Consultation plans for city’s third Gaelic school
CONSULTATION dates have been announced for a new Gaelic school for Glasgow.
Education bosses have proposed a third Gaelic language school for the city due to soaring demand from parents.
Last month councillors considered a report from Director of Education Maureen McKenna that stated the two existing schools cannot cope with rising rolls.
Ms McKenna’s suggestion is that Gowanbank Primary could be renovated and turned into a Gaelic primary school.
The existing Nitshill school is set to close and move to a new, purpose built campus due to open in March, next year.
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The launch of the consultation to provide a third Gaelic schools for Glasgow’s children is good news and a chance for all interested parties to submit their views.
“The report outlines the council’s plans and ti meline for the consultation.”
A report to go to executive committee tomorrow details the public consultation as beginning on May 22.
Three public meetings will be held throughout June.
The public consultation will end on September 3 and all information collected sent to Education Scotland on September 8.
There are currently 900 pupils in GME education in Glasgow, but rolls are predicted to increase to 1150 in just three years’ time.
The report also states that more than 80 per cent of pupils come from a family where Gaelic is not spoken as a first language.
Ms McKenna’s report reads: “As at January 2017, there are between 120 and 130 applications across the two schools for entry to P1 in August 2017.
“We know that neither school has the capacity to sustain this intake.
“We made the decision to take all Glasgow resident applicants for August 2017.
“This means unless a solution is found then we will have to significantly reduce the intake in August 2018 and beyond which could have a negative impact on the development and delivery of the Council’s wider language plans in the city.”
The report goes on to say that there is not enough time to construct a new school to expand Glasgow’s Gaelic education capacity and so Gowanbank Primary is suggested as an alternative.
Gowanbank Primary, as revealed by the Evening Times, has been subject to repeated attacks from vandals.
During one, first reported by the Evening Times last July, vandals wrecked the Pollok school before enjoying jelly and ice-cream.
In December, firebugs petrol bombed the building, causing extensive fire damage.
The council spokeswoman added: “Glasgow is proud to be the largest provider of Gaelic Medium Education outside of the Highlands and Islands and we are now planning for the future as demand for GME rises each year.
“After hosting successful engagement sessions with current and potential families at the end of last year we are now recommending a formal consultation on a potential third primary school in the city.
“We know this will be warmly welcomed by the Glasgow Gaelic community as school roll projections predict that demand will overtake school places at Berkeley Street and Glendale primaries in the future.” PLANS to build a new school in the north east of Glasgow have been given the green light.
Glasgow City Council’s planning applications committee gave their stamp of approval of the plans which paves the way for the current Blairdardie Primary School to be demolished.
The site will then see the erection of a new school and lead on to initial construction works for new sports facilities in the area.
The committee gave the go-ahead for the demolition and construction of the new school.
When built, the new school will provide 16 primary classrooms and two general purpose classrooms to accommodate any increase in pupil numbers that may occur.
Despite objections surrounding road safety concerns, made by councillors, local residents, the committee deemed the plans acceptable to rubber stamp.
Councillors and local residents objected on the grounds that there was a lack of parking spaces and no drop-off zone for parents to use.
Bill Kidd MSP also weighed in with the same concerns.
The new building will have a sports hall which has enough room for four badminton courts, a raised stage, a drama room and six changing room facilities.
The sports facilities will be available for public use as well as pupils.
Future plans for the construction of sports fields next to the new school site have still to be submitted to the council.
These plans could see the existing Blairdardie sports pavilion demolished and redeveloped.
A council report published in February this year proposed to enhance the existing facilities on the site.
This includes a proposal to replace one of the three grass football pitches situated within the grounds with an 11-a-side all weather synthetic pitch with team changing facilities at the school to replace those provided by the pavilion.