Today (Thursday) will be decision day when the fate of five rural Midlothian primary schools hangs in the balance.

At a meeting of the full council, elected members will be asked to consider the education division’s revised proposals for local schools.

While the closure of Howgate, Borthwick, Temple, Cranston and Cousland by the end of June is still an option, new proposals have been put forward which could see the construction of a new primary school for Borthwick and Temple pupils at Middleton.

While it had been mooted that Cousland pupils transfer to Woodburn Primary, another option involving transferring the children to the new Pathhead Primary is also to be considered.

Other options include the building of the merged Langlaw/Bryans school on a new greenfield site and Eastfield/Ladywood on the site of the Edinburgh Crystal visitor centre and factory, which is being purchased by Midlothian Council. Two representatives from each of the schools affected by the shake-up have been invited to give a short presentation during the meeting.

Education director Donald Mackay warned that tough decisions would still have to be made. “We have got a serious problem without buildings in general and we want to remedy that. We feel now is the time to take action otherwise our school estate is going to continue to deteriorate,” he told the Advertiser.

The new options to be considered by Midlothian councillors today are as follows:

Borthwick Primary - to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Stobhill Primary in August 2004; to close with pupils remaining at Borthwick until the new Stobhill Primary School is built; to provide a new school for the Borthwick and Temple catchment areas at Middleton with pupils remaining at the existing school until this is built; to keep Borthwick open.

Temple Primary - to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Stobhill Primary in August 2004; to close with pupils remaining at Temple until the new Stobhill Primary School is built; to provide a new school for the Borthwick and Temple catchment areas at Middleton with pupils remaining at the existing school until this is built; to keep Temple open.

Cranston Primary - to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Pathhead Primary in August 2004; to close with pupils remaining at Cranston until the new Pathhead Primary School is built; to keep Cranston open.

Cousland Primary - to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Woodburn Primary in August 2004 and then to a new primary school scheduled to be built at the Dalkeith Schools Community Campus; to close with pupils remaining at Cousland until Woodburn is refurbished or the new school is built; to close with pupils remaining at Cousland until a new school is completed at Pathhead Primary; to keep Cousland open.

Howgate Primary - to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Cuiken Primary in August 2004; to close in June 2004 with pupils relocating to Cornbank St James Primary; to keep Howgate open.

The rest of this report details the options available to the other Midlothian Primary Schools included in the programme, information can be found on Midlothian Council's website.

Howgate Primary School hosted a balloon race on Friday with each of the five rural schools threatened by closure represented.

A balloon representing each pupil at Borthwick, Cousland, Cranston, Howgate and Temple primary schools were released. This totalled 180 balloons representing the high-flying youngsters.

Five rural Midlothian schools will find out today if they will have a future in the local authority’s educational shake up.

Councillors will consider a series of options which could result in the closure of Borthwick, Temple, Cranston, Cousland and Howgate Primary Schools.

Following the recent consultation period, which was dominated by a vocal campaign by the Midlothian Rural Schools Action Group, education officials have put forward a number of new options for councillors.

These include the creation of a new primary school, possibly built under the Public Private Partnership, at Middleton for youngsters in the Borthwick and Temple catchment areas.

Outlining the new options, education director Donald Mackay told the Advertiser:”What we have tried to do is listen to what has been said during the consultation period and the views that have come out. In the main, most people who are getting a new school have said very little and are broadly happy with the proposals.

“Where there are school closures there has been a fairly clear view from these communities that they do not wish to see these schools closing.”

Mr Mackay continued that whatever decisions were taken by the councillors it was important that the sums added up.”One thing I will be saying to the council and imagine the director of corporate services will be saying the same thing is that whatever we go to the Scottish Executive with has to stack up financially and if you take parts out of our overall business case we have to put other money in.

“If we decide to build a new school we will have to look at the overall programme to see if we can make savings elsewhere or get additional finance and clearly that is going to have an impact on the rest of the council.”

Mr Mackay added that the councillors did have the option to take no action at all.”If we decide to reject each of the recommendations, in effect we are saying we are happy with the quality of the buildings we have and we are not.

“We have got serious problems with our buildings in general and we want to remedy that. We feel now is the time to take action otherwise our school estate is going to deteriorate.

“It is our feeling that we do not want youngsters to be educated in sub-standard buildings.

“We want to make sure for future generations of children going through primary schools just now and future generations that Midlothian provides the best possible learning environment for all our pupils,” he said.

Midlothian Rural Schools Action Group spokesman David Picken said:”Councillors are being asked to make decisions on inaccurate and misleading guidance in the report. It is as if all the referenced evidence supplied has been ignored.

“The potential closure of these rural schools is against national policy, educational acts as well as the council’s own policy of rural sustainability.

“The depth of feeling is so strong we have taken the possible closure of these schools to the Scottish Parliament and we will not hesitate to take legal action to keep them open.

“We urge the councillors to listen to the electorate and the children of Midlothian. We do not want our rural schools closed and our communities wrecked.”

Parents at Borthwick have been thrilled to realise that the council is listening.

The cap of the school roll which has meant that placement request from outside the catchment area have had to be refused, has finally been lifted.

A child from outside the catchment has had his placement request granted for the P1 intake this autumn (on the understanding that this is conditional on the school not closing as a result of the council’s deliberations).

The Borthwick school community is delighted to be able to welcome non-district children back to the school.

Any other families wishing to take advantage of this change should contact the head teacher.

Colette Pemberton
North Middleton