Any other councils not guaranteeing place in catchment school?

[Dorent]

East Dunbartonshire council are proposing that for oversubscribed primary & secondary schools all children in the delineated catchment become placing requests (siblings/specific needs excepted), and essentially when it come down to it, places will be given to those closest to the school.

Those that don’t get into their catchment school will be bused to another school within east Dunbartonshire.

Understandably this is a worry for parents - one of the better things (IMO) about the Scottish education system is that all kids can go to their local school if they wish.

And the environmental impact with increased traffic.

But maybe this is already happening elsewhere? Or if this gets through in EDC it sets an unwelcome precedent for the rest of the country?

The consultation is underway...

Interestingly this is from the current Bearsden Academy handbook:

The current roll of the school is 1228 (as at September 2018)

S1 211 S2 207 S3 209

S4 210 S5 208 S6 183

The new Bearsden Academy has a total capacity of around 1200. The Local Authority has capped the S1 intake at 210 (ie 7 classes of 30 pupils).
The projected S1 roll for the next three years includes the four associated primary schools and children attending other primary schools but within Bearsden Academy catchment area (zoned).

August 2019 164
August 2020 176
August 2021 197

If you are catholic and have children at for example at Nicholas, and if they couldn't accommodate them in one of the Bearsden schools then yes they'd bus them to the RC RC high school.

Assuming they'd do the same for non-catholic children who couldn't be accommodated either but who knows? And it needn't necessarily be bishopbriggs, it would be whatever there's space.

I was assuming Turnbull as the associated school for St Nicholas.

I am a bit that the council would not continue paying transport if DC wanted to stay there.

To the other point, maybe it was tongue in cheek, but I cannot see the Bearsden Primary parents accepting the St Nicholas building given the fuss which was made when it was proposed merging BP with Castlehill...

Thanks anyway for the replies.

AFAIK the policy regarding transport for the RC schools hasn’t changed, ie if your catchment RC school is more than 3 miles away you’ll get free transport.

This is the bit in the consultation regarding redirects & transport:

8.5 Where a child has been redirected to a non-catchment school, the cost of transport will be met by the Council if the free school transport criteria has been met. If the family of a child chooses to keep their child in the redirected school when a place in an appropriate catchment school becomes available, travelling costs will no longer be met by the Council.

There’s a new shiny presentation on the council website all ready for the public meetings and FAQS including FOI requested info on school roll projections which are including St Nicholas’ in the numbers - and they’re within limits (??)

Just Bearsden & Milngavie schools mind.

Thanks for the further clarification.

If St N is included in the projections, surely they can just make it an associated school and avoid a lot of angst?

Of course they can. But that opens a whole can of worms with the Catholic church and the issue of denominational schools and I don;t think they want to go there.

In response to the initial question, this has also been an issue in Glasgow where pupils in the catchment for Rosshall were to be bussed to Govan as no space. Not sure what happened in practice but there are so many new houses around there I'm not surprised. I think a similar situation may have been predicted with Hillpark as a hell of a lot of new houses are going up in their catchment.

fantababy are all the new houses at Silverburn in the catchment for Hillpark? It is one of the schools I am considering for my ds but am wondering if it will be too busy for him as it will be a very big year I think. He is p7 so will go next year.

@TwinkleRedMoon - from what I have heard the newish headteacher at Hillpark is excellent. She is really improving its reputation whilst being nurturing and supportive.

I've met her a couple of times on interview panels (for depute headships at another school, as the parent council has the right to have 2 members on the panel) as well as a few other occasions and I've always been impressed by her

Thank you duggee and prettybird it is good to hear positive things about the school as it is our catchment school 😊

As far as I know the Silverburn houses are in the Hillpark catchment, but I could be wrong. They're all fairly close to Rosshall too so I suppose that's where the issues are coming from. All the new houses behind Sainsbury's in Darnley will be Hillpark too, I think?

I thought that East Renfrewshire council we're looking at re-jigging the catchment around Barrhead, Neilston & Darnley?

Neilston currently go to Eastwood high in Newton Mearns, but with all the new builds there all the Mearns schools are full.

Councils are just not keeping up with school places when new builds are given planning permission; it's really poor on their part. They've had years to increase capacity/build new schools but can't get their acts together.

I don't think all the new houses are in East Ren. Darnley straddles the Glasgow boundary.

Thanks Fanta I forgot about all the new houses behind Sainsbury's.

I was speaking to a friend (who works in GCC's Education Department) and asked her if there were any plans for new build secondaries, given all the house building: she says that some of the older secondaries have the capability to increase capacity, whether that be additional temporary (portacabin) classrooms in the playground or opening up mothballed areas (eg Lourdes Secondary has or had? a whole floor that had been mothballed due to a falling roll).

Geographically, the new houses behind Sainsbury's in Darnley are closer to Barrhead than Hillpark - albeit that's in East Ren.

I heard that many of the new build houses in Mearns will be bussed to Barrhead High.

That'll go down well with those who buy the new builds in Mearns with the aim of getting in to their catchment school.

@MoreProseccoNow - I heard this too and also St Luke's. Makes sense as st Luke's is closer than St Ninians which is bursting at the seams!

@MoreProsecco so if that happens -kids have to go to Barrhead- do they find out in the letter that is issued to p7 parents soon? That would be a bit of a shock. No warning, just finding out in a letter that your child has to go to Barrhead.

I think it's a good time off, @TwinkleRedMoon - from what I can gather, it'll be when the new estates are built & the young children in them are of secondary age. Could be wrong though!

That makes sense, thank you.