How a four-pupil school was saved

By Giancarlo Rinaldi
South of Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website

Locals hope to see the community role of the school enhanced

Proposals for a rural schools bill in Scottish Government legislative plans for the year ahead will have surprised nobody in Glentrool.

Last year Dumfries and Galloway Council believed it had a compelling case to close the village primary school with a projected school roll of four pupils.

Instead, SNP Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop rejected the plans.

Now the government hopes to set that approach in stone with a presumption against the closure of rural schools.

It is contained in one of the 15 bills put forward by First Minister Alex Salmond to the Scottish Parliament.

We always knew we were in the right place at the right time when there was a change of government Meta Maltman Glentrool residents' association

The little forestry village in Dumfries and Galloway was something of a pioneer for the policy.

The council agreed to seek the closure of Glentrool Primary in April last year.

Councillors were told it would cost nearly £100,000-a-year to keep the school open - about £25,000 per pupil.

The director of education at the time also argued there were "educational and welfare" reasons to shut such a small school.

However, because the closest alternative primary was more than five miles away the authority had to seek ministerial approval.

Shortly after it did so, the new SNP government came to power.

One of its first moves to affect south west Scotland was to veto the closure proposal.

'In the forefront'

Now it wants to create a statutory presumption against shutting such schools.

Dumfries and Galloway Council's operations manager for schools services, Keith Best, said it recognised the "important role" a school could play in its community.

However, he added that a "presumption" against school closure was not the same as a "prohibition".

He said it was important to ensure that education was being "satisfactorily and equitably" provided across the region.

Lochs School in the Western Isles has been earmarked for closure

A council regeneration group is now working in Glentrool to look at ways forward for the property.

Meta Maltman, of the Glentrool residents' association, said they recognised they might have paved the way to keep other small schools open.

"We were one of the first," she told the BBC Scotland news website.

"We always knew we were in the right place at the right time when there was a change of government.

"They wanted this to happen - and there we were in the forefront."

School pupil numbers are still only five but Ms Maltman said slow progress was now being made towards developing a new role for the property.

She also welcomed the proposals to make a law which would effectively back-up the Glentrool decision.

Parental campaign

"We are very pleased to see it - it is going to give other schools confidence," she said.

"And I know our head teacher has been contacted by other schools elsewhere in Scotland."

Indeed, the Western Isles is currently going through a process similar to the Glentrool experience.

A spokesman for a parental campaign to save seven junior secondary schools in the area said Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) councillors should take note of the government's stance.

He said Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's "unholy" haste in pushing through the closures was undoubtedly due to the knowledge this new legislation was coming.

Campaigners, however, will surely take heart from Glentrool's story when councillors meet to discuss the issue later this week.