Scottish Catholic Observer

The Catholic Church has expressed ‘deep regret’ that East Renfrewshire Council has decided to remove the automatic right of entry to St Ninian’s High School, Giffnock, from pupils at St Angela’s and St Vincent’s primary schools in Glasgow.

The council’s education committee decided yesterday that—following a lengthy consultation process— automatic right of entry to St Ninian’s will be reserved for pupils of East Renfrewshire’s Our Lady of the Missions, St Joseph’s and St Cadoc’s primaries from the school year beginning 2012.

The decision was made to solve overcrowding issues at Scotland’s top performing state Catholic secondary school.

The Church had responded to the consultation, however, by saying that, in instances of overcrowding, automatic right of entry to St Ninian’s should be given to Baptised Catholics, rather than removing the Glasgow primaries from the school’s catchment area.

A spokesman for Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow expressed his regret that the decision by East Renfrewshire Council will remove the Glasgow schools’ automatic right of entry.

“There would have been no St Ninian’s had not the families of St Angela’s and the former St Louise agreed, back in the 1980s, to having their children’s education disrupted to provide the necessary numbers to make the new St Ninian’s viable,” the spokesman said.

In a statement released yesterday, the council said pupils at the schools who have lost out ‘would have priority of access above all other criteria through the school’s placing request priorities.’