Parent ‘dismayed’ at timetable change

Sir, I am frankly dismayed at my accidental discovery that Lochaber High School are planning to close at 1.15pm on a Friday from this June. I have a number of objections. First, I still have a daughter in primary school. If I was to collect my two children from high school and leave the youngest until 3pm on a Friday, there would be uproar. If I have to make two separate journeys at two different times, it would mean being on the road for nearly three hours in the busy summer tourist months of June and August in Fort William. But the head teacher at her primary school is not happy at my thoughts of collecting her at 1pm because that is going to affect her attendance levels.

Secondly, do teenage children not need more interaction rather than less? Boredom will lead to more services like the police being involved with teenagers getting into trouble. It’s not as if the younger ones at high scan get jobs to fill the extra hours they will now have on a Friday.

Thirdly, I have three children with no back-up childcare. My plan over the past 14 years has been when my youngest child reached high school, I will return to work. One swoop of the pen and that is now in jeopardy. Yes, I can work, I can tell any potential employer, but just not on a Friday.

My eldest is 14 and this age group needs constant monitoring. So if the schools are not going to fill those two hours, it’s going to have to be the parents who fill that gap. And so I can’t work for an employer or build up a self- employed business because I will now have to supervise two teenagers and a runaway primary pupil on a Friday afternoon.

Are families not under enough pressure financially without having to drop two hours from their working lives to accommodate the council saving money?

The worst part is that I live in the centre of Fort William. There are parents 20 miles out of town who have primary and secondary pupils. Name and address supplied.