Parents break through city's class size ceiling

Published on Tuesday 16 June 2009 09:49

PRIMARY class sizes could be forced up in schools across Edinburgh after ten sets of parents won the right to get their children into a school already classed as "full".

The ruling forces the city council to increase class sizes to 30 in Sciennes Primary, Marchmont, going against its policy – and national "guidance" – of capping all P1 classes at 25.

The parents all managed to get their children into the popular school by taking their cases to an appeals committee.

Education bosses in Edinburgh are now urging the Scottish Government to introduce new legislation to make the maximum of 25 in P1 classes legally binding.

Until it does, it is feared that more and more schools will be forced to take 30 pupils in P1, despite the SNP's manifesto pledge to keep class sizes as low as possible.

A total of 29 parents across eight different schools in the Capital appealed last week, with the council winning 19 cases and losing ten. The appeals committee is to hear a further 40 cases next week across 15 schools.

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said: "Without clear support from the Scottish Parliament it will become much more difficult for local authorities to keep class sizes down in line with government guidance.

"The door is wide open for legal challenges and this will inevitably lead to classes growing in size.

"The situation as it stands can lead to inconstancy and unfairness for both the parents and the school – none of us want that.

"I have written to the education secretary to ask her to urgently review the matter and to bring forward new legislation that will clarify and enforce the Scottish Government's policy. We want to keep class sizes down but without legislation it will become increasingly difficult to do this."

Currently, the legal class size maximum is 30, but the former Scottish Executive issued guidance in 2007 that P1 classes should be no more than 25, which most councils have worked to achieve.

The ten successful parents who applied to send their children to Sciennes – which is not their catchment school – originally had their request denied by education bosses on the grounds that it would cost a "significant" amount of money to extend the school or facilities, exceed the capacity of the school, or be detrimental to pupils' education.

But the appeals committee – made up of a councillor, a parent representative and an educationalist – rejected the council's arguments and voted in favour of the parents.

The number of parents appealing is thought to have risen in Edinburgh following an appeal in East Lothian and a ruling by East Renfrewshire Council to increase all P1 classes to 30. The authority argued that it could not keep sizes down, as parents could successfully appeal if refused a place.

Norman Brown, chairman of the parent council at Sciennes Primary, said the council was "not overjoyed" at the ruling, but would make it work.

He added: "One of the main challenges will be to ensure none of the other children suffer and that we don't unduly focus on the new intake to the detriment of others."

Alison Johnstone, Green education spokeswoman, put a motion to today's education committee calling for clarification on the issue.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are currently considering whether current legislation needs to be changed across the country."