Increase in Reserved Places in Ferry Schools for 2014-15

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At the Education Committee on Monday 24 February 2014, the Committee approved proposals from the Director of Education to increase reserved places in eleven schools in Dundee including Grove Academy, Barnhill, Eastern and Forthill Primary Schools in The Ferry.

The table shows that the allocation of reserved places for Barnhill, Eastern and Forthill Primary Schools for school year 2014-15 will be five places at P1 and one place in each year group P2-7. The allocation of reserved places for Grove Academy will be four places at S1 and two at S2.

Reserved places are defined as those which are reasonably required to accommodate pupils likely to become resident in the catchment area of the school in the school year to which the placing request relates.

This allocation of reserved places for Ferry schools will help to ensure that while parental choice is maintained wherever possible, that will not unduly restrict parents moving into the catchment area of a school from sending their child or children to their local primary or secondary school.


The following points should be noted concerning the deployment of reserved places:

• Reserved places are only created where space permits. Where sufficient Priority 1 pupils enrol to fill a class a reserved place cannot be created;
• No Priority 1 pupil will be refused a place while a reserved place exists and 
• When all reserved places have been used for Priority 1 pupils moving into the catchment area no more places can be granted. If a pupil then leaves the school roll that place will again be reserved for Priority 1 pupils moving into the catchment area and will be allocated to such pupils as required.

Link to the full paper presented to and approved by the Education Committee on Monday 24 February 2014 to read and/or download.

Reserved Places for Barnhill and Forthill Primary Schools and Grove Academy

At the Education Committee on Monday 25 February, the Committee considered a report on 'Retaining Reserved Places In Schools 2013/2014'. Councils can reserve places in schools in anticipation of children who may move into the catchment area of the school in-year. They must consider the overall demand for places at the school, and can only keep empty the number of places that they consider are reasonably required for pupils likely to move into the catchment area in the period up to and including the forthcoming school year.

The Committee papers contained the following list of proposed reserved places in school session August 2013 - June 2014. Addressing the Committee, I said:                                                                        

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"I welcome this report. It addresses some of of the pinch points in demand for schooling in the city and tries to ensure that children whose families move into the school catchment area during the school year have a small number of reserved places potentially available at the Primary and 

Secondary schools in their area. On the basis of the criteria in this report, I believe that Forthill Primary School should also have 2 reserved places at P1 stage. At the Parent Council meeting last week, which the Director of Education attended, concerns were expressed about rising roll of the school. For people moving into the Forthill catchment area, the potential constraint would be in P1 where there the legal maximum is 25 whereas it is higher in P2 and above.

Forthill catchment area contains some new housing and with some recently built major new housing development such as the Ferryfields. It is a catchment area with a continuing reasonable level of turnover of homes as people move in and out.

Accordingly, I ask the Committee to approve this change to the list of reserved places for the next school year."

The Convener of the Committee, after consultation with the Director, accepted my proposal.