Three times more pupils miss out on school of their choice

Published on Thursday 7 July 2011 14:43

THREE times more parents have lost appeals to get their child into their preferred school than last year.

&#149 Frank Brown won his appeal to get daughter Macy a place at Lorne Primary

New figures show 122 families lost formal appeals lodged with the council to get their child into primary one in a school outwith their catchment area.

Only 40 families were left disappointed last year.

The city council received a record number of appeals this year after new legislation reduced primary one class sizes.

A total of 229 challenges were made, compared with only 92 last year.

Out of all those that were received by education bosses, 60 were granted before they went to an appeal hearing, while a further 46 were granted after the meeting.

City education leader Councillor Marilyne MacLaren said: "We predicted that requests would increase this year as a result of the new 25 limit on P1 classes and it's impossible to grant them all.

"I understand that this is disappointing but every new pupil got a place in their catchment school and that has to be our priority.

"It may be the summer holidays but we're already gearing up for the new school year and all of our schools are looking forward to welcoming their new pupils."

Appeals were made for places in 50 of the Capital's 87 schools - compared with 20 last year - as a record number of out-of-catchment requests were refused this year.

A total of 289 placing requests to send out-of-catchment children to schools were granted, while 588 - or 14 per cent of all new primary pupils - were refused.

It comes after the Scottish Government introduced legislation limiting P1 class sizes to 25 as of August.

Previously, the 25 figure was just for guidance and many schools had classes with 30 pupils in them.

Towerbank Primary in Portobello was one of seven schools identified by education bosses earlier this year as facing "accommodation issues".

Sean Watters, chair of the parent council, said the school had been struggling to even accommodate its own catchment pupils.

He added: "We are bursting at the seams, but at the same time we are 20 per cent non-catchment. If we went back four or five years, this wouldn't have been an issue.

"They have to manage catchments to some extent, but at the same time, some of the catchments in Edinburgh are 100 years old so they don't reflect where people are living."

Of only 19 requests made to place S1 pupils at secondary schools outwith their catchment area, five were granted.

'It was worth fighting for'

THE Browns were among hundreds of families who appealed to the city council to try to win places at out-of-catchment schools.

Frank and Lindsay Brown were told there was no P1 place for daughter Macy at Lorne Primary School, just 300 metres from their home. They were told Macy would have to go to her "local" school, Broughton Primary, despite it being almost four times further away.

Mr and Mrs Brown, who live on Pilrig Place, appealed the decision - and were one of the lucky families to win.

Mr Brown said: "I have never really fought for anything like that before but this was really important to us. It was a horrible time for us and it's a shame so many people are still in that position."