Fewer get in to school of choice

Published on Wednesday 27 April 2011 11:48

JUST one in three parents applying to send their children to out-of-catchment schools have managed to get places this year because of new legislation driving down class sizes.

Only 289 placing requests - or 33 per cent - have been granted by education chiefs in the Capital, compared with 89 per cent in the previous year.

It has left a total of 588 pupils or 14 per cent of all new primary ones with the option of having to go to their local school or trying to find another school with spare places.

The sharp drop in successful applications is a result of new Scottish Government legislation being introduced in August, which is lowering the legal limit of P1 classes from 30 to 25.

Flora Stevenson Primary received the highest number of out-of-catchment requests this year, but all 29 applications were refused.

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All 28 applications to Davidson's Mains were rejected, while the 24 placing requests to Balgreen Primary were also refused. All applications to Juniper Green, Sciennes and James Gillespie's primaries were also refused.

Councillor Cameron Rose, education spokesman for the Conservatives, described the situation as "disappointing" and called for other avenues to be explored.

He said: "It's disappointing that the system that we have is effectively limiting parental choice and we need to be looking at ways to enable parents to have more of a choice as to where and how their children are educated.

"I know many parents value smaller class sizes but there are other, better ways of improving the education of our children and there are other factors that are more important and we need to be focusing on them."

Labour education spokesman Paul Godzik added: "Placing requests do have to be considered carefully, and it is clearly about striking the right balance between parental choice and managing the school roll."

This year, just over a fifth of parents applied to send their child out of catchment, compared with a third last year.

Parents had been warned by education bosses that new laws would significantly reduce their chances of securing places at other schools in the city.

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said: "We anticipated an increase in out-of-catchment refusals this year following the introduction of the new 25 class size limit but we have been able to ensure places for in-catchment pupils.

"A large number of requests have been granted and, given that this is only a snapshot of the situation as it stands, we expect that more places will become available."