- Blackness Primary School consultation update – 13 February 2025
- Blackness Primary School consultation update – 16 December 2024
- Consultation
- Proposal papers
Blackness Primary School consultation update – 13 February 2025
Following the decision of the Executive Committee on 13 February 2025 to approve the proposal to close Blackness Primary School, Falkirk Council has now informed Scottish Ministers of this decision in accordance with Section 15(2) of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 as amended.
Details for submitting representations to Scottish Ministers are as follows:
- By email - schoolclosure@gov.scot
- By post - The Scottish Government, School Infrastructure Unit, 2A (South Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
The deadline for making representations to Scottish Ministers is Thursday 6 March (3 weeks from the decision date).
Falkirk Council's Executive Committee considered the findings of the statutory consultation on the future of Blackness Primary School at its meeting on 13 February 2025 and approved implementation of the proposal to permanently discontinue education provision at Blackness Primary School with effect from 27 June 2025 and that the pupils of Blackness Primary School receive their education at Grange Primary School from 30 June 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.
The Council is satisfied that implementation of the proposal is the best solution to address the underlying reasons for its formulation, namely:
- The capacity of Blackness Primary School is 50 pupils. The Blackness Primary School roll in August 2024 is16 pupils giving an occupancy of 32%. This included 10 pupils living within the catchment area for Blackness Primary School and the remaining 6 are placing requests from other Falkirk schools or outside of the Falkirk Council area.
- The number of pupils living with the catchment area of Blackness Primary School has been 10 or less since 2018.
- School roll projections have been developed using health board data on the number of pre-school children living in the Blackness Primary School catchment area.
- Pupil projections indicate that catchment pupil numbers are expected to rise to 13 in 2027/28 and then start to decline.
- There are no house building proposals in the catchment area of Blackness Primary School that would affect current projections.
The Council has carefully considered all the consultation feedback and reviewed the proposal to consider whether any of the representations led the Council to reconsider any other options as being reasonable alternatives to the proposal. The Council has accepted that the representations made during the consultation period have not provided any options which are reasonable alternatives to the proposal to close Blackness Primary School. The Council is satisfied that none of the alternatives considered is a viable or suitable option. Nursery provision is not viable. The site of the school does not make re-zoning viable. There is no other identified use for the school building. Mothballing is not appropriate as this process has been considered already. Keeping the school open does not address the underlying reasons for the proposal.
The Council has reviewed the Educational Benefits Statement that was prepared (see Section 9 of the Proposal Paper). The Council has accepted that the educational benefits; and effects as identified therein are still valid, and that there are positive educational benefits to be derived should education provision at Blackness Primary School be permanently discontinued.
The Council is satisfied that implementation of the proposal to close the school will not have a major effect on the sustainability of the Blackness community given its proximity to nearby settlements and services. Blackness Primary School building is not routinely used by the community as there is a separate Village Hall adjacent to the school. The closure of the primary school will not impact on the availability of the Community Hall for community groups/residents. The Council recognises that the community hall would lose income from school use and as such, equivalent transitional financial support will be negotiated with the Hall Management Committee to cover a period of 3 years. The Blackness community made strong representation about the involvement of pupils in community activities such as beach cleaning. In consequence of the proposal being implemented, the Council believes this should not have a significant impact on the ability of the Blackness community to continue to organise such activities.
The Council has also considered the transport impact for pupils attending Grange Primary School instead of Blackness Primary School. Whilst there would be a small increase in the carbon footprint for the Council due to a slightly longer commute of up to 3 miles, Education Services is content this distance, and the travel times involved, are within the range which currently exist for other pupils across Falkirk.
This notice is to inform interested parties regarding the decision made at Falkirk Council Executive Committee on 13 February 2025 to approve the proposal to close Blackness Primary School with effect from 27 June 2025.
This notice is available in accordance with Section 11A(3) of the Act.
Blackness Primary School consultation update – 16 December 2024
In September 2024, Falkirk Council’s Executive (including Education) agreed that a consultation with all stakeholders be undertaken on the proposal to close Blackness Primary School and realign its catchment area to Grange Primary School.
Falkirk Council has undertaken this consultation seeking views on the proposal, under the terms of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 as amended. The Consultation Report can be viewed here:
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Consultation Report
PDF file, 482.4 KB
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Appendix 1 Proposal Document
PDF file, 837.6 KB
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Appendix 2 Consultation notice
PDF file, 145.1 KB
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Appendix 3 Responses from Pupils
PDF file, 195.9 KB
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Appendix 4 Responses from Organisations
PDF file, 87.7 KB
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Appendix 5 Responses from Staff
PDF file, 134.3 KB
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Appendix 6 Public Meetings Minutes
PDF file, 373.8 KB
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Appendix 7 Presentation Slides
PDF file, 1.1 MB
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Appendix 8 Online Survey Responses
PDF file, 507.5 KB
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Appendix 9 Education Scotland Report
PDF file, 139.7 KB
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Appendix 10 Letters Received
PDF file, 300.3 KB
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Appendix 11 Blackness Primary School Pupils Focus Groups
PDF file, 102.2 KB
A decision on this proposal will be made by Falkirk Council’s Executive on the 13 February 2025. An update on the decision made in regard to this proposal will be made available here.
On 12 September 2024, the Executive agreed to consult on a proposal for the permanent closure of Blackness Primary School and the rezoning of its catchment area to Grange Primary School from August 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Following the informal mothballing consultation exercise in 2022, it was agreed by the Education, Children and Young People Executive on 31 January 2023, the school should not be mothballed and the school rolls be monitored. The school roll at Blackness Primary School has declined to very low levels in recent years. The catchment roll has remained low and is projected to continue.
Before any final decision can be taken on a permanent school closure proposal, a formal consultation is required in accordance with the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
Consultation
The purpose of this formal consultation is to gather the views of those who would be immediately affected by the closure of the school and report back to the Education, Children and Young People Executive at the end of the year before a decision can be made.
The consultation is now closed.
Public meetings
In-person meeting
- 01 October 2024 at 18:30
An in-person public meeting will be held at Blackness Primary School/Community Hall on Tuesday 01 October 2024 at 18:30.
Online meeting
- 10 October 2024 at 18:30
An online meeting will be held on Thursday 10 October 2024 at 6:30pm via MS Teams*.
If you would like to participate in the public online meeting, please email and tell us in what capacity you are participating in to: educ.consultation@falkirk.gov.uk
Once this has been confirmed, a Microsoft teams invite and password will be issued. .
Proposal papers
The proposal document and notice of the consultation can be found below:
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Consultation notice
DOCX file, 408.6 KB
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Proposal document for the permanent closure of Blackness Primary School
DOCX file, 964.9 KB
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Appendix 1 to Proposal document - Financial information
XLSX file, 19.2 KB