‘All options available’ for Yell school with more staff than pupils
Burravoe primary school could be mothballed, left open or closed permanently
A YELL school with more staff than pupils is set to be considered for mothballing.
Shetland Islands Council agreed today (Wednesday) to carry out an options appraisal into Burravoe Primary School, with the potential for it to be mothballed next year.
Other options will be for the school to remain open as is, while the SIC could also begin a statutory consultation on closing the school permanently.
It comes with just four pupils attending the school for the 2026/27 academic year, which starts today, but with six staff running the school.
Elected members were told at today’s full council meeting that no new children were starting primary 1 today at the school, which has a capacity of 30 pupils.
Burravoe’s pupil roll has dropped from 11 in the 2021/21 academic year down to just for pupils – and just three are expected at the school in August 2027.
In contrast, 25 pupils are attending Mid Yell junior high from today, along with nine pupils at Cullivoe primary in Yell.
Opposing views were voiced in the council chamber today about the potential for another school being mothballed, following Skeld’s closure in 2024.
West Side councillor Liz Peterson, who strongly opposed the mothballing of Skeld, said she did not think there would be any educational benefit to closing Burravoe school.
“Some children thrive in a bigger school, but some children thrive in a smaller school,” she said.
“I don’t think we can say this will be of educational value. The main reason for this is to do with finance.”
South Mainland representative Alex Armitage also said he believed more people would be looking to move to Yell in the coming years, due to potential energy projects and the possibility of a fixed link to the isle as well.
He asked if that would be factored into the options appraisal.
However chief education officer Fiona Robertson said the council could only operate based on the numbers that were in front of them.
She added that there were other schools in Yell as well and said there was no guarantee that more people in Yell would result in more children attending Burravoe school.
Shetland Central councillor Ian Scott said there was no other reason for the potential mothballing of Burravoe other than to save money.
He said there had been a stark impact on Scalloway when its secondary school was closed in the 2010s, and criticised Allison Duncan – a councillor then and still representing the South Mainland – for being part of that decision-making.
“We can disguise this any way we want,” Scott said.
“What were the benefits of Skeld school closing down, or Scalloway school closing down? Very few.”
He added that mothballing a school was a way of easing people into the idea of closing it down.
Armitage returned to say that smaller school environments – like Burravoe – could be beneficial for Shetland pupils who were neurodivergent.
He said some of them “find it extremely difficult when they move to bigger schools”.
But councillors Dennis Leask and Gary Robinson believed that elected members needed to be realistic about the prospects of the school.
Leask said councillors should not be putting more pressure on SIC staff when they were suggesting Burravoe may need to close, adding that there was “good reasoning behind it”.
And depute council leader Robinson said he felt a school with so few pupils would be a “pretty miserable place to go”.
He pointed out Burravoue would not even be able to field a sports team, to which Armitage responded: “Not everyone is in to sport”.
Lerwick South councillor John Fraser said Shetland was dealing with “decreasing resources” – not financially, but in terms of teaching staff.
He said he believed that keeping Burravoe open “dilutes the resources that we have”.
The council agreed to proceed with the options appraisal into the Burravoe primary school, which will “explore all the options available” for the school.
After the appraisal a report will be presented to the education and families committee detailing the outcomes, which is expected to be presented in the 2026/27 academic year.
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