Changes to the Council’s catchment area for Gaelic Medium Education (GME) took a step forward today (Friday) as the consultation report has now been published.
Late last year the Council consulted on its proposal to change the catchment area for pupils accessing GME to include the whole of East Dunbartonshire. Currently, only pupils living within the Meadowburn Primary School catchment area may enrol directly in the Gaelic unit. This means that some pupils from out with the Meadowburn catchment area may not be granted a place due to placing requests to the mainstream school.
The consultation report lays out the views of Education Scotland on the educational benefits of the Council’s proposals as well as issues that the Council should consider when deciding whether or not to proceed.
They are available online at https://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/gaelic-education with reference copies available to view at Meadowburn Primary School and at the Council Offices, 12 Strathkelvin Place, Kirkintilloch.
Depute Chief Executive, Education, People & Business, Ann Davie, thanked everyone who took part in the consultation.
She said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents, pupils and teachers for their contributions to the consultation process so far. It is important that you are kept informed of the developments and this report clearly outlines Education Scotland’s views on the process. I would encourage all interested parties to review the report which will be available online until 15 March.”
If the Council decides in March to go ahead with the proposal then the next steps will be:
- East Dunbartonshire Council must notify the Scottish Government within six days of its decision
- Scottish Ministers have six weeks to decide whether to call in that decision for review
- During the first half of that deliberation, interested parties can make representations directly to ministers.
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