A nursery costing thousands of pounds a year topped the city’s rankings

The best and worst nurseries in Edinburgh have been revealed in a new league table by The Times Scotland following an analysis of more than 1,000 Care Inspectorate reports.

Nurseries are awarded up to 24-points across four categories by the inspectorate, which regularly carries out unannounced inspections at every nursery class in Scotland to ensure that they are maintaining high standards of learning and teaching.

Inspectors rank the nurseries from excellent to unsatisfactory across leadership, learning, care and children’s progress.

The Times’ annual list ranked all the nurseries in the city based upon their final score across these categories, with George Heriot’s school topping the list by securing the maximum 24 points.

Anybody wanting to send their children to the nursery, which inspectors praised for its “exceptional level of support and nurture” back in 2019, will have to fork out £11,620 a year.

The £11,620 a year nursery topped the list of nurseries in the city

placeholder image — The £11,620 a year nursery topped the list of nurseries in the city

Tynecastle Nursery School, Oxgangs After School Club and George Watson’s were similarly awarded top scores across all four categories. Nurseries awarded the same score are ranked according to how recently the inspectors visited.

St Joseph’s R.C. Primary School in Broomhouse was ranked Edinburgh’s worst by The Times having been graded weak across all categories during an inspection in October 2025.

Inspectors criticised the school’s leadership and said that they were “not effective in ensuring positive outcomes for children and families”.

While children were happy and staff felt supported, the inspectorate said children did not “consistently experience safe, well-managed care” and that the local authority needs to do more to help improve the teaching quality.

The council-provided nursery was joint last alongside Gingerbread Childcare’s Tollcross nursery, which specialises in supporting single parent or carer families.

Wee Gems in Livingstone is the only nursery in Scotland to achieve a lower score, having been awarded a score of 8 in February this year.

Councillor James Dalgleish said many improvements have been made to St Joseph’s R.C. primary school since inspectors visited a year ago.

He said: “All our staff across our children’s services are committed to ensuring young people in our care feel safe, loved and respected.

“The team at St Joseph’s have worked tirelessly since this inspection almost a year ago with new practices in place and a focus on leadership, learning and support.”