Hillhead Primary Catchment Cap - still no places for "new" catchment children!?

[Glazzamataz]

I am a parent at Hillhead Primary and have a friend whose DS is hoping to start this year. She is now worried that with the cap of 75 children being proposed on Thursday by the council that she will not get in. She lives in the catchment and will still be in the catchment once it is redrawn but the applications are already more than 75!!!

This has been nearly a whole year of space problems and catchment review now and yet we will be left in the same situation even after a vote by the Executive Committee?

It is madness. As a parent at the school I am angered that the solution of a "dance studio" in the car park not addressing (and is rather insulting) all the daily overcrowding problems in the school. Children have not enough classrooms in the school and currently share the old IT suite/library which was supposed to be for this one year only. After the council's proposal they will still be sharing this room! And the rest of the nearly 700 kids will continue to have no access to it, or any of the other spaces turned into classrooms since the school opened in 2011.

And with a cap of 75 where do some of the catchment children go?

I am sure any "unlucky" catchment applicants will appeal to the Sheriff Court to get in as is their right. But where does that then leave the school? I am completely perplexed by it all and why the council did not support their initial proposal of moving the EYC off site. Catchment children will still not get in and children in there can just wait until they are in High School before the overcrowding issues are resolved (if they ever are.....)

I believe there was a very strong lobby objecting to the removal of the nursery...

Yes EnglishWeegie there was.

It saddens me that this could influence a council to keep it there at the expense of the welfare and education of the kids in the school. And also now that a cap will be put on when it would not have been needed.

I guess they argued that but would be sad to move the nursery to the detriment of the nursery children.

The whole thing has been very badly managed in general, hopefully redrawing the catchment and refusing placing requests will sort it out in the longer run.

But what about the children in the school the now? They just have to put up with it? Like they have for the past 3 years? There are not enough classrooms in Hillhead, 2 classes are sharing one room which used to be the media suite and this is now seen as a continuing situation approved by the council.

Children have been crammed into the school since 2011 and now they are being told that well "too bad, you will just have to put up with it" until hopefully it sorts itself out in 4-5 years time. I am not convinced it will sort itself out but even if it does it still does not address the overcrowding right now.

Hillhead Parents Council confirmed that the Convenor for Education said at the GCC Scrutiny Committee that the catchment review and the cap at 75 would have gone ahead regardless of whether the nursery stayed on site or not. They voted on caps at 75 and less for schools across the city, the nearby Notre Dame also now have a cap at 75. There was never any proposal by the Council to move the nursery. Both their initial proposal and a later second alternative proposal were to shut the nursery and disperse the staff. The catchment review and cap are to reduce numbers at the school which will address the schools space issues in addition the new 100sqm GP space will allow more room for art, music, drama etc.

Glazamatazz, There is no need for 2 classes to share the media suite from Aug 2015. This year the school management decided to have 2 classes share the media suite and keep another classroom sized room also on the first floor as a GP room. But now that there will be a new larger GP space at under croft level the other classroom could now be returned to use as a classroom. School management can review their options now that the cap has been introduced and there is only 3 x P1 classes starting in Aug instead of 4.