Yesterday the Education and Children’s Services Committee met and some important decisions have been made, most notably regarding the Dunfermline and West Fife’s Catchment Areas.

The first part of the meeting involved making a decision on term dates over the coming years and this was agreed quickly.

The next part of the agenda was on the Dunfermline and West Fife Catchment areas. I was very happy with the proposals which ensured all children in Dunfermline would be able to go to High School in Dunfermline, and resolving anomalies such as Primary Schools split between catchments for High Schools, such as at Pitreavie, Canmore and Commercial Primary Schools. This is obviously a positive step which I am delighted about. During the discussion I expressed my happiness at this, as well as asking about the reasons why 95 pupils, rather than 50-70, were told they would be going to Inverkeithing. It was revealed however that all 95 pupils will be accommodated in schools in Dunfermline, although not all got their first choice. I also questioned on future school roll projections based on the fact that thousands of new homes will be built, and it appears there will be a requirement to have space for an additional 1200 pupils as a result necessitating a new High School.

Various other subjects were discussed. A report on what is taking place for the Year of the Young People took place and there will be some exciting events taking place. There was also a decision to be made on the annual increase of payments for foster carers which was approved. I asked if this took into account increases in the cost of living which I was assured it did.

Much of the decisions on the Support for Voluntary Organisations was deferred to give more time to work out the fine details, except the decisions dependent on the Pupil Equity Fund. We also had reports o Pupil Equity Funding, which we had head teachers explaining the projects and impact this had. The report on A Better Connected Directorate focussed ona pilot project in Kirkcaldy which will hopefully result in improvements in how the service functions.

On the report on Educational Outcomes in Fife, there was an explanation that Fife had less pupils staying on to S6 than the Scottish Average. It was stated this was due to the strong College sector, so I asked what our levels of going to College compared to national levels. While the Council Officer was unable to answer there and then they did say they could look into our College figures. The last report was on the South East Improvement Collaborative Plan which is currently being worked on.