Parents pull pupils out of axed schools months early

Published on Friday 26 February 2010 09:07

THE primary schools which councillors voted to axe this summer are haemorrhaging pupils as parents battle to secure their children places elsewhere.

Royston, Burdiehouse, Fort and Drumbrae will all close for good at the start of the summer holidays, but parents are already moving their children mid-term to ensure they get places at their first choice schools.

All pupils are guaranteed places at "receiving" schools identified by the council, however not all parents are happy with the choice they have been offered and are moving their children early to guarantee them places where they want them to go.

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At Royston, almost 20 per cent of pupils have left since the closure was confirmed in December.

Out of the 28 who have left in the space of just two months, only a quarter have chosen to go to Granton Primary – one of the designated receiving schools.

Arlene Cunningham, treasurer of the school's parent council, has moved her children to Flora Stevenson Primary.

She feels it is best to move the children before the school closes to give them some security.

She said: "In an ideal world, it would have been great to keep them there till the end but, because of the uncertainty, we thought it best to move them now.

"It's difficult for the kids to understand and for us to keep answering the same questions, so we thought this was for the best.

"We have done everything we can to help to keep the school open but now we need to put the children first and that's what's happening with many parents."

Before the school closures were announced, Royston had 152 pupils, but this has dropped to 124 in the two months since.

Burdiehouse has also lost a considerable amount of pupils, with the school roll dropping from 119 to 103.

Both Fort and Drumbrae have managed to retain the vast majority of their pupils, losing just 11 between them since the closures were confirmed by councillors December.

However, Drumbrae lost many of its pupils shortly after the closure proposals were announced last summer. Worried parents pulled almost a quarter of the school's pupils out over the summer holidays, with numbers falling from 119 to just 91.

The school lost another 20 pupils between the summer holidays and December.

Education bosses say they have no plans at the moment to reduce the number of teachers in the four closing schools, but would have to reassess the situation if numbers dropped significantly lower.

A council spokesman added: "

We will ensure that children at closing schools have a positive experience in the remaining weeks and that their move to new schools is as smooth as possible."