Parents told to send twins to closure-threatened school

Published on Saturday 11 July 2009 11:49

PARENTS of twins have been told to send their children to the closure-threatened Fort Primary – so they can get them into the school of their choice if it closes down.

Lesley and Dean Melville's four-year-old twins Mirren and Morghan have been refused places at Trinity Primary, despite the fact their older brother Blair goes there.

The couple claim they were told by council officials that if they sent their twins to Fort – which the council is proposing to close next summer – they would have a better chance of securing them a place at Trinity next year, as it has been named as the receiving school for all Fort pupils.

Mr and Mrs Melville have hit out at the "ridiculous" advice, saying they do not want to put their children through the upheaval if Fort does in fact close.

They also question the council's ruling on capping Trinity's two P1 classes at 25, given that the legal maximum is actually 30.

They say it is "unfair" that parents of children going to Sciennes and Roseburn primaries have successfully appealed to raise class sizes above 25 when they have not been allowed to.

The couple believe they have a strong case given that their nine-year-old son goes to Trinity – as did their 15-year-old son Dean – and that it would cause them considerable problems dropping off and collecting their children at two different schools which are about a mile apart, as they do not have a car.

Home care assistant Mrs Melville, 42, said: "One of their suggestions was to send them to Fort because it might be closing down next year and all the children from there would go to Trinity.

"But I don't want to uproot my children after just a year because that would give them a broken education and I also don't want to have to buy school uniforms for the twins only to have to get new ones in a year's time.

"Another option they suggested was to keep them at nursery another year, but I don't see why I should keep them out of education for a year.

"So the only other option is to send them to my catchment school which is Leith Primary but that is a mile away from Trinity where I have to drop Blair off every day and I can't be in two places at the same time.

"I really don't know what we are going to do.

"I just feel like nobody is interested in our case and that all these doors are closing on us.

"It's really unfair when in other schools they are letting children into classes over 25 but not Trinity."

Mr Melville, 41, believes the appeals committee had already made up its mind before they stated their case.

He added: "It was a false hope scenario.

"We thought we might have a chance but even though they told us they understood our situation and agreed with our arguments, they still refused to let our twins in.

"For us, sending our twins to Trinity is the only way forward."

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren has already called on the Scottish Government to clarify the legal position on class sizes to avoid discrepancies between schools.

A council spokesman said: "The case was heard by an Independent Appeals Tribunal who decided in favour of the council.

"The family do have a further right of appeal."