Children and Families Property ReviewFour primary schools to close in July 201018 December 2009After long discussions, the City of Edinburgh Council last night took decisions to close four city primary schools at the end of the 2009/10 school year. Burdiehouse, Drumbrae, Fort and Royston primaries were proposed for closure earlier this year in order to help reduce the number of spare places in the city. Our priority is now to help schools develop their detailed plans of what needs to be done in the Spring and Summer terms to prepare the children for the changes ahead. Parents will get more information about this work early next term. Consultation on the proposals ran over the autumn and generated a large response. Feedback helped to shape the final proposals and in particular, as a direct response, additional support is to be available to help support pupils as they move and settle into new schools. The four schools all have low rolls and operate in buildings designed for much higher pupil numbers. Closing under-occupied schools helps us to target resources for teaching and learning more effectively and reduces the pressure on stretched building maintenance budgets. You can read the Council's press release about the decision. Reports and recommendations published11 December 2009Following the recent consultations on the proposed closure of four city primary schools the City of Edinburgh Council will consider the schools' futures at their meeting on 17 December. A series of reports have been published for this meeting and the links below will take you to individual reports on Council Papers Online.
In SummaryThe individual consultation reports contain a lot of detailed points however it is recommended that the four primary schools are closed in July 2010. The main reasons for the recommendations are set out for each school below. Also view the City of Edinburgh Council press release. Burdiehouse Primary SchoolIt is recommended that Burdiehouse Primary and its associated nursery class is closed in July 2010 and pupils are offered places at Gracemount Primary, with the option to make a placing request to another school if they wish. It is proposed to redraw the local primary catchment areas for Gracemount Primary and Gilmerton Primary schools as set out in the consultation paper. The local secondary school catchment will not change at this time and another consultation will look at the particular secondary issues in detail early next year. Currently there are over 500 spare primary school places in South Edinburgh, Burdiehouse has 125 pupils so is only 41 per cent full and around around 60 per cent of local primary pupils opt to go to other schools. The current cost per pupil (2009) at Burdiehouse is £5,731 against a city average of £3,709. Report on the Burdiehouse Consultation Summary of the proposal for Burdiehouse Primary School For more background information visit the Burdiehouse page Drumbrae Primary SchoolIt is recommended that Drumbrae Primary and its associated nursery class is closed in July 2010 and pupils are offered places at either Clermiston Primary or East Craigs Primary based on where they live in the current school catchment area. Parents would have the option to make a placing request to another school if they wish. It is also proposed to redraw local primary and secondary catchment areas as set out in the consultation paper. Currently there are over 440 spare places in the Clermiston/Corstorphine area, the roll at Drumbrae has dropped to 71 pupils in 2009, the school has the lowest occupancy rate (22 per cent) in the city and around 59 per cent of catchment pupils opt to go to other schools. The current cost per pupil (2009) at Drumbrae is £7,196 against a city average of £3,709. Report on the Drumbrae consultation Summary of the proposal for Drumbrae Primary School For more background information visit the Drumbrae page Fort Primary SchoolIt is recommended that Fort Primary School is closed in July 2010 and pupils are offered places Trinity Primary School, extending this school's catchment area to take in redraw local primary and secondary catchment areas as set out in the consultation paper. Currently there are nearly 500 spare places in schools within the Leith area, the current roll at Fort is 89 pupils, the school has the lowest occupancy rate (32 per cent) in the area and around 62 per cent of pupils from the Fort catchment go to other schools. The cost per pupil (2009) at Fort is £6,965 against a city average of £3,709. Report on the Fort consultation For more background information visit the Fort page Royston Primary SchoolIt is recommended that Royston Primary and its associated nursery class is closed in July 2010 and pupils are offered places at either Granton Primary or Forth View Primary based on where they live in the current school catchment area. It is proposed to redraw local primary and secondary catchment areas as set out in the consultation paper. Currently there are over 800 spare places in schools within this area;the current roll at Royston is 154, an occupancy rate of 41 per cent and in 2008, only 38 per cent of catchment pupils went to Royston Primary. This move would mean that the rolls in nearby schools would increase too making them more viable. Report on the Royston consultation Summary of the Royston proposal For more background information visit the Royston page
