Threat of axe hanging over a fifth of schools

Published on Thursday 24 November 2011 12:07

ALMOST a fifth of primary schools in the Capital are less than 60 per cent occupied, putting them at risk of closure in the future.

Sixteen of the city’s 86 primaries fall within this category, which the council uses as a guide when considering which schools should face the axe.

There are currently a total of 5298 spare places across Edinburgh’s schools, which is the equivalent of 13 schools with two classes per year group.

Over the past few years, education bosses have closed seven primary schools, all of which had occupancy rates of below 60 per cent. The city’s education leader Marilyne MacLaren said closures would need to be “put back on the agenda” in the future to address the problem of some schools sitting half empty.

The primary with the lowest occupancy rate is Colinton, which is just 40 per cent full.

Around 90 per cent of the school roll is made up of pupils from army families, which has led to fears over the future of the school when the Redford and Dreghorn barracks close.

Brunstane and Craigroyston have the second lowest occupancy rate, with both less than half full. Three secondaries – Castlebrae, Wester Hailes Education Centre and Craigroyston – are also less than 60 per cent full.

The figures come as council chiefs continue to urge parents to send children to their local schools to address the issue of some schools sitting half empty while others are over capacity.

The number of children refused places at their first-choice primary tripled in the last 12 months. A total of 345 children missed out on places at out-of-catchment schools.

The latest figures show several of the city’s most popular schools are either full or over capacity. Both Sciennes and St David’s are over-occupied by two per cent, while St Catherine’s is four per cent over capacity. The situation is worse in some high schools, with Boroughmuir and James Gillespie’s both eight per cent over-occupied.

At the start of last year, city chiefs pledged that no more schools would be closed before 2012 but no guarantees have been given beyond this.

Councillor MacLaren said: “Whoever forms the new administration, with the financial difficulties as they are would have to ask if this is the wisest use of our money.”

Councillor Alison Johnstone, education spokeswoman for the Greens, warned: “Some schools do have spare capacity but we can’t simply close these as neighbouring schools may be unable to cope with the additional pupils.”

The school capacity figures were released after Labour’s education spokesman Paul Godzik submitted the question to Cllr MacLaren about overcrowding in some schools.

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10

Eddison548

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 08:32 PM

In 4 to 5 years these schools will be full again with the large amount of eastern Europeans have children here.

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9

Thomas the Tank

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 03:16 PM

#8, the problem with Colinton isn't the quality of education on offer but the fact it's always been regarded as an 'Army' school. The Unit at RedfordDreghorn being posted out can result in up to 90% of a class decanting en masse to be replaced by a new cohort. This causes massive disruption to the remaining kids and is why so many local parents opt for Bonaly or Pentlands instead. Colinton may be only 40% at the moment but that could change at short notice and the council has a legal obligation to provide facilities.

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8

babette

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 02:21 PM

Aristotle (7) - your point in reference to out of catchment applications is interesting. I'd like to know whether the schools for which occupancy is low happen to be in neighbouring catchments to schools where occupancy is much higher? E.g. are some Craigroyston catchment applying to Davidsons Mains, Colinton to Bonaly and Pentlands etc.? I don't know the figures but would be curious to see them. Key question: what will motivate parents to stick with their catchment school? Rather than closing down schools with low occupancy, thereby forcing children to travel distance to out of catchment schools (impacting on transport network) is it not better to increase occupancy and motivation to attend the local school, by sourcing children for schools directly from their local area?

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7

Aristotle

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:46 PM

Why do we continue to allow parents to send children to schools outwith their catchment area? If they choose to live in a certain area then they will have to accept their children go to the local school. #5 - and deprive them of an excuse not to work and sponge off society. Far too sensible to be accepted by the numpties who run the council, or country for that matter.

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6

The Ayrshire Bard

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:37 PM

Every day we are told that the country is bursting at the seams and that the immigration levels are too high. Now we are told that our schools have insufficient pupils to make them viable. I'm a wee bit confused!

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5

A Friend of Fernando Poo

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:28 PM

We're forever being told that those on the dole can't read or can't count. Since we clearly have space in the schools, why not require them to attend classes in exchange for their benefits? That way we can get them prepared for life without the dole, doing both them and us a great favour.

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4

claymore's edge

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:18 PM

I think the reality here is that there arent enough families living in Edinburgh anymore,since large areas of Edinburgh have been bought up by buy to let scum, and kept previous occupied family homes empty for months at a time. This has led to a massive demographic change where families with kids dont live in Edinburgh anymore. Hence the drop in school enrolment numbers. If those demographic shifts continue in about 30 years there will be about 40% less schools left in Edinburgh. Whether or not that is to the benefit of Edinburgh is another matter.

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3

Artemis

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:06 PM

Well it's understandable that parents won't want to have to trek their kids across the city to get them to school, and if the birth rate goes up, they could find they need the full capacity again within 10 years. So why not keep all the schools where they are and find other uses for the empty space?

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escape from spam valley

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 01:03 PM

Councillor MacLaren said: “Whoever forms the new administration, with the financial difficulties as they are would have to ask if this is the wisest use of our money.” Its a 'given' that trams are the wisest use of our money then? As Cllr Johnstone points out the issue is the location of these 'so called' under occupied schools -closing will make other local schools problems even worse. Despite the recession the child population is still rising, so a 'surplus' is required. One also has to believe the criteria by which CEC calculate capacity in the first place. Andf why do different local authorities have different ways of doing this?

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1

Sally Longlegs

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 12:59 PM

Sad as it may be but certain schools must close. The City budget is under extreme strain and closing schools would release much needed cash for our illustrious councillors to squander on some other pie in the sky projects, or they could even reduce the cities borrowing ,but that would be too sensible.

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