THE Scottish Secretary has rejected an application by Scotland's only
opt-out school to be upgraded to six-year status.
As a result, Dornoch Academy will remain with about 60 first and
second-year pupils for at least another year.
Mrs Jenifer Cameron, the spokesman for the school board, was
disappointed at yesterday's decision by Mr Ian Lang not to upgrade
Scotland's first, and so far sole, opt-out school.
''We had always felt that it was central to all we wanted to achieve
here. Everyone knows we opted out to pursue this line and now to find we
are not able to do it is surprising, to say the least.''
The Scottiish Office refusal of consent refers to the board's
application for upgrading this autumn.
''We have been aware since early April that it was not going to be
possible to have this,'' said Mrs Cameron, ''so from that point of view
it is not a surprise.
''What we were looking for was a response to our request to proceed to
a ballot, which might have put us on course for the next term, and this
might have hopefully led to upgrading within a year. That is what we
were hoping for.''
Mrs Cameron said she was confident -- though she could not speak for
what a future board meeting might decide -- that the pressures for
upgrading would continue with a new board.
The first meeting will be next Monday night ''and clearly they will
have a lot to talk about'', she said.
Academy rector John Garvie, who joined the school in February after
moving from Gairloch High School, said he would not be resigning.
''Preparing pupils for university and seeing pupils right through the
school was very much part of my life and I could not envisage laying
that down. Dornoch Academy has become very much part of my life now,''
he said.
The Sutherland Parents' Action Group, formed by Golspie parents last
October after concern about Dornoch's upgrading plans, has claimed that
local pressure resulted in the decision by Mr Lang not to grant
permission.
The group said: ''We are glad the Secretary has not allowed them to
upgrade. If the upgrade had gone ahead, it would have been to the
detriment of all the children in Sutherland. The opposition was very
strong and we are very pleased the Secretary of State has taken this
into account.''
The action group also noted that the Scottish Office refusal gave no
indication of when upgrade status might be granted.
''We do not want to see them upgraded at all but certainly if they are
going to be upgraded, we do think they should have a lot more experience
than they have now.''
Meanwhile, Highland Regional Council's education committee chairman,
Councillor Val MacIver, said the Scottish Office decision was in line
with a recent education committee discussion of Dornoch's application
for upgrading.
Mrs MacIver said: ''The Secretary of State obviously shares our view
that it is premature in the interests of the education of the children
in the Dornoch area for the parents to have the school upgraded without
any expertise of actually running a secondary school.
''From the education committee's point of view this is an entirely
satisfactory outcome to Dornoch Academy's application to upgrade and it
means that no more resources will be taken from Highland schools to
cover the cost of any such upgrading.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article