Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

School roll figures for Aberdeen on the up

Mile End School
Mile End School

Primary school rolls for the upcoming term in Aberdeen are projected to rise by more than 5% from last year.

Figures provided by the city council have also revealed the primary one intake for 2014/15 is expected to increase by 70 pupils to 2,175.

The Labour-led local authority did not release a breakdown of individual schools, prompting criticism from the main opposition SNP group yesterday.

Concerns have been raised about capacity issues at several primaries, including Mile End in Midstocket, Walker Road in Torry and Kaimhill in Garthdee.

A freedom of information request submitted by the Press and Journal for the full school roll projections for 2014/15 was refused by the city council in February.

According to statistics provided yesterday, the total roll for city primary schools was 12,605 for 2013/14, and is forecast to rise to 13,243 for 2014/15, an increase of 5.2%.

SNP group spokesman Graham Dickson said it was “disappointing” that the figures were not being presented to members of the education, culture and sport committee for scrutiny.

He said: “We have been asking since the beginning of the year to get these figures on how many pupils are expected to be attending each school in the city.

“This is something that normally would be released and something that people should know because it shows where the pressures are across the city.

“If there are too many pupils going to certain schools the council is going to have to take action to make sure these pupils are accommodated, which could then have a knock-on effect on classroom space available for each school.”

Council leader and education convener Jenny Laing rejected the SNP position, however.

She said: “It is quite a complex situation looking at the applications coming in and the capacities within each school, that’s the reason why we are looking for this to be dealt with in an operational manner.

“In that respect, it should be left to the headteachers, working with council officers, to deal with this.”

A city council spokeswoman said a strategy to deal with the growth in the number of primary pupils was agreed in February last year.

She said several options, including the rezoning of some catchment areas, extension work to existing buildings and the construction of new schools, were identified.

“In recognising this need to increase the city’s primary school capacity, the city council has approved funding for new schools at Brimmond and Milltimber and will work in partnership with housing developers to construct new primary schools in the Countesswells, Newhills and Grandhome developments,” she said.

“Further work will result in a new Stoneywood school, an extension to Greenbrae school and a refurbishment of the city’s Victorian schools.”

Interim options are being looked at to cope with extra pupils at Mile End, which is in an area where a number of new housing developments are planned or nearing completion.

It is understood a cloakroom area at the 3Rs school on Midstocket Road could be used as a temporary classroom for the next session.

The council said “a number of measures” were being looked at as the authority works towards capping the number of classes at Mile End at 16 for the 2014/15 term.