Parent Council welcomes pledge of support for Duror youngsters

Parents of Duror Primary School got some good news as they have now been promised a full-time Pupil Support Assistant.

The school previously had an assistant for 10 hours per week but parents have been requesting full-time assistance for the single teacher who looks after a composite class of 10 pupils.

The pupils range from P2 to P7 and a classroom assistant is essential in ensuring that all pupils learn properly when at different stages of development.

A spokesperson for Highland Council said: ‘We can confirm that as part of the support given to the school following the recent Education Scotland inspection, additional assistant hours have been allocated to the school, on a fixed-term basis, for the school session.’

The assistant will now help out in class for all contact time with pupils and will be there until the end of the school year in June 2020.

Head of the Parent Council Natasha McCallum Millar said: ‘If this is true, it is a major step forward towards the council putting things right.’

Last term the school had eight teachers within six months due to lack of a permanent cover for maternity leave, and recently performed very poorly on an Education Scotland inspection.

Parents have been asking Highland Council for more support for months and Ms Millar became disheartened by the lack of action taken on an at risk school like Duror. The Parent Council still thinks more can be done to help the school and Mrs Millar previously suggested an experienced principal teacher could take some strain off the group head teacher in terms of admin work.

Duror is a small community and when the Education Scotland report came out there was outrage that the school was performing so poorly.

Chairman of the Duror and Kentallen Community Council Sandy Stoddart said: ‘The whole community is keen to have a good primary because that is going to be attractive for people coming into the area.

‘It is good to be able to welcome young families into the community and a good primary school may be the deciding factor to whether they choose us over somewhere else.’

The commitment was made by the council’s former interim head of education, Dr James Vance, who is now returning to his role as head teacher of Culloden Academy. Head teacher of Alness Academy, Nicky Grant, will be replacing him.

This change in personnel is not concerning the parent council which has confirmed to the Lochaber Times that it will be picking up the outstanding issues at Duror with her at the next opportunity.