A lot of unhappy parents tonight at Cults Academy over the proposals by Aberdeen City Council. The city council wants to change the catchment area for Cults Academy to exclude pupils from south of the Dee (i.e. Lairhillock Primary School) from 2016. This is to make space for pupils in the city who will be coming from a new housing development at Milltimber, and so on.
Lairhillock is in Aberdeenshire, so our local pupils would no longer be welcome.
Parents were not backwards in letting the city council officers aware of their views. Feelings at the public meeting ran high, understandably. A number of them had moved to the area so that their children could attend Cults Academy, which is one of the best in the country.
The public consultation is open until 2 April. The Shire council has yet to agree its submission to the consultation. If the rezoning goes ahead, then the Shire will have to make alternative arrangements for the pupils. Currently there are about 60 pupils who could be affected.
I have been told by a councillor on the city council that she has been told the following by her council officers: “There has been no decision taken about whether siblings of students already at Cults Academy would be given a place at the school in future years, however I know that this approach is favoured by our colleagues in Aberdeenshire Council and it is something that has also been commented upon in responses from parents to the consultation. Given the relatively small numbers of pupils who would benefit from this, I think it would be a positive thing to offer as a recommendation to the Education and Children’s Services within the final Consultation Report.”
Also present was my fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Isobel Davidson who is chairperson of Aberdeenshire Council’s education, learning and leisure committee.
The final decision will be made by Aberdeen councillors.
You can find out more at http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/…/CST_Cults_Academy_Rezoning…