Family to return to US after school setback

A FAMILY is returning to the United States because their daughter couldn’t get a place at a school in Dundee.

Peter and Glaucia Spalding moved to Broughty Ferry from Texas at the end of 2020 and had planned to send their children Michael and Nickole to Grove Academy.

However, daughter Nickole lost her place at the school after coronavirus restrictions delayed their move, and for the past few weeks she has been learning online with her old school in the USA.

Nickole and her mum Glaucia are now preparing to fly back to Texas so she can finish the rest of the school term there instead.

The family’s decision comes as Dundee City Council says it plans to remove places reserved for children arriving halfway through the term at two schools and reduce the number at a third.

Dad Peter said: “We have now applied for Nickole to go to Dundee High School and she has sat the assessment exams.

“Her brother is doing online learning at Grove Academy and in the meantime my wife and daughter are leaving for America so Nickole can go back to her old school there.

“She will come back to Scotland at the end of the American school term and go to Dundee High School unless there is a place for her at Grove.

“I am very disappointed at this outcome because Grove would have been a handy school for her, it is only 100 yards away and that is why we bought this house. She is still on the waiting list at Grove.

“I would like them to look at solving the problem of kids coming to live in the catchment area of a school but then can’t get to the school because it is already full of kids who don’t live in the catchment area, and probably never have.”

The council’s children and families committee will be asked next week to approve how many school places are to be reserved for new children starting after August 2021 at each school.

Should the proposed plan be approved at the meeting, there will no longer be any places reserved at Fintry Primary School or Clepington Primary School because they are “not required”.

A Dundee City Council spokesperson said allocation of reserved places is reviewed annually.

They added: “The report looks at the number of reserved places, which are created in some schools where it has been the case that all available places are filled in a primary or secondary following the allocation that is made before the start of the school year, including placing requests from outwith the catchment area.

“This means that families moving into the school catchment area either during the school session or after spaces are allocated for the session may find it difficult or impossible to secure a place in the local school for one or all of their children.”

“Reserved places are defined as ‘those which are reasonably required to accommodate pupils likely to become resident in the catchment area of the school in the school session to which the placing request relates’.”