Public respond to Gaelic school

The school plan has been a controversial issue in Skye

Highland Council has received 289 submissions from the public to proposals to make Sleat primary the Highlands' first Gaelic school.

Local residents are evenly split but a majority of people outside the area support the proposal.

The council is now proposing an English-medium unit within the school.

The original plan was to make Sleat a Gaelic-medium school with English-medium pupils bussed to Broadford 16 miles away.

Seventy-nine out of 149 people living locally favour the Gaelic school option as do 49 out of 55 people outwith the area.

The council is now proposing a third option of an English-medium unit within a Gaelic school.

Bill Fulton, councillor for Kyle and Sleat, said this was a new proposal which required further consultation.

However, education director Bruce Robertson said it was normal for schools to have different departments and their proposal was simply a Gaelic-medium school with an English-medium department, which meant the original consultation was still valid.