30 January 2020

School rolls presentation highlights meticulous planning behind the scenes

Aberdeenshire Council's Learning Estates team has put together an online presentation for Education and Children's Services Committee to visualise school roll forecasts for the next seven years: https://sway.office.com/Snzts73GZcbmwJrf?ref=Link

Did you know Aberdeenshire currently has more than 35,000 pupils in our schools and thousands more in early years settings? This is projected to peak around 2024 and return to levels below what they are now in the years that follow.
 
While the report highlights a number of schools would go over capacity if nothing was done to alleviate things, it also demonstrates the meticulous continuous monitoring going on behind the scenes. Planning is being done to ensure pupils will continue to benefit from the best possible learning environments, and reporting annually on forecasts simply helps officers to continually analyse fluctuating numbers.  

One of the schools forecast to be over capacity, for example, is Inverurie Academy, which will of course move into a new, larger facility later this year.
 
In follow up, Education and Children's Services Committee Chair, Cllr Gillian Owen commented: "I don't think people realise how lucky we are in Aberdeenshire to have team dedicated to learning estates. The Aberdeenshire Primary School Building Brief is recognised nationally as an example of best practice, ensuring teachers' and pupils' views are at the heart of our design process, both for new builds and building enhancement programmes. This is further enhanced by our updated Accessibility Strategy for schools which outlines present and future developments to improve access to a quality education for all pupils.
 
"There will always be work to be done but I commend the team for their ongoing efforts, especially on the very difficult task of projecting birth rates, local housing developments and people moving into the area."   
 
Watch a video which sums up the Aberdeenshire Primary School Building Brief: https://youtu.be/0XoQVTI5awU