PUPILS from a Catholic primary in East Dunbartonshire are facing serious disruption after their school was closed on safety grounds just days before the new term.
Routine maintenance work at Holy Family Primary School, on the border between Lenzie and Kirkintilloch, is understood to have revealed a crack in a wall in an upper floor which requires a full safety survey.
As a result, pupils will be decanted to the former Lairdsland Primary School, in Kirkintilloch, which was closed at the end of the last school year as part of wider improvements to the school estate.
East Dunbartonshire Council said the disruption was set to last until at least Christmas while full safety checks are conducted. Parents are also concerned the former Lairdsland buildings are in a poor condition and the school does not have appropriate facilities.
A recent council report into the state of Lairdsland said: "Notwithstanding the fact that the principal sandstone structure is of architectural merit, the school is in a poor condition and shows clear signs of a a lack of routine maintenance.
"Many of the windows require to be replaced due to their unstable nature. Furthermore a considerable amount of work remains to be done to bring the building up to an acceptable standard."
There are additional concerns about space with the former school roll being just over 200 while there are more than 300 pupils at Holy Family.
A spokesman for the Holy Family parent council said: "We are relieved that the structural issue in the school building was discovered prior to the school term and that, as a result, the risk to pupils and staff was minimised.
"Members of the parent council understand the need for alternative education provision, but we share parents' valid concerns that the temporary move to the old Lairdsland building will provide a poor educational environment for a number of reasons including the quality of the building, the lack of facilities and our large school roll.
"We wish to highlight that the local authority deemed this building to be unsatisfactory for the provision of modern education. We trust that East Dunbartonshire Council will now take whatever measures are required to allow pupils and staff to return to our school's home, and implement those measures urgently."
Parents have also taken to social networking sites to raise concerns about the disruption to pupils.
Rosa Stewart posted a message on Facebook stating: "Lairdsland will be a logistical nightmare with the poor condition of the building, the lack of outside space, the outside dinner hall and toilets and the traffic." She suggested putting up huts in the outdoor areas at Holy Family until the survey work was done.
A spokeswoman for the council apologised for the disruption, and said parents would be updated regularly on the progress made at Holy Family.
She said: "Following scheduled repairs carried out this summer and subsequent investigations it has been identified that significant further structural surveys need to be carried out on the main wing of the Holy Family Primary School building to identify the full extent of further repair works required.
"To allow for this, arrangements have been made for Holy Family Primary School to operate out of the former Lairdsland Primary School buildings in Kirkintilloch at the start of the new term. The nursery is not affected as it is in a separate wing of the Holy Family building.
"We apologise for the disruption that these alternative arrangements may cause and hope that parents and carers understand why they need to be put in place."
The spokeswoman said plans had already been made to carry out further survey work, but the "nature and extent" of this and anticipated remedial work would
mean the new arrangements would be in place "until at least the Christmas holidays".
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