A TEACHER at an under-threat primary school has joined forces with a local minister to warn that closing the school will hit its "vulnerable" pupils the hardest.
The warning comes as pressure mounts on education bosses to keep Westburn Primary School in Wester Hailes open.
A petition has been launched to save the school, while parents, teachers, members of the public and community groups have all submitted
formal representations against the proposed closure as part of the consultation process.
Ministers at the Holy Trinity Church in Wester Hailes have branded the closure plans "short-sighted".
They also fear for the future of the Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC) and are seeking assurances from the council that the proposals to close Westburn will not put the secondary school back on the hit-list.
Teacher Elanor Shanks hit out against the closure plans in a four-page letter to education bosses, highlighting the effect it would have on the pupils.
She said: "I believe that the effect on behaviour and achievement will be enormous.
"There are many vulnerable children in the school, who rely upon us to provide the only routine and security they experience in their daily lives.
"As the proposal is that pupils will be offered places at three different schools, and therefore familiar staff and peers will not be moving with these children, the disruption and impact of the move will be massive.
"In my experience, even minor changes take a long time for these vulnerable children to adapt to, and until they have settled in, their behaviour can be very unpredictable and difficult to manage.
"During this settling-in period, the children feel insecure and their ability to learn is limited."
The consultation into closing Westburn has been strongly criticised after it emerged that the council made a series of mistakes in the consultation papers, including saying it had the third-lowest roll in the city when it has the 14th-lowest, and that the condition of the building was "poor" when it is in fact satisfactory.
Ms Shanks said these mistakes had "hindered" the consultation process and highlighted a "clear lack of respect for school staff, parents and the pupils".
She also criticised the council for capping the P1 intake at 25, saying that pupils have had to be turned away, which had "clearly limited the growth of the school".
Rev Ollie Clegg, who has been the chaplain at Westburn for the past eight years, said if Westburn closed and the catchment was redrawn, then WHEC would lose a lot of its prospective pupils to Forrester High School.
He said: "When kids come from a vulnerable background, often places like WHEC and other agencies are the only security they have. If we take that away, we are going to have a huge amount of social problems to deal with."
He added: "The kids love going to school at Westburn and that's a rare thing."
A council spokeswoman said: "All submissions to the consultation on the proposed closure of Westburn Primary School will be considered as part of the consultation process and it would be inappropriate to comment on individual views at this stage."
The full article contains 535 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
