Exclusive:Edinburgh schools: Class size limit to be breached in numerous schools 'to save costs'

Parents have written to the education secretary with their ‘serious concerns’ and asking her to intervene.

At least six Edinburgh primary schools are set to breach the Scottish Government’s cap on class sizes this year “to save costs”.

The Scottish Government’s own guidance says primary one classes should have no more than 25 pupils, but The Scotsman has learned this will be exceeded in a number of capital schools due to a “loophole”.

Parents have now written to Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth asking her to intervene.

It is understood Hermitage Park, Sciennes, St Mary’s, Towerbank, Victoria and Wardie primary schools are set to exceed the 25-pupil cap when the 2025/26 academic year starts in August.

Parents at Wardie Primary School say they are expecting both primary one classes to have at least 28 pupils in them.

SNP Councillor Euan Hyslop, who sits on the city’s education committee, said: “Classrooms are under severe pressure and have been for a number of years. There has been a rise in pupils with additional support needs and a rise in classroom violence.

Councillor Euan Hyslop outside Wardie Primary School | Supplied

“As the education authority, we should be doing everything we can to abide by the recommended class sizes, not finding loopholes to push classrooms to capacity, which is what we are doing.”

When allocating children to primary one classes, the first round of placing requests involves children living in a school’s catchment area automatically being given a place. After this first round, education chiefs decide how many primary one classes that school should have.

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However, parents can appeal their placing request to send their child to a school outside their catchment area instead. If this appeal is granted after a school has decided how many primary one classes it will have, it could see more than 25 children being allocated to a single class. These children are classed as ‘excepted’ cases.

While the government guidance is a maximum of 25 pupils in primary one classes, the legal class size limit is 33.

In their letter to the education secretary, parents said: “We write to highlight serious concerns regarding the intentional misuse of the ‘excepted’ pupils category in legislation.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth | Press Association

“This is being used to increase primary one class sizes beyond 25 children to save costs.”

The parents said while class sizes may exceed 25 “on occasion”, this should be “a rarity, not a loophole in the system that can be exploited”. They said “it is difficult to see how we can be getting it right for every child” if the class size limit is breached.

The letter added: “We ask you to have your officials issue urgent guidance to local authorities to clarify the legislative and policy intent and seek to amend the accompanying regulations to close this loophole, for the good of all Scotland’s young people.”

Cllr Hyslop had tried to submit an emergency motion to get the issue discussed at full council last week, but this was rejected.

He said: “We need to review how we approach this, so we can ensure it doesn’t happen like this again. We also need to allocate additional resources so the new primary ones have additional support.

“I would be concerned if my son was going to a school with 30 children having come from such intensive support at nursery.”

Miles Briggs, an MSP for the Lothians and the Scottish Conservatives’ education spokesman, said: “This sudden change will deeply alarm teachers, parents and pupils across the capital.

“The SNP pledged to tackle bloated class sizes upon coming to power 18 years ago, but have repeatedly broken this promise. With Edinburgh already having the highest pupil-to-teacher ratio in Scotland, this is the last thing overwhelmed teachers need to hear, on top of Labour’s imposition of VAT fees, which is putting further strain on state school capacity.

“The SNP must work with Labour-led Edinburgh Council to ensure every pupil is able to access the best education possible and finally put resources in place across Scotland to reduce class sizes to sustainable levels.”

Some classes in Edinburgh will exceed the limit of 25. | Danny Lawson/Press Association

Cllr James Dalgleish, education convener at Edinburgh Council, confirmed a “small number” of primary schools would have more than 25 children in their primary one class in August.

He said: “However, I would like to stress that no decision has been made regarding primary one class numbers as appeals for school places are still ongoing, which may result in an increase in the number of classes and therefore a drop in class sizes.

“Primary one class numbers will not be finalised until closer to the start of the new school term.”

Cllr Dalgleish said national guidance “allows for some flexibility” in class sizes. “Where it is needed, additional support will be provided to meet the needs of individual pupils and classes,” he said.

He added the council would meet with parents from the affected schools once class sizes were finalised.

The Scottish Government said there were a “limited” number of exceptions where class size limits coulc be exceeded. A spokesman said: “Scottish Government guidance sets maximum registration class sizes for primary one at 25 children.”