An Orkney mum has launched a petition against the island council’s decision to close a dedicated language unit, fearing for the impact it will have on her son.
Lisa Groundwater, 34, has begun an online campaign to save the specialist unit based at Papdale Primary School.
Her petition has so far received 469 signatures, just under half of the target needed to challenge the decision.
Mrs Groundwater’s five-year-old son Alie began attending the unit last year and she said he has come on leaps and bounds since joining.
However, she fears changes to the delivery of the service, which will see it provided as an out-reach programme during normal classroom time with other pupils rather than pupils going to a dedicated unit, will have a knock-on effect down the line.
She said: “Going to the class to teach him would be a change. Alie gets seven and a half hours each week at the unit but in the class, how are the other kids going to get it as well. What teacher are they going to get to sit with him for seven and a half hours a week. It doesn’t make sense.
“The difference in Alie since last March is huge. His speech is good but his language understanding has always been a problem. He has struggled. To not to have this crucial support in the next couple of years, or even five years into school, I dread to think.”
The centre is expected to close in the summer, but parents claim they have been left in the dark by the council as to the overall roll-out of the plan.
She added: “We have heard nothing. I came across a letter from October 2 and that’s the last correspondence we have had from the council. They said at the time that we wouldn’t see a difference in the service given to the kids other than it would be provided in the class and not at the unit anymore.
“When we went to the meeting in October, they told us we would get more information but several months later and we still know nothing.”
A spokesman for Orkney Islands Council said: “The services currently provided by the language unit are not coming to an end.
“Papadale Primary School pupils will continue to access the service at the school and should see very little difference.
“Pupils at our other primary schools will now receive the service at their own school on an outreach basis.
“Every parent of every child using the language unit has been met with, or is due to be met with shortly, and are involved in developing their child’s plan for the coming year.”
