THE West Fife school closure plans have again come under fire after it emerged there is no room for Wellwood children at the nursery at McLean.

This is despite the council deciding that Wellwood children will have to move to McLean Primary when their own school is closed.

Kari McBurnie has been involved in the campaign to save Wellwood Primary, where her 10-year-old son is a pupil.

However, following the council executive’s decision to push ahead with closure, she is planning for the future for her three-year-old daughter, Mia, due to start nursery next month.

Under the existing catchment arrangements, Wellwood pupils go to nursery at Pittencrieff Primary but given that the youngsters are going to have to attend McLean, Kari wanted Mia to start nursery there.

Kari said, “With the circumstances at Wellwood I thought it’s inevitable that it will be closing.

“Nobody’s got in touch with me to say what the options are if it does close so I thought I would go ahead and contact McLean to ask what happens next.

“They said whether the catchment changes to include Wellwood or not, they will not be able to take any child in for 12 months – in or out of the catchment.

“All children will have to be put on a waiting list and it will be first-come, first-served basically.

“When all this was submitted to the executive committee it was stated they could take Wellwood children in and all the future pupils from Wellwood as well – clearly not.

“There’s a lot of toddlers in Wellwood that are going to be in the same boat.

“Something’s gone wrong with the figures somewhere. It’s quite disheartening because you’re trying to make the transition from playgroup to nursery to school as smooth as possible and make it a happy process for your child.

“It’s supposed to be smooth and easy – not upsetting for them because it’s a big thing and a big change for a little girl to move into that new environment.

“If she’s at Pittencrieff nursery then she’ll be moving into a new school with different children.

“The children she’s at nursery with will be staying at Pittencrieff but she’ll have to move to McLean and she won’t know anyone there.” Ken Keighren, Fife Council education officer, said, “Although a final decision has been taken by Fife Council to close Wellwood Primary School this is subject to possible call-in by the Scottish Ministers. We will know if this is happening by 7th April.

“All the nursery places at McLean have been allocated for April. But if the school closure is implemented, there will be sufficient capacity in McLean Nursery from August to accommodate all pre-school children living in the current Wellwood Primary School catchment area.”