools are working closely together, united by a shared goal: to keep STEM a central and thriving part of our students’ education.

Here is a snapshot of some of the things that we will be implementing in the new senior school:

-Curriculum Design: We have already started working together to offer a dynamic and engaging STEM curriculum that highlights diverse role models, real-world applications, and collaborative problem-solving, showing students the relevance and excitement of these fields.

-Mentoring and Role Models: We will connect students with mentors from a range of STEM careers, including female and male professionals, to inspire them and provide tangible examples of success in these areas. We have a fantastic bank of former students who we regularly keep in touch with so that they can support our current and future students.

-Clubs and Co-curricular Opportunities: STEM clubs, competitions, and innovation programs will be open and encouraged for all students, helping to build confidence, leadership, and teamwork in a supportive setting.

-We have a Young Stem Leader programme which is currently in its second year and this is a fantastic opportunity for students to use their STEM knowledge and support the local community.

-Targeted Encouragement: We will monitor student engagement and achievement in STEM and provide tailored encouragement and support to ensure that no student is overlooked, including initiatives specifically aimed at increasing girls’ participation where needed.

By fostering a collaborative culture and drawing on the strengths of our combined teaching teams, we will ensure that every student, regardless of gender, is inspired to see themselves as a future innovator, problem-solver, and leader in STEM.

Our sports provision will continue to operate to the same high standard with its broad offering of sports and extensive fixtures programme. Students will continue to have access to sports facilities at Inverleith, Queensferry Road and Ravelston. Our Sport Departments are committed to inspiring, in every child, a lifelong passion for physical activity and this will continue to be our goal as we merge into one School.

Our current sports programme offers separate teams for boys and girls, along with many opportunities to play sport together and this will not change. However, the new structure will allow equality of provision so that we are able to offer the same sports to all our students.

Our co-curricular provision is a huge part of school life and will continue to be central to the education we offer when we merge into one School. Our extensive range of clubs, trips, sport, performance art and outdoor learning opportunities play an important role in helping our students to discover their natural talents and passions. While they are busy having fun and developing friendships, they are also building the knowledge, skills and mindset they need to aim high, work hard and thrive. These activities also provide important respite from academia, helping to model the balance needed for good mental health.

Merging our Senior School onto one site will mean we no longer have to duplicate our co-curricular provision across two sites. This will ensure equality of provision and opens the door to offering an even greater range of activities. Just as importantly, niche activities that might only appeal to a small number of students become much more viable.

In planning the extra-curricular programme for the new School, we are not just trying to preserve what we have, we want to build something even better. The same dedicated staff who run our clubs, trips and activities today will be doing so in the new School.  That means the same high-quality opportunities will continue but clubs that were previously only offered in one Senior School will now be open to all students. The result will be a broader, richer menu of activities for everyone.

Many of our most popular co-curricular Senior School programmes are already run jointly across schools – our orchestras and shows, our Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, and our Combined Cadet Force all thrive as shared experiences.

In sport, we’ve already appointed a Director of Sport, bringing four separate departments into one unified team to ensure a joined-up approach. The merger will bring a more equitable offering for the Junior School boys and girls, both in terms of the variety of sports teams/clubs available, and the investment in their development. Competitive sport will continue to be split by girls and boys because that reflects the approach of the national governing bodies but there will be opportunities to come together for training. In PE, particularly for younger students in S1 and S2, we will have co-educational classes as we do in the Junior School and as they move up the school, students will have greater choice over how they learn and train, ensuring they feel both comfortable and confident.

We have conducted an exhaustive review of our site and with some adjustments, for example, additional toilets, we will be able to accommodate all our Senior School students onto one site.

We have now completed a comprehensive analysis of our site requirements as we bring the Senior Schools together on our Queensferry Road site and the Junior School together on our Ravelston site. Initially, we anticipated significant construction and reorganisation would be necessary at Queensferry Road, particularly around critical specialist areas such as science labs, drama, art, home economics, and product design. These areas are central to the School’s curriculum and have been central to our planning. However, the results of this analysis have shown that substantial new construction will not be required. Instead, we’re able to accommodate our needs through carefully planned conversions and renovations. Specifically, key classrooms will be converted into science labs, product design areas will be expanded, home economics facilities will be installed, and spaces for drama and art will be thoughtfully reorganised. This approach brings multiple advantages. Financially, it’s far more efficient, and it significantly reduces the disruption for students over the coming year. Critically, it will also ensure that we’ll comfortably meet our target completion date of August 2026.

