Cash-strapped Dundee City Council hopes to save almost £50,000 a year by moving a nursery into an under-used primary school.
Fresh from cutting more than £4 million from the education budget, councillors will be asked next week to approve in principle shutting the Law Nursery in Lawside Road and moving its staff and children to Rosebank Primary.
The Rosebank Road school is big enough to take more than 400 pupils but its roll is only 130. Its occupancy rate of 30% is one of the lowest of the 37 city primaries.
A report going before the education committee on Monday explains that the move will result in one-off capital costs of £120,000 but substantial long-term savings will be made. This includes no longer having to pay £7500 a year rent to the Roman Catholic Church, which owns the nursery site.
The nursery’s head teacher post will also be scrapped, with management responsibilities falling on the Rosebank head teacher.
Savings will also come from not having to spend £15,000 on upgrading the Law kitchen to satisfy environmental and health and safety rules and another £80,000 on a complete electrical rewiring of the building. Operating from one site will cut maintenance, cleaning and utilities bills too.
In the report education director Jim Collins says, “There are advantages in considering the integration of a nursery facility within a primary school. In terms of learning and teaching experience, such a move can facilitate the implementation of the curriculum for excellence and make the transition from early years education to primary education seamless and smooth.”
Several city primaries already have nursery classes and nurseries will be included in the shared campus developments planned for Charleston and the west end.
If councillors back the proposal, consultation with parents, staff, trade unions and education inspectors will follow. This could be completed quickly enough to allow the transfer to go ahead in time for the start of the school term in August.
Law Nursery, which has a 70-pupil capacity, was most recently visited by education inspectors in 2007. They said the children were making “very good progress” in their learning and praised the “knowledgeable and experienced staff” for their commitment.
Rosebank was also last inspected in 2007 and was said to have made improvements to the quality of its learning and teaching and to pupils’ attainment.