School rolls set to rise in county
School rolls in West Lothian are set to increase as housebuilding booms and the county acts as a magnet to young families.
A report to the council’s Education Executive explained that West Lothian is expected to grow by around 900 homes each year for the next decade, because of housing developments.
This is predicted to lead to an estimated additional 300 primary and 150 secondary pupils per year in West Lothian schools.
Plans are in place to manage the additional demand for schools in the area, with a range of measures including building new schools, extending current ones, reviewing catchments, managing placing requests and refusing requests from outwith West Lothian, as required.
But some councillors fear that in areas where no new housing is planned schools will see numbers continue to drop.
And that would threaten smaller village schools such as Torphichen.
Local councillor, Stuart Borrowman, raised concerns at the meeting.
He said the council should put plans in place for schools in the future.
After the meeting, he said: “Big falls in school rolls in primaries will impact on staff numbers and presents some risk to the richness of the educational experience available.
“As an example, the Torphichen roll is forecast to fall to just 40.
“It’s a well-run school but I’ve had parents of young children there in touch to discuss the implications of such a fall
in the roll.
“It’s important council puts plans in place to mitigate any negative effects and I’m sure it will.”
Greg Welsh, interim head of primary education, told the meeting that efforts were made with small schools to ensure that pupils did not lose out on curricular activities because of the small roll.
He added that joint work within the clusters ensured that the experience particularly at primary levels was the same for those in smaller schools as larger ones.
He said: “This is especially important as the children get older to mitigate the
effects of moving from a small primary to a very large secondary.”
A new £14 million school at Calderwood in East Calder opened in August.
And over £60 million is currently being invested to build two new secondaries and a primary school in Winchburgh.
Executive councillor for education, David Dodds, said the authority will make plans for the forecasted rise in pupil numbers and is already investing in improvements.
He said: “West Lothian’s increasing popularity as a great place for young families has led to our school roll forecasts rising.
“The forecasts are very useful and allow us to identify which schools are likely to face capacity pressures in the future, and put plans in place in advance to increase capacity or reduce demand as appropriate.
“We already have one of the best school estates in the country and are improving it further by investing millions to build new schools and extending others, especially in Core Development Areas such as Calderwood and Winchburgh.
“This will ensure we have capacity across the West Lothian school estate to cope with the predicted growth in pupils number in the future.”