Parents warned bigger classes spell problems

PARENTS are being warned against taking advantage of bigger class sizes next year to get their children into the city's most popular schools.

Families applying to popular schools from outside their catchment area could be storing up problems for the future, as any younger siblings would be unlikely to be able to join them, education chiefs said.

City schools have been forced to raise P1 classes to 30 this year after losing a string of appeals to parents wanting to get their children into schools already classed as full.

That means more parents living outside the catchment areas of the most popular schools are likely to win places this year. But the door of opportunity is likely to close next year, as class sizes are set to shrink again, with the Scottish Government planning a new law capping classes at 25.

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said: "This temporary increase in class size limits will mean more choice for parents but only for this year.

"When considering schooling options, parents need to be aware that if their child gets an out of catchment place this year, it will become more difficult in future years to offer places at the same school to brothers and sisters."

She added: "We called for government action some time ago to avoid this situation but as no action was taken we had to increase the limit to 30 as a temporary measure for this year."

Some of the city's most popular primaries have already had experience in pervious years of siblings not getting into schools because they are too full.

Paul Jeffrey, chairman of Trinity Primary's parent council, believes it is important that parents make an informed decision, but they shouldn't be put off choosing their preferred school.

He said: "We have a number of out-of-catchment siblings who have struggled to get in and that creates difficulties for families.

"But this is just one of the factors parents should take on board.

"Although it might become an issue, nobody can predict what's going to happen in the future.

"They certainly shouldn't rule out putting their child in a school that they want for fear of their being a problem with siblings in the future, but they should be in a position to make an informed decision."

New figures published this week revealed that parents wanting to send their children to primary schools outside their catchment area are less likely to get their request granted in Edinburgh than anywhere else in Scotland. The Scottish Government statistics also showed that the city council had to deal with more requests for out-of-catchment places for new P1 pupils than any other local authority in Scotland.