Parents have vowed to fight council plans to close a school amid a teacher staffing crisis – with one pledging her children will not attend the replacement offered by the council.
Children at Strathconon Primary School will have to travel up to an hour each way to get to school by bus when they transfer to Marybank in the new year.
Parents were only informed of the decision on Monday, and one mother has already pledged not to send her children to Marybank in a move which could spark a full boycott.
Yesterday, parents were also asked by council staff at the school gates if they would take their children to Marybank today for what has been described as a “transition day,” initially billed as a Christmas party event for local schools.
Parent Jacqui MacKinnon has two children at Strathconon, Deesha and Dreyden, and lives 20 miles away up a single-track road.
She said the condition of the road and several stops to pick up children will create a journey of about one hour. She says guidelines from the Child Law Advice service, a charity, state that best practice suggests a child of primary school age should not travel for longer than 45 minutes.
The 40-year-old local business owner said: “I hope the whole glen opposes this movement from the council. They have no idea the length of the road as far as driving goes. I am not prepared to put my children on a bus and risk their lives.
“I have told them (the council) I am not allowing my children to go to Marybank. A boycott would not be the best thing for Highland Council but what choice do we have? They have given us no choice – only four days’ notice.”
Miss MacKinnon said the council will end up spending more money on transport to take the kids to and from Marybank and to staff the bus, provide extra staff to cope with extra pupils and to look after younger children finishing school and nursery earlier, than they would have on teachers for Strathconon.
The school, which has 17 primary and two nursery pupils, recruited new teachers last year after a global campaign. Both Miss MacKinnon and fellow parent, Lynsey Stewart, who has three children at the school, said they would not be sending their children to Marybank for today’s transition day.
Miss MacKinnon said she was also concerned that parents at Marybank Primary had received a letter with different wording which said the school would be closed until the spring.
Bill Alexander, the council’s director of care and learning, said: “The council has sustained staffing at Strathconon, through various challenges over the past year. It has only now become clear that there would be difficulties achieving this from January.
“The option to provide education at Marybank provides maximum consistency, and minimal disruption, during what we believe will be a short period. The council is fully committed to working with the parents to achieve the best possible transition, and to make the best of this temporary situation.”
