Aberdeen education bosses will look to maximise space in city schools as part of a new strategy.
A report to this week’s education committee has warned that schools “which are significantly under-capacity” are inefficient and council bosses will look to keep them at least 85% full.
Work is ongoing into a review of the school estate for the future with city schools ranging in age from Victorian to being built last year.
Between 2013 and 2017 18 re-zoning consultations were undertaken, a revamp of Walker Road school was carried out to create more space, and Bucksburn and Newhills schools were replaced by Brimond School.
There has also been approval for extensions to Greenbrae, a replacement Riverbank School building and a new primary school and community centre at Torry. Design work is currently under way for all four of these projects.
The full review is expected to be published in September.
The report reads: “Conversely, schools which are significantly under-capacity tend to be inefficient, as the cost-per-pupil in running and staffing the building increases.
“A key aim of the school estate strategy, therefore, will be to ensure that schools remain at optimum sufficiency levels, through maintaining pupil numbers at between 85% and 100% of the school’s available capacity, wherever possible.
“Plans for the future school estate will therefore need to take this target into account, and options for increasing school capacity where it is required, and finding alternative uses for any available spare capacity, will also be identified within the strategy document.”
