Education officials have been tasked to carry out an appraisal of the mothballed Longhaven Primary School to decide its future once and for all.
Complete closure is one, increasingly likely option, while consideration is being given to using its play equipment – funded by parents – as the basis for a public park.
The school, five miles from Peterhead, closed after the April holidays in 2018, with no head teacher in place and few remaining pupils.
Instead of closing, time was allowed for the primary to secure applications for the next school year. None were received.
Coupled with the struggle Aberdeenshire Council has had recruiting a head teacher, the school is now entering its second year with “mothballed” status.
For the school to be reinstated, there would need to be sufficient pupils enrolled to make the educational experience worthwhile.
At a meeting of Aberdeenshire Council’s education and children’s services committee yesterday, officers said that while a family had recently moved into the Longside catchment area with a child of school age, they felt they would rather have them study somewhere alongside other children.
Looking ahead, the roll forecast also shows a “very small number of families” with children of school age in the area.
Committee members subsequently voted unanimously for an appraisal of the school to be carried out to assess options for the future.
Outright closure will be among the options, while public engagement will form a key part of the appraisal.
Councillor Alan Fakley said the school was in a difficult position.
“Parents will only want to send their children to a school where there are teachers,” he said.
“If there are no teachers then people will not want to enroll there. It’s a case of the chicken before the egg.
“Regardless, the play equipment was funded by parents so we need to know what will happen with that.”
Officers confirmed the play area had been identified as a “major consideration” for the public engagement sessions, with its possible future as a public play park depending on the consultation outcomes.
Fellow councillor Alison Evison added: “We need to make sure that not only parents currently in the area but people thinking of coming to Longhaven are involved in the consultation.
“We need to make sure that’s clear to everyone.”