We are doing much of the work over the school holidays so it is likely that students will hardly notice the work going on. Most extensive preparations are planned for this coming summer, and we’ll soon provide a detailed schedule of works to parents to showcase our progress and keep everyone informed.

Beyond classroom conversions, we’re excited about other significant enhancements. These include the development of dedicated Wellbeing Hubs, expanded dining areas around the school, the reorganisation and improvement of our Sixth Form Centre, and upgraded sports facilities. Additionally, we’re enhancing our outdoor spaces so that they fit the needs of all our students.

The new site at Ravelston is a wonderful space for our younger students to spend their primary years, with acres of green space for outdoor learning and play. We have now completed a comprehensive analysis of our site requirements as we bring the Junior School together on our Ravelston site. A draft plan is being reviewed for where the year groups will go and we are assessing modifications that we will need to make to the buildings. We are excited about plans to create an additional play area for our students joining from Queensferry Road. Housing the Junior School at Ravelston also offers the unique opportunity to deliver an enhanced curriculum with science labs, product design and art facilities that would not feature in most other Junior Schools. We will also be creating a dedicated wellbeing hub and support for learning area to support our students.
We will minimise disruption by doing most of the work over the holidays.

Ensuring our Junior School students have continued access to green spaces is a top priority for us, allowing them to play, explore, and learn outdoors in a natural setting. Each year group will continue to enjoy dedicated outdoor play areas, providing a safe and engaging environment for development. Additionally basing the younger students at Ravelston, makes it easier to get our youngest students to school safely, with more space for drop-offs and pick-ups. Having the Junior School at Ravelston also allows continued access to specialist subject areas that further enrich our students’ experience, including our purpose-built early years spaces and dedicated area for our Nursery.

At our Queensferry Road site, we have the opportunity to modernise our classroom and science facilities and create additional wellbeing spaces and areas for students to socialise. Our students will have full access to our outstanding sports facilities, whether on-site, at Ravelston, or Inverleith, with a fresh timetable offering even more opportunities for PE and games. We will be consulting with our senior students to create spaces that make all our students feel welcome and inspired to learn.

Bringing together the Senior School onto one site will mean that Sixth Form students no longer have to travel between sites for lessons. Our sporting facilities are so extensive they would never fit onto a single site, so students will still need to travel for some aspects of our sporting provision.

When our MES students move to Queensferry Road they will not be moving to “the boys’ school”; all the students will become students of Erskine Stewart Melville. We will be consulting closely with students to create an external and internal environment that feels like home to all of our senior students.

We are very conscious that our Queensferry Road site is not as green as Ravelston and we are going to create as many green spaces as we can for the students. We’re planning to move some of the outdoor storage buildings and create bench areas and picnic tables and gathering areas so that during break time children can play sport or relax with friends.

Putting the Junior School at Ravelston and the Senior School at Queensferry Road will help to minimise disruption because, apart from the additional science labs and product design we will be putting into the building at the back of Old College, we already have most of what we need at both sites.

Most of the work we need to carry out will happen during the holidays to keep disruption to a minimum.

We are currently exploring our catering options for the Junior and Senior Schools when they move to their new sites. In the Senior School we are exploring a range of catering options that would provide students with greater flexibility over where and how they enjoy their lunch, including alternatives to the main dining hall. Our recent survey to the parents and students who will be in the Senior School from August 2026 has helped us to understand a bit more about the needs and preferences of our families.

The new senior school will have designated girls’ and boys’ toilets, as well as single-person options to accommodate the needs of all our students.

There is no plan to change our bus provision. The only reason school buses would ever change is because of parent demand and buses will continue to drop off and pick up from our Ravelston and Queensferry sites. Our wraparound care service e-Plus will now run entirely from our Junior School, at our Ravelston site.

While it won’t be possible to tour the new school until after the start of August 2026, we will be sharing our site plans before this.

