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Councillor says Fife schools report is riddled with ‘gobbledegook and doublespeak’

Protestors against the closure of Tanshall Primary School outside Fife House.
Protestors against the closure of Tanshall Primary School outside Fife House.

Pitcorthie Primary parents turned up in force to Dunfermline City Chambers to campaign for the school to be saved.

Fife Council plans to launch a consultation on proposals to shake up the school estate, which will see schools closed and catchment areas rezoned.

Factors considered in the review include the need to improve the condition of school buildings and have schools operating at 80-100% capacity.

Among the schools facing the axe is Pitcorthie and campaigners believe the local authority should think again before shutting its doors.

Kathryn Dixon, who chairs Pitcorthie Primary Parent Council, said: “We’re sitting at 95% capacity. We don’t have surplus places. With the increasing school roll this year we have had to employ another three teachers.

“We were inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education about two years ago and we’re sitting with one of the highest attainment rates for a primary school in the whole of Fife.

“The nursery was refurbished two-and-a-half years ago and we now have a roll of 100 children at Pitcorthie nursery.”

Under the proposals, Pitcorthie’s catchment area would be split following its closure, with children sent to Lynburn and Commercial. Part of the Lynburn catchment would be rezoned to fall under Touch Primary.

Brian Goodall called for clarification on the state of the school building.

He added: “It is important to know why alternatives to closure have not been disclosed at this stage.”

Meanwhile, David Mogg criticised the report into the school estates review, claiming it was riddled with “gobbledegook and doublespeak”.

He said: “We’re going to make teachers redundant and support staff redundant, so we will be reducing the number of teachers we have and putting pupils in bigger classes.”

Mr Mogg said bigger class sizes would not deliver educational benefits, which was among the factors for consideration listed in the report.

Meanwhile, councillors in Glenrothes were addressed by a parents’ group fighting against the possible closure of Tanshall Primary School.

Euan Howells, spokesman for Community Help at Tanshall, addressed members of the Glenrothes area committee seeking answers as to why the school had been earmarked for closure.

Handing over a petition with 879 signatures he told the committee he believed any decision to close Tanshall Primary would be taken on financial grounds alone.

“The community don’t see any educational reasons to close the school,” he said. “They see it purely as financial. If it was educational then it would not be happening.”

Mr Howells put questions to Shelagh McLean, Fife Council’s directorate resources manager, who admitted she was unable to specifically answer many of his queries at this stage in the process.

Peter Grant, opposition group leader, said closing the school would undermine years of work to regenerate the area.

“Tanshall is turning into an area where families want to bring up their children,” he said.

“This will not save any significant amount of money.

“All the information I have is that the biggest saving is on people teachers, auxiliaries, janitors. The savings in property costs are minimal and barely cover the cost of the buses that would be needed to take pupils to other schools.”

However, it was confirmed there are currently no other schools in Glenrothes being considered for closure, despite rumours continuing to circulate regarding the future of Warout Primary School.

It is understood plans to merge Glenrothes and Glenwood high schools remain on the table, however.