I have been advised that the Council will be adding temporary modular classrooms at Claypotts Castle Primary School over the summer. This was surprising because it's one of our new schools that only opened its doors in June 2008. I understand the extra classrooms are required to accommodate the increasing number of children who live in the school's catchment area.
It is positive that the extra accommodation is to provided, because the alternative would mean improvising use of other areas within the school which would constrain the curriculum for our pupils. It is however very disappointing that a school that is just eight years old is too small. How did Council staff get their calculations so wrong?
This is unfortunately not the first time that our new schools have proved to be too small. Craigowl Primary School was oversubscribed from the start and eventually the Council brought forward a restriction on the catchment area for Craigowl .
Both examples call into question the reliability of the population projections that have informed decisions that the Council have made about replacing schools. More worrying is that the same population projections have been used to justify the closure of Menzieshill High School this summer and the size of the proposed new primary school in Menzieshill. I think the new Children and Families' Committee (replacing the Education Committee) needs to be given the opportunity to discuss this at it's next meeting.
We need to get it right for every child and avoid expensive mistakes like this.
