29-04-2025
Edinburgh school catchment and moving Gaelic unit under review at council debate
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Plans for the future of Gaelic education in Edinburgh are to be discussed this week.
The Education, Children and Families committee will meet on Thursday as the number of applications for places at the city's only Gaelic primary school doubles in a year, and plans for a standalone secondary school stalled.
Gaelic education for secondary school pupils is currently available at James Gillespie's High School - which is also seeing a rise in the number of pupils enrolled.
A number of options, including exploring a catchment change, introduction of timetabling efficiencies, internal reconfiguration of existing accommodation or, if possible, additional accommodation, have all been highlighted in the meeting agenda.
Plans to offer an annex unit at Liberton High School were previously ruled out and it was decided there was no budget in the capital programme to deliver a Gaelic Medium Education (GME) secondary school.
Parents previously criticised plans for the provision at the new Liberton High School due to its location from the primary school and a more central site being required. Councillors agreed and a statutory consultation was paused.
The main report states: "Engagement with the GME community on all aspects of GME education has continued through the Edinburgh Gaelic Collaborative Forum and in line with the specific action on demand for GME in the Gaelic Language Plan.
"However, in relation to the provision of new GME primary and secondary schools, there remains no fundamental change to the update provided in 2022. Monitoring of the primary and secondary school rolls continues, and demand is currently able to be accommodated in existing provision or by introducing the rising rolls options highlighted above.
"There remains no specific capital budget allocated to the provision of GME infrastructure and therefore no detailed project work can progress. The situation with potential site availability for a new GME secondary school remains as has been reported to Committee in 2022.
"Following the request by Committee on 3 September 2024 to report the potential of the Police Headquarters at Fettes as a site, direct communication with the Scottish Government and Police Scotland has reconfirmed this site would not be available to the Council for the provision of a GME secondary school."
In terms of next steps, the monitoring of school rolls for GME and recruitment of school staff will continue and the council will engage with the Scottish Government, the Gaelic community in Edinburgh and other stakeholders to consider the best way forward.
Councillor Steve Burgess, Greens education spokesperson, said: "Greens strongly support the growth of Gaelic in the Capital, so we very much welcome any positive steps towards developing a robust strategy around the expansion of Gaelic Medium Education, which has now been stalled for years.
"But the challenge is how to grow Gaelic with only one primary school, that looks to be bursting at the seams, and no dedicated high school for Gaelic, whereas Glasgow has several Gaelic primary schools and a high school.
"The council needs to be working proactively with the Gaelic community in Edinburgh to rapidly produce a meaningful way forward for the growth of Gaelic in the Capital, and I would then hope and expect that the SNP Scottish Government would support this as they promised to in their last Holyrood election manifesto."
