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Parents snub local highs as one in five pupils is sent elsewhere



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Published Date: 03 May 2008
By GEMMA FRASER
THE parents of nearly a fifth of all pupils leaving city primaries this year are opting against sending their children to the local high school.
They are generally expected to have a better chance of getting their children into the school of their choice this year than in previous years.

The effects of falling school rolls are starting to be felt more markedly in high schools, making it easier to accommodate children where they want to go.

The parents of 628 youngsters, out of the 3531 who will start first year after the summer, have asked to be placed somewhere other than their local school.

Craigmount High proved the most popular with children outside its catchment area, receiving 84 placement requests. The school with the highest number of requests to leave the catchment area is Forrester, with 76 people asking to be moved elsewhere.

The figures newly released by the council suggest Castlebrae Community High School is the least popular with local parents. It attracted just a third of youngsters in its catchment area last year.

The school with the highest number of pupils taking up their guaranteed place at their local school is Balerno Community High School, where 94 per cent of its pupils came from inside the catchment area in 2008.

Most and least popular
Most and least popular
The Evening News revealed yesterday the city's least popular primaries attract fewer than half the pupils in their catchment areas.

Iain Kay, chairman of Castlebrae's parent council, puts the low take-up down to the fact the school has had a question mark over its future. It was threatened with closure under plans by the council last summer to axe 22 schools and four community centres.

He said: "I think what has caused the problem is that everything was so up-in-the-air about the new school. I would imagine the figures will be different next year.

"The council doesn't realise what they're doing when they talk about closing schools because it has a real knock-on effect on everything."

The council figures also show that for the first time, all secondaries will be able to cope with the demand from their catchment area, making them more likely to cope with requests from elsewhere.

Edinburgh's education leader, Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, said: "Partly due to falling school rolls there will be no issue accommodating all catchment children at their secondary school this year. We follow Scottish Government legislation which allows parents to state a preference in what school they send their child to."

Figures published earlier this year showed city parents ask to send their children to schools outside their catchment area more than anywhere else in Scotland.


The full article contains 453 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 03 May 2008 10:42 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Schools in Edinburgh
 
1

,

03/05/2008 15:45:37
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

alex paterson,

embra 03/05/2008 16:42:24
Support your local high,its time the parents were educated.
3

Loki - The Scourge of the Schemies,

EH1 03/05/2008 17:05:08
#2 Alex. It is often precisely because many parents are articulate and educated that they do not consider sending their offspring to some of Edinburgh's more colourful schools. A family member has direct experience of one high school in Edinburgh and talks of it as a place of containment rather a place of learning due to the appalling behaviour and attitues among a very high percentage of its pupils. The idea of following like sheep into an underclass of louts will always be resisted by many members of the public. And quite rightly so as it is they who pay for the education system.
4

alex paterson,

Sevilla 03/05/2008 17:17:52
#3
Rubbish.
5

Ford,

Edinburgh 03/05/2008 17:20:48
It's not so long ago that the council redrew the catchment boundaries to shift a substantial number of households into the Forrester catchment area from Craigmount. From the table, it looks like those parents have decided to exercise their rights and have chosen to send their children to the school they originally wanted them in! Promises were made by the council then, and were not kept.
6

KV,

03/05/2008 17:26:53
Our catchment school is nearly 4 miles from our house. Another equally good secondary school is located around the corner. The only difference: 1 requires a 30 minute bus ride in rush hour traffic; the other is a 5 minute walk. If you think making my child take the bus - at tax payers expense since the council would be required to pay for a bus pass because we live more than 3 miles from our catchment school- makes me a snob, then I am a snob. I prefer to think of it as sending my child to my local COMMUNITY secondary school. And, just to be clear, distance is the only difference between these two schools. Catchments are no longer relevant to many of the secondary schools and need to be reviewed.
7

Teofilio Cubillas,

03/05/2008 17:40:13
#3 Despite the comments of others, you are quite correct in your assertion that the principle reason that many parents try to send their children to schools outwith their own catchment areas is because the local one is full of baseball capped pond-life destined for a life of stealing cars and welfare scrounging.You only need to look at the league tables to see how p1ss poor some Edinburgh schools actually are - two or three are in the bottom ten nationally. The parents who actually give a damn about their childrens' education, irrespective of where they live, should be applauded for trying to get the best for their kids.
8

Kirsty Boyd-Williamson,

New Town 03/05/2008 17:45:41
##3
Rubbish.

That may be the view in your housing scheme, Alex but it is not a view that is universally shared. Why, for instance, do you think Edinburgh has so many independent schools? And what differences in examination pass rates do you detect between some of Edinburgh's high schools?
You may, as Loki suggests, be perfectly content to allow your offspring to follow the herd into educational oblivion. That is your choice. Others exercise different choices.
9

rs,

in ma house 03/05/2008 18:54:57
Save Our Local School,

PS I send My Kids to Another School, I can't understand why they are Closing My Local School.

No6 KV, Good Point About the Catchment area.

No 7..If your not happy about the Local Council School .. then send to a Private School!!!!

parents are in No Win situation.
10

Embra boy,

Edinburgh 04/05/2008 22:51:57
These figures are also skewed by the hundreds of parents who send their children to private schools, rather than the local state primary - or any other state primary.
11

Suzi B,

29/05/2008 16:38:21
#3 and #7. Quite right.
#1 Like you would send your kids to the closest school if you knew that their chances of passing their standard grades and Highers were less than half that of the next nearest High school! Unless you truly believed that your kid was so poor academically that it wouldn't matter where they went to high school, it would be pretty negligent as a parent to stand on your principles and let your kids take their chances.
12

Suzi B,

29/05/2008 16:43:42
#10. The figures in this table wouldn't be slewed by kids going to private school because there would be no placing requests to the education authority for them.

 

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