Scottish Catholic Observer

Parents at a closure threatened school have obtained new figures they claim show a ‘sinister’ attempt to end Catholic education in the town.

The parents from St Joseph’s Primary in Milngavie (pupils  shown campaigning above) have been fighting a long-running battle against East Dunbartonshire council to prevent their school being closed.

The local authority chose to close the school and merge it in a new build in Bearsden with St Andrew’s Primary. Under occupancy was one of the reasons cited for the closure. According to the new figures reported in the Herald and released under the Freedom of Information Act, two pupils were refused placing requests and two others were denied a transfer from other schools in 2015/2016.

“We are concerned East Dunbartonshire wanted to run our pupil numbers and our school down,” Paula Speirs, a spokeswoman for the school’s parent council, said. “We believe this is sinister behaviour by a council which will apparently stop at nothing in their quest to end Catholic education in Milngavie, even when there are no revenue savings to be gained from this proposal.”

East Dunbartonshire council said the pupils were denied places as individual classes were full. “While we cannot comment on individual circumstances we can confirm a small number of placing requests were refused this year for St Joseph’s,” Jacqui MacDonald, East Dunbartonshire’s chief education officer, said. “To have accepted these requests into year groups that were already full would have exceeded national class size limits. This decision was not influenced by any other factors.

“Although individual classes are full, latest figures show the school building is 58 per cent under-occupied. It has capacity for 289 pupils and currently has only six classes.”

St Joseph’s is the only Catholic school in Milngavie. A last ditch attempt to save the school will be proposed at a meeting of the council today. Parents have also drawn up their own plans to take the school into community control, and have submitted proposals to the Scottish Government asking for direct funding. Almost all schools in Scotland are funded from local authorities, but a small number receive direct funding, including Jordan Hill in Glasgow and specialist schools for the disabled.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously met with parents from St Joseph’s, and the campaign has received backing by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.

The new £9 million school for the amalgamated St Joseph’s and St Andrew’s is currently set to open for the 2017/2018 term.