City of Edinburgh Council is proposing to consult on changes to the Towerbank Primary School catchment area.

The review is being considered due to the increasing number of catchment pupils together with the impact on the school roll from the potential new housing development at Baileyfield.

If approved, the consultation would take place with the Towerbank school community and those in the proposed receiving schools before any changes are made.

The report extract attached below includes proposals for the catchment changes which would achieve the level of reduction required in the Towerbank catchment population and would see parts of the existing school catchment move to Brunstane, Craigentinny, Duddingston and The Royal High Primary Schools.

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However, it is also being proposed that, before the formal consultation process starts, informal consultation would take place with all the affected schools to establish if there are any other feasible and more preferable alternative options for catchment boundaries that would still achieve the required outcome of reducing the Towerbank catchment pupil numbers.

If such an alternative is identified this could then be the basis for the statutory consultation.

Irrespective of the final catchment change proposals put forward for statutory consultation it is proposed that:

1.      Any catchment changes would only apply from the start of the 2016/17 school year.

2.      No pupils currently at Towerbank Primary School would be required to move to a different school.

3.      In the future, after meeting catchment needs, younger siblings of pupils already at Towerbank Primary School residing within areas proposed for transfer to other schools would be offered priority for placing requests into Towerbank.  This policy would apply for a full primary cycle (i.e. seven years).

Full report here

An extract from the report relating to the proposed Towerbank Consultation is attached below.