Campaigners lose fight to keep school independent

PARENTS of children at Scotland’s only self-governing school have lost a two year legal battle against the Scottish Executive’s decision to return it to state control.

Campaigners have spent tens of thousands of pounds on a fight which came to a head at the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday, where three appeal judges rejected the case brought forward by parents from St Mary’s Episcopal Primary in Dunblane. The school will now be handed over to Stirling authority on 6 January. Campaigners have three months in which to consider whether they have a legal basis and the estimated hundreds of thousands of pounds required to take their case to the House of Lords.

Alastair McCulloch, the chairman of the board of governors said: "We believe that children only get one shot at their education and St Mary’s is providing what parents want. The headteacher has the freedom to tailor the school to the children."

Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said: "Parents may or may not have been content, but the fact is it was operating in a limbo."