Parents set out to 'sell' city schools

PARENTS are launching their own campaigns to "sell" their local schools, claiming education bosses in the Capital do not do enough to promote them.

Several schools are targeting parents or prospective parents in their local communities to show them how attractive their own catchment schools are.

They argue that the council does not do enough to show parents the benefits of their local schools, and some are often overlooked in favour of more well-known schools or ones with a better reputation.

One of the schools organising its own self-promotion is St Cuthbert's RC Primary, off Slateford Road.

Its parent council chair, Gael Malone, said many people were not even aware of its existence.

The school, which is running at 70 per cent capacity, was on the closure hit list in 2007 and its parent council is targeting nurseries and households to ensure it does not face the axe again.

Ms Malone said: "In our catchment area there are a lot of other schools because we are a Catholic school, but I believe a lot more people could benefit from coming to our school.

"There must be more the council could do for all schools to make everybody in the city aware of what goes on in them."

Graeme Robertson, chair of the parent council at Broughton High, fears it will lose out on vital funding if numbers do not pick up. Despite recently moving into a new building, the school still has 300 spare places and the parent council is looking at ways to promote its facilities.

Mr Robertson said: "One of our big problems is that we are running at just under 900 pupils and if we fall below the 900 mark we lose the threshold for funding and start losing extra staff."

Craiglockhart Primary School, meanwhile, has targeted every home in its catchment area by sending out 3,200 promotional leaflets – even though it is not lacking pupils.

Gavin Corbett, chair of the school's parent council, wants it to be seen as a community asset. He said: "We have so much good news to pass on. Attainment is high and constantly improving and we have a record number of parents wanting to enrol their children in P1 next year.

"This positive picture is repeated across the city, with attainment up and lots of positive programmes under way. That is why I am surprised at how little the city council does to promote schools."

A spokesman for the council said: "The majority of our schools do recognise the importance of marketing and we support them as they promote what they have to offer to parents of prospective pupils and to the local community."