IF NOTHING is done, the capacity of all four high schools in Dunfermline “will be exceeded around 2021-22”. 

That’s the warning from Fife Council with Woodmill set to be full in 18 months’ time. 

The aim is to move pupils that would have gone there to Dunfermline, Queen Anne and St Columba’s but what happens when they reach capacity and have no places left?

The council wants new and replacement secondary schools to help address the problem but it could cost £150 million and the sums don’t add up. 

Right now, there is no council money for new schools, there’s no more Scottish government money for replacement schools and no money from developers for a new high school. 

The scale of new housing, which will lead to demographic changes and increased school rolls, is also greater than the council anticipated and they still have the more immediate capacity risk at Woodmill. 

Shelagh McLean, the council’s interim executive director of education, said: “It is clear that the population in the Dunfermline area has continued to increase since the expansion of the Dunfermline East area from 1996 and that in the long term, the existing four secondary schools, as they currently stand, are not able to accommodate all pupils currently enrolled in existing primary schools and projected new pupils from proposed housebuilding.”

A public consultation is under way. The council’s main aims are a new high school for Dunfermline – feasibility studies are being carried out – and replacements for Inverkeithing, St Columba’s and Woodmill high schools, and Tulliallan Primary School. 

Two years ago, they said replacements for St Columba’s and Woodmill would cost £75m while the price tag for a new high school would be at least £40m – that’s how much the new Dunfermline High cost when it opened in 2012. 

Councillor Helen Law, chair of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said: “A new high school has been talked about for some time. There’s no specific site. Halbeath was mentioned and in discussions, a site west of Dunfermline was put forward as it would give people from the villages a shorter journey and free up capacity in the other schools.” 

It’s thought a replacement Inverkeithing High would be £30m, then there’s the cost of a replacement for Tulliallan Primary School.  
The immediate issue is the capacity risk for Woodmill and the solution will be to fill up the other high schools in Dunfermline.  

While housebuilding in the eastern expansion “has resulted in the significant increase in pupil numbers” in the catchment, in other areas a reduction has “resulted in over-capacity in some schools”. 

The current roll is 1,340 and it can take 1,445 pupils, with that number expected to be breached next year.

The condition of Woodmill is ‘C’ and, together with St Columba’s and Inverkeithing, there’s a “significant maintenance backlog” the council can’t afford. 

The aim is that all schools should be rated ‘A’ or ‘B’ for condition and suitability, which is why they want to replace them. 

There are three options to tackle the capacity risk:

Build temporary accommodation at the school at a cost £4.5m.

Rezone catchment areas of all four high schools.

Rezone catchment areas, reduce catchment of Woodmill to increase capacity at Dunfermline, Inverkeithing and Queen Anne, and realign primary catchment areas. 

It’s likely to be the latter with the council admitting one of the risks will be siblings attending different schools. 

Queen Anne would see the biggest change, as much as 600 additional pupils, and parents have already expressed overcrowding fears with comments that, for example, the dining hall is too small as it is. 

The replacement Queen Anne opened in 2003 and its current roll is about 1,500.

This could rise to 2,100, it can hold around 2,300, as the council aims to run schools at 90 rather than 100 per cent capacity.  

Rezoning would lead to an increase at Dunfermline High too as its current roll is 1,495 and capacity is 1,750. 

If there were no changes, its roll is expected to fall in the next few years. 

Another school in ‘C’ condition, St Columba’s current roll is 859 and capacity is 1,069. 

If nothing changes, its roll is also expected to fall in the next year, although the collective capacity of all schools would be breached in 2021.