Previous informationUpdate 8 December 2009Minutes of public meetings are now available on the Burdiehouse and Royston pages. Update 21 October 2009In response to the questions raised through letters and at public meetings we have tried to provide additional details to the most common concerns. Please visit the additional information page to find out more. We cannot answer every question in detail at this stage but we do hope that you will find some of the answers you need here. Possible closure of four primary schoolsConsultation period ran from Tuesday 25 August – Friday 16 October 2009Consultation papers and additional informationFrom 24 August, you will be able to download the papers for these consultations by following the links below. The pages will be updated as additional information, such as 2009 attainment data, becomes available. Schools and community venues in the area will get copies of the full document for the public. If you need a copy of any papers to be posted out to you, please call us on 0131 529 2108. Summary informationParents in the affected schools should receive a summary version of the consultation paper with information on where to get a copy of the full report if they wish one. These summaries are being distributed via pupil post. Schools are asked to pass on copies to any families whose child is not in school on that day and to issue a follow up note to make sure that parents are aware that they should have received this information. Parents of nursery aged children living in the catchments will get copies of the information through council nurseries and our partner providers. Detailed informationStatutory consultees, including parent councils, local councillors, local MSPs and MPs, the Education, Children and Families Committee representatives and community councils will all be sent a copy of the full consultation paper on 24 August 2009. How can you have your views heard?There is a statutory consultation process to follow for any potential school closure but it is really important that we can take on board as many views as we can. Anyone can take part and help us to shape the decisions. You can come along to a meeting, raise questions by e-mail or send us a letter to tell us what you think. Public meetingsTwo public meetings are set for each proposal and will be independently chaired. After a short presentation on the proposals, the public can put their questions to a panel that includes the Director of Children and Families, the Convener of the Education, Children and Families Committee and staff from Children and Families. Officers from City Development will come along to take any questions about the school properties. A committee clerk will take a formal minute of the public meetings that will be included in the final reports to Council. Meeting datesTuesday 8 Sept: Drumbrae Primary School Tuesday 22 Sept: Fort Primary School Wednesday 23 Sept: Royston Primary Monday 5 Oct: Burdiehouse Primary Written commentsWritten or e-mail comments received by Children and Families by Friday 16 October will be taken into account. Points made will be summarised and include, with responses from our staff, in the final reports. Letters should be sent to:
E-mail comments should be addressed to cf.propertyreview@edinburgh.gov.uk Decision processEducation, Children and Families Committee will meet approved delegations at their meeting on Tuesday 8 September. Minutes of this will be included in the consultation process. Once the consultation period ends separate report will be written for each of the closure proposals, to include officer's responses to the issues raised and the Director's final recommendations. These reports will be taken to the City of Edinburgh Council for consideration and decision in December 2009. Previous information16 June 2009: Education, Children and Families CommitteeMembers agreed that consultation should start in August 2009 on the possible closure in July 2010 of Fort Primary, Burdiehouse Primary, Royston Primary and Drumbrae Primary. Committee did ask for some additions to the original report and these can be seen below. Important note:
What happens next?Officers will prepare full consultation papers over the summer. These will be published when when the consultation starts in late August. You'll be able to find details on this page then. We'll include key meeting dates and tell you how to put your views and questions forward. Early design work startingIf the closures were to go ahead work would need to be done for nurseries at Clermiston Primary, Gracemount Primary and Granton Primary. Committee members took the view that design and planning work should start now so that any new facilities are ready in time if they are needed. This doesn't mean that any closure decisions have been taken: they haven't. Plans will be withdrawn and work stopped immediately if it becomes clear that the work is not needed because the closure proposal will not go ahead. Additional requests from the Committee on 16 JuneThe Committee agreed the following amendment to recommendation 7.1 (iii): Delegate authority to the Director to develop detailed consultation papers on the basis of the options outlined in this report with the papers: • providing additional information, if possible, in relation to the GRO projections relating to actual numbers to date (compared with the previous projections) and the expected estate capacity in future years; Committee agreed the following additional recommendations: (ix) Agree the immediate commencement of the design stage for the new nursery provision as identified in the report (x) Information regarding the condition of the receiving schools and any investment implications to be provided to Council in an accompanying report. 9 June 2009The latest council figures on Edinburgh's school population show that there are 8,600 empty places in the city's primaries. This means the council is forced to spend scarce funds on running and maintaining schools that are well below capacity. A report to the Council's Education, Children & Families Committee on 16th June recommends that a consultation process should start in August over proposals to close Burdiehouse, Drumbrae, Fort and Royston Primary Schools. The report can be viewed here (PDF) or via Council Papers Online (choose Committee Search then select the Education, Children and Families committee meeting, specifying the date of 16 June 2009). Each of these schools is less than half full, running at between 33-41% occupancy. Closing them would be a step towards matching the number of school places to the number of children in Edinburgh's schools as closely as possible. Read more in the press release from 9th June 09. Stockbridge Primary School catchment reviewThe Council recently held a public consultation on proposals to more than double the size of the Stockbridge catchment by making a corresponding reduction to the Flora Stevenson catchment area. 
Contacts
Name: Children and Families
Address: 1/2 Waverley Court, Edinburgh EH8 8BG
Tel: 0131 529 2108
Tel: 0131 469 3312
E-mail: cf.propertyreview
Related links Did you know ?
The average cost per pupil (2009) in Edinburgh primary schools is £3,709
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