We will be exploring traffic management as part of our Facilities workstream to ensure that as we move the Junior School onto one site at Ravelston and our Senior Schools together at Queensferry road we minimise any disruptions to traffic flow. We will be offering parents the opportunity to share their feedback on our plans.

Our history and heritage will always be a fundamental part of our School story and something that we will continue to recognise and celebrate long after we become Erskine Stewart Melville. Our Heritage Officer will continue to run a range of events to share our history with our students and the wider School community and to maintain an ongoing historic record for the School community and general public to enjoy. We will also continue to catalogue and preserve our The Mary Erskine School, Daniel Stewart’s College, Melville College and Stewart’s Melville College Archives and to support collaborative work with the Mary Erskine FP Guild Archive.

The SMC FP Club, the MES FP Guild and the Melville College Trust are independent bodies from the School but the administration of the SMC FP Club sits with the Development Office at ESMS already. The MES FP Guild Coordinator also works closely with the Development Office and the Melville College Trust coordinates with the Development Office for mailing purposes. The Development Office holds the central contact database for all alumni of The Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh Ladies’ College, Melville College, Daniel Stewart’s College, Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College and Stewart’s Melville College.

In recent years, alumni and community events have increasingly been organised under an ESMS umbrella, encouraging a stronger sense of community and inclusivity. The Stewart’s Melville College London FP Club have also recently changed their membership terms to enable MES FPs to join and will be changing the club’s name to London Erskine Stewart Melville later this year at the Club AGM. Many of the other chapter groups are following this pattern or are preparing for change.

With this next chapter in the School’s history, there is an opportunity to consult on how our current alumni associations work and consider whether one joint alumni association would be more beneficial in the longer term.

As the School moves into a new chapter, we will develop new traditions, but we will continue to celebrate our founders and our traditions, including singing our much-loved School songs.

All giving to ESMS since 2007 has been for children who attend both MES and SMC via the Access to Excellence programme, so there will be no changes in this area.

The SMC FP Club, the MES FP Guild and the Melville College Trust will still exist after the merger.  They may decide to work more closely together, particularly for younger alumni, but that is their decision to make. ESMS Development Office has always worked across the whole former student community and will continue to do so. Initiatives such as Connect will remain open to all former students and all our Chapter and local events will be open to all too.  The only exception to this will be reunions where it will be down the organisers to determine who is involved.

Absolutely, our alumni are always welcome to get in touch with the Development Office to organise a visit to School. We will also be organising a specific reunion event to see the new site in 2026.

Our alumni will continue to receive our regular newsletter communications via post and email and these will feature regular updates on progress. You will also see regular updates on this website.

Angela Alexander, Director of Development, will be the point of contact for any queries from alumni. Please email development@esms.org.uk.

Our Nursery-P3 children joining in August 2025 will continue to be on our Ravelston site and our P4-P7 children will be on our Queensferry Road site. In August 2026 the Junior School will move to one site at Ravelston. Students joining S1 in August 2025 will go to Stewart’s Melville College, at our Queensferry Road site, or The Mary Erskine School, at our Ravelston site. In August 2026 the Senior Schools will merge, and all Senior School students will be at our Queensferry Road site. We will be organising a series of transition events to help prepare students for the move.

Yes, the vast majority of our students automatically progress from the Nursery into the Junior School and from the Junior School into the Senior School.

We would be happy to return the application/enrolment fee if you do not want a co-ed environment for your child and wish to withdraw your application or give up your place. Please contact Admissions to arrange this:

For our Nursery and Junior School: please contact Josie Orr by email: jsadmissions@esms.org.uk or Tel: +44(0)131 311 1115.

For The Mary Erskine School and Stewart’s Melville College (and all pupils joining the Erskine Stewart Melville Senior School, from August 2026): please contact Jane Welsh on 0131 311 1011 or:
The Mary Erskine School: mesadmissions@esms.org.uk
Stewart’s Melville College: smcadmissions@esms.org.uk.

We would love to welcome you and your family to visit our School. If your child is starting at the School before August 2026, they will join ESMS Junior School, Stewart’s Melville College or The Mary Erskine School. From August 2026, the Nursery and Junior School will be situated at our Ravelston campus, and our Senior School will merge onto our Queensferry Road site.

