By Brian Smith

THE TOTAL number of placing requests received for Scottish schools in 2006-07 was 28,645—a 5% decrease on the previous year.

In Dundee, there were 1198 placing requests for primary schools (of which 1060 were granted), 297 secondary placing requests (with 199 granted), while 23 of 24 requests in the special category were granted.

In Fife, 1002 of 1065 primary school requests were granted, while for secondary schools the figure was 651 out of 708. The single special school request was granted.

A quarter of primary one starts in Angus were the subject of a placing request, with the council receiving 702 appeals from parents of children in this age group.

The council also received 241 requests for secondary pupils, with 207 of these being granted.

The number of requests made for first year secondary pupils represented 9% of the year group in the county, while requests for secondary pupils in years 2-6 accounted for just 2% of the roll covering that group.

Figures for the year also highlight the movement of pupils between Angus and its neighbouring local authorities.

Parents in Angus made 27 requests to place their youngsters in Dundee schools, with 24 being granted

However, traffic was much heavier in the opposite direction, with 99 requests being made by parents resident in Dundee for their children to attend schools in Angus, with 79 of these being approved.

A total of 22 requests were made to place Angus youngsters in Aberdeenshire schools, with 13 were approved, while 12 of the 14 requests made by parents in Aberdeenshire for their children to attend Angus schools were approved.

The eight Angus requests with Perth and Kinross were met, while 17 of 22 in the other direction were granted—a single request by a Fife parent for a place at an Angus school was successful.

Where requests were refused, “staffing constraints” was the reason reported in 36% of cases in primary schools and in 34% of cases in secondary schools.

A spokeswoman for Angus Council said, “There are significant numbers of pupils attending the vast majority of Angus schools as a result of formal placing requests.

“Quite a few of these requests come about because a family moves house and wishes to retain their children at the same school, and a large proportion are related to child-care arrangements—for example, grandparents living close to the chosen school.

“There may be occasional cases where parents move house to be within the catchment area for a particular school, but this does not appear to be a widespread phenomenon in Angus.”

James McKinstry, a senior manager with Fife Council’s education authority, said, “Parents have a right to submit a placing request for a child to attend a school outwith their catchment area.

“The authority will grant this if space exists in the requested school and it does not create pressure on the existing resources in the school.”Tory spokeswoman Liz Smith yesterday asked why more requests had not been granted.

She said, “If there have been 5% fewer requests made by parents to have their child placed in a school of their choice, then surely we would expect local authorities to be able to satisfy a higher percentage of placement requests than they did last year. It is very disappointing that this did not happen.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said, “We welcome the fact that the great majority—85%—of placing requests made in Scotland in 2006-07 were met, which is slightly up on last year.

“We support the rights of parents to express a preference for a particular school, but are pleased that the number of parents wishing to do so has reduced by 5% this year.”

The Lib Dems’ Hugh O’Donnell said, “There are concerns at local authority level that the SNP’s imposition of smaller class sizes will have a negative impact on placing requests for primary schools, unless the government provides additional resources for school infrastructure.”