Parents unite against school cluster plans

Parents in Kintyre have joined others across Argyll and Bute in voicing opposition to controversial council plans to cluster schools under executive head teachers.

A public consultation on Argyll and Bute Council’s proposed Collective Leadership Model closes on Thursday March 31 – and can be found at the empoweringoureducators.co.uk website.

Introducing its plans, Argyll and Bute Council argues: ‘Our school population is falling and, when it comes to recruitment, there is a shortage of experienced teachers.

‘A series of significant national education reforms are also just around the corner. We believe we must take positive action now to tackle these and other challenges by helping schools to work more effectively together.

‘By making these changes, we believe we will protect our schools, enhance the education of our pupils and build a stronger team of educators.’

But this view is challenged by parent councils across the region – and they also question the process.

The council is consulting on a ‘proposal in principle’, and this worries parent councils representing schools in Mid Argyll and Kintyre.

In a joint statement, they said: ‘Parents and communities need to be clear that the proposal in principle does not carry any technical detail. This will only be worked out once the decision has been made to progress the model – all subject to change.

‘Not only can [the education authority] give us no evidence of this model working but it has not provided us with any risk assessments or proof that this will do no harm. To make valid feedback, we have to hear both sides of the story.’

The statement said that when the plan was first presented to the council’s community services committee in June 2021, it was already clear that parents opposed school clusters. ‘It is extraordinary that the education authority has now spent time and money using a marketing company to “sell” the same model to parents rather than thinking it worthwhile to engage parents with possible alternative models for discussion,’ the statement added.