Bid to merge classes at Edinburgh's Wardie primary school sparks calls for new policy on amalgamating classes

Council education officials told Wardie Primary School its three P4 classes would have to be merged into two next session because one child was moving away, reducing the P4 numbers to 66 - allowing two classes at the legal maximum of 33 pupils.

Parents were dismayed, arguing that smaller classes gave better educational outcomes, the children were settled in their current classes of between 22 and 25 and larger classes would mean they got less individual attention.

Plans to amalgamate classes at Wardie Primary have now been dropped - but the SNP’s Euan Hyslop still has concerns | supplied

And the parents were then shocked to discover that a P4 pupil from a family due to move into the area had been put on a waiting list even though his younger sibling had been accepted for P1.

Parent Carolyn Samson said: "What the council had done was created a waiting list back in March, then put a child in-catchment on it, then told the school they had to amalgamate the three classes into two classes of 33.”

The council has now dropped its plan to amalgamate P4 classes at Wardie. Ms Samson said: "It was a real push by the parents, there was a huge amount of stress and it was left to the parents to do the digging and find out what was going on."

And she said reducing the level of spending was"clearly the underlying reason for all of this".

Now SNP education spokesman Euan Hyslop wants agreed criteria to help decide in future whether class amalgamations is appropriate.

He said: "The Wardie situation has highlighted a broader issue which is that it would seem there is no policy when it comes to the amalgamation of classes.

"It seems they have bowed down to pressure from parents, but the decision they took in the first instance was more to do with cost saving than what was best for the children and the teachers."

He has tabled a motion for the next meeting of the education committee, outlining the factors he believes should be considered where schools face a situation similar to Wardie's.

He said: "It's not right that officers just get to decide, based essentially on what they think is the most cost-effective solution, to amalgamate three classes into two, which would fill these classes to the absolute legal limit and leave no space at all for children moving into the catchment area."

His motion notes that while national limits for class sizes are set by the Scottish Government, each local authority has the autonomy to structure is own classes "taking account of school capacity, staffing and local factors such as the number of children with additional support needs".

And it looks forward to an updated policy which could commit the council to merging classes only when there are no catchment children of that age group waiting for a place and where one place was reserved in each class to accommodate children moving into the catchment area during the academic session.

Education convener James Dalgleish said: “We follow Scottish Government legislation on class sizes, which means a class size maximum of 33 pupils for P4 – P7. It is the case that year groups can be at capacity with waiting lists in place. The funding local authorities receive from the Scottish Government is linked to pupil numbers and class size guidance. Class organisations need to be efficient and should comply with Scottish Government guidance and legislation, within available funding.

“In line with Scottish Government guidance, children and young people with additional support needs learn in mainstream schools and the proportion of pupils in a class with additional support needs would never be a factor in determining class sizes. The school will always ensure that the right support is in place to support the individual needs of each learner.

“To confirm, the decision to reduce the number of classes required has been reversed given that there is a catchment child on the waiting list. The P4 arrangement for August at Wardie Primary School will be three classes.

“As with all schools, numbers will continue to be kept under review until the September census and should the number of pupils fall again, the organisations may need to be reconsidered.”