Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport seeking approval to place a cap where necessary on particular primary schools to ensure they could accommodate the lower class size regulations, as well as approval to limit S1 pupil intakes to certain secondary schools.  The report advised that the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 gave local authorities power to reserve places in certain secondary and primary schools for children likely to move into the zones of those schools during the school year.  Therefore, the proposed number of reserved spaces for 2011/12 took account of the number of in-zone pupils due in session 2011/12, the anticipated number of families moving into the zone during the school year; the number of out of zone placing requests already received;  and the roll cap proposed for the secondary schools.  The report sought approval to limit the S1 intake in session 2011/12 for Aberdeen Grammar School, Cults Academy, Harlaw Academy and Oldmachar Academy.

It was noted that previously only a small number of primary schools had required to be roll capped, however due to the increasing demand for places in certain schools, the Council’s decision to reduce class sizes to a maximum of 18 pupils in all primary 1 classes in schools within areas of deprivation would be determined by the ability of each school to accommodate the increase in classes.  It was proposed to retain a maximum of 25 pupils for all other primary 1 classes.  The report advised that this could mean that some schools would have to reserve places for pupils who might move in-zone during the school year.  The report then listed the 10 primary schools which could potentially be affected in this manner:-

Manor Park School

Bramble Brae School

Riverbank School

Tullos School

Kittybrewster School

Seaton School

Walker Road School

Woodside School

Heathryburn School and

St Peter’s RC School.

The decision to cap a primary school would be based on the number of primary classes a school could accommodate, rather than the number of pupils, and would be related to the optimum class configuration which had to be adopted by schools.

The report advised that it could be necessary to employ staff on a fixed term basis until pupil figures were confirmed at the start of the new school session.  This would ensure that the numbers of excess staff could be kept to a minimum.

The report recommended:-

that Committee:-

a)         agree the following limits upon the S1 intakes of the following secondary schools:

                        Aberdeen Grammar School - 210

                        Cults Academy – 210

                        Harlaw Academy – 180

                        Oldmachar Academy – 180;

(b)       agree that it may be necessary to cap a number of primary schools to accommodate any class size reductions in primary 1 – 3 to confirm to class size regulations and local policy noting that the schools in question can only be identified once class configurations have been established;

(c)       agree the reservation of spaces in the above-named secondary schools and identified primary schools as appropriate, for children likely to become resident in the zone of those schools during the school year; and

(d)       require the school service managers to closely monitor the number of pupils transferring to identified capped schools in August 2011, relative to the roll limits being recommended.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations contained in the report.