Highland pupils are missing out on playground space and proper accommodation because their primary school is being “run into the ground”, parents claim.
Families in the Holm area of Inverness have been promised a new school to ease pressure from an expected population boom thanks at least in part to a major housing development in the area.
But the school will not be built until 2020 – and worried parents of children at the existing Holm Primary School say the facilities just are not good enough for the next few years.
The problem is part of an overcrowding issue that is pushing the city’s schools to crisis point – and last night, one MSP told how the rest of the north is also facing an “enormous challenge” when it comes to school buildings.
Councillor John Finlayson, vice chair of the People Committee, said: “Clearly there is a capacity issue in Inverness and I think there is a genuine appreciation that there is a capacity issue here. It would seem Inverness just keeps on growing and you can’t keep building houses unless you put in schools and infrastructure to support that.”
In Inverness, parents attended a public meeting organised by Highland Council this week, where it emerged student enrolment was estimated to reach a breaking point of 380 pupils within three years.
Holm Primary is currently running over capacity by more than 40 pupils at 284.
A 33-year-old mother of two said: “My main issue is it’s going to take three years to get off the ground. Right now these kids aren’t getting the adequate sport and adequate outside areas as they have been a mess.
“It’s alright saying in three years it will be brilliant but in three years everyone is gone and the kids that are in the catchment are left with a school that is basically running to the ground. I think the ideas are brilliant but they are not looking at the short term right now. It looks like Holm Primary is being used and once this new all-singing all-dancing school is open this school is basically going to be forgotten about. I don’t feel that they seem to be extra support going in there.”
The new Ness Castle Primary School should open in 2020 and should ease the projected population rise fuelled by developments including Ness Castle.
Kate Forbes MSP said: “Highland Council face an enormous challenge, with so many school buildings across the region to maintain.
“With generally smaller classes, and more buildings, it is no doubt difficult for Highland Council to allocate resources across the Highlands.
“Since 2007, about 31 schools in the Highlands have been rebuilt or refurbished, and I can think of at least four in Fort William, with three new primary school buildings and the improvements to the High School.
“Nevertheless, there are other buildings that are being left behind and, in particular, Invergarry, Broadford and Banavie Primary Schools and parts of Fortrose Academy.”
