St Andrews’ new secondary school opened just over a year ago and is already almost full.
With hundreds more homes to be built in the town, it’s likely Madras College will soon be over its capacity of 1,450 pupils.
So why did Fife Council build a new school smaller than the one it replaced when substantial residential expansion of the town has been planned for years?
And what will be done to accommodate the many more children new houses at St Andrews West, Guardbridge and elsewhere in the school’s large catchment area are expected to bring?
We spoke to the council’s head of education and children services Shelagh McLean to find out.
When will Madras College breach capacity?
According to statistics issued by the Scottish Government last week, the £55 million new Madras College which opened in August last year is already at 95% occupancy – just 72 pupils shy of its 1,450 limit.
When construction was approved three years ago, Fife Council predicted it would reach 100% occupancy by 2024. That is still expected but due to a delay in houses being built “slightly later” now, