News / Unpopular Sandwick school plans face delay
SHETLAND Islands Council is recommending delaying the transfer of S3 and S4 pupils at Sandwick junior high school to Lerwick until the new Anderson High School is open.
The local authority has published the results of a public consultation on its plans to end secondary education at Sandwick after S2. Four in five respondents have voiced opposition to the plans.
It had originally been proposed that pupils would move to Lerwick in 2015 – prompting discontent among south mainland parents at the prospect of their children facing moves to different school premises for two consecutive summers.
In response to those concerns the SIC says affected pupils would only move once the new AHS at lower Staney Hill is completed – anticipated to be in the summer of 2016.
The local authority had originally planned to shut the department altogether before councillors had a change of heart in November, deciding instead to look at the S1-S2 option in Sandwick along with Aith, Baltasound, Mid Yell and Whalsay.
Just five out of 316 written consultation responses backed the proposal. Some 247 (80.2 per cent) were against, while 52 expressed no opinion and a dozen favoured outright closure.
The consultation was carried out in February and March and its findings will be debated by the education and families committee on Monday 9 June.
Last week a notice of motion to postpone all five secondary consultations until the new AHS is fully up and running was withdrawn at the last minute. Its 11 signatories decided the timing – five days before the Sandwick consultation paper’s publication – was wrong.
Committee vice chairman George Smith faced down accusations from councillor Jonathan Wills that rebels were seeking to derail the SIC’s cost cutting financial strategy.
Council officials estimate the net saving of ending secondary education in Sandwick after S2 would be £223,530 a year.
Children’s services director Helen Budge said: “The public have been clear as part of this consultation process that we need to look at 2016 and not have bairns transferring one year into a school, and then the next year into another school.
“We accept that so we’ve changed the date.”
While the vast majority of respondents wish to retain S1-S4 education in Sandwick, Budge said that was “not possible” because “in order to continue the principles and vision of Curriculum for Excellence there’s a need for change in the way education is organised in the Shetland Isles”.
Concern about the quality of education on offer was behind most respondents’ opposition to the proposed changes.
Around half were also worried about the effect on the fabric of the south mainland community, financial considerations, travel times and the transition pupils will have to make between the two schools.
Meanwhile a socio-economic study carried out by Nairn-based economist Steve Westbrooke noted that teaching and support staff jobs would be lost in the south mainland – though that could be counteracted by expanding employment opportunities at Sumburgh airport.
He said there would be an impact on retail, with Sandwick’s shop and bakery especially likely to see reduced spending by pupils and their parents.
While there was “little evidence” that families would leave the area in the short term there is “some concern that the loss of S3 and S4 education at Sandwick would make the area less attractive for families moving to or within Shetland and promote a drift towards Lerwick”.
Education Scotland’s submission states that the council has made a “clear case” that the status quo is not sustainable either financially or in developing a “coherent senior phase” to meet pupils’ needs.
But it has “not set out a convincing case that the discontinuation of S3 and S4… is the most reasonable and viable option and will deliver clear educational benefits for the children and young people directly affected by it”.
Hayfield officials continue to believe the case for Sandwick becoming an S1-S2 school is “not as strong” as it is for junior highs in the smaller islands of Unst, Yell and Whalsay.
But they are recommending that councillors should go for that option to recognise the “community imperative to retain some secondary education at Sandwick”.
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