Stunned parents have vowed to fight a plan to close Corrie Primary School after a council review showed the school would have no pupils by 2012.
Parents, villagers and the area’s MSP, Kenneth Gibson, have said they will strongly oppose closure of the highly rated school and claim the review group has got its figures wrong.
North Ayrshire Council’s educational services school estate review group put forward a proposal to amalgamate Brodick and Corrie primary schools. It was considered by the council’s education executive, which decided on Tuesday to put the proposal out to consultation between January and March.
The proposal points to a declining school roll in both schools over the next five years. The report, which also pinpoints three Ayrshire mainland schools for closure, shows that by 2012 there will be no pupils at Corrie Primary.
But the figures in the proposal state Corrie Primary currently has 11 pupils when in fact it has 19 pupils, including nursery children. It also claims the single-classroom school has a maximum capacity of 50, a statistic parents have described as ‘laughable’.
Donna Gold, from Brodick, who attended Corrie Primary as a child, now sends her own children to the school, which has received glowing reports from HMIE.
She says her three children are devastated at the thought and that parents would work to make sure it did not happen.
Mrs Gold said on Wednesday: ‘We were stunned by the news. This has been on the cards since May but yesterday was the first we heard about it. It has taken me until this morning to get my head round it all.
‘We are going to try hard to make sure it doesn’t happen. It is a fantastic school, not just because of the HMIE report but it is like an extended family. The staff know the children so well.’
Neil Hamilton-Bulger, who owns Corrie Hotel, said the closure would mean ‘the death of a community’. He added: ‘I informed Councillor Peter McNamara that the figures the council had on the school roll were incorrect so I’m disappointed in the decision to go to consultation. I know of one family who say they are leaving the village and going back to the mainland if the school closes.
‘Following the Craigforth Report it looks like houses are going to be built in Brodick and there are plans to build more houses in Corrie and Sannox. What happens if Corrie Primary closes, young families move here and Brodick Primary School reaches capacity?’
Cunninghame North MSP, Kenneth Gibson has also added his and the Scottish government’s backing to keep the school open. He said: ‘I’m concerned about this because a village school is essential to the life of a community and it is vital that this village does survive because we want Corrie to flourish and be attractive to families.’
Executive member of NAC’s children’s services Councillor John Bell, who chaired the school estate review group, said: ‘These proposals are the result of a lot of hard work by a cross-party review group. All the schools involved have occupancy levels below 50 per cent.
‘We think this is a sensible way forward which will benefit all pupils in North Ayrshire.
‘I pledge that the consultation process will be as thorough as the review.’