For our Nursery and Junior School please contact Josie Orr by email: jsadmissions@esms.org.uk or Tel: +44(0)131 311 1115.

For The Mary Erskine School and Stewart’s Melville College (and all pupils joining the Erskine Stewart Melville Senior School, from August 2026): please contact Jane Welsh on 0131 311 1011 or:
The Mary Erskine School: mesadmissions@esms.org.uk
Stewart’s Melville College: smcadmissions@esms.org.uk.

Absolutely. We will be running a series of Discovery Mornings in the months to come, and we would love to invite you to come along and explore both sites. You are also welcome to come for an individual visit. For the remainder of the term, we will be prioritising families wishing to join the School in August 2025.

The move to a fully co-ed school with our Junior School on one site and our Senior School on one site will allow us to be more efficient and avoid duplication of resources. It means that every pound of income we generate will be spent as efficiently as possible. This will allow us to limit substantial fee rises, beyond unavoidable VAT increases, and allow ongoing investment in the sector-leading educational opportunities we are able to offer our students in the future, so that we continue to attract new families.

However, the decision to move to a fully co-ed model is not just a financial one. The new model will significantly enhance the education we offer our students. In the future it will allow us to expand our curriculum further,  enhance our wellbeing programme and provide even more opportunities for personal development. Moreover, the co-ed model will create a more inclusive community that fosters gender equality and better reflects the world in which we live. We already know from our student surveys that the students want to spend more time together.

We are finalising a range of external funding options to fund the necessary adaptations, and we will communicate this in due course.

This more sustainable model will create greater operational and financial efficiencies, helping to limit significant fee rises, beyond the unavoidable VAT increases, in the future.

We will continue to offer scholarships and bursaries to our Senior School students when we move to one School in August 2026.

The diamond model requires duplication of facilities, activities, and promoted teaching roles across two sites, which has made it less efficient and, over time, unsustainable. By merging the Senior Schools, we will streamline the number of promoted roles allowing us to reduce costs over the long term. This will help us to limit substantial fee rises, beyond any VAT increases.

In the current financial climate it is very difficult to provide a definitive forecast on what the five-year fee outlook will be. No one could have predicted the volatility of the last five years. However, our Governors are committed to keeping any future fee increases as low as possible.

This year alone we have faced increased costs due to the rise in National Insurance contributions, the introduction of VAT on fees, higher National Minimum Wage requirements, and increased employer contributions to the Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme. The 3% fee rise for 25/26 is lower than the increase in our costs because we have done everything we can to absorb these cost increases internally.  Different schools are using different approaches – some have passed on the full 20% VAT costs in January and are now freezing their fees, others charge a lot more.

In the future, merging the schools, we will significantly reduce costs by creating greater efficiencies across the school which will allow us to keep fee rises as low as possible, enable us to invest in the estate and increase the opportunities we are able to offer our students.

No, our fee rises reflect the rise in external costs, namely the introduction of VAT and the increase in national insurance, national minimum wage and pension costs. The costs of the merger are being funded by the release of assets and through alumni support.

Over the past year we have done all that we can to minimise our costs and increase income:

Staff efficiencies: Staffing levels have been carefully adjusted to align them with student numbers.

Operational efficiencies: We have undertaken a comprehensive review of our systems and practices to streamline operations and reduce costs.

Catering contract: our catering contract is under review to ensure it is cost-effective and high quality.

Review of cleaning provision: we have reviewed our in-house cleaning arrangements to drive further efficiencies.

Utilities: we have moved to new suppliers, enabling us to make substantial savings on utility costs.

Estate: Erskine House (5-9 Queensferry Terrace) was previously one of our boarding facilities and is currently home to some of our support staff offices and the Thrift Shop. A review of our facilities determined that this building is no longer required, and it has now been sold.

Increased revenue from commercial activities: Over the last year we have expanded the use of our facilities for external hire and increased the scope of our holiday camps and we will continue to invest in this area over the next year to create additional revenue streams for the School.

We have also reduced our fee discount for new staff. When our Senior Schools merge in August 2026, and the Junior School comes together on a single site, we will be able to unlock further efficiencies to limit future fee rises and further invest in the opportunities we are able to give our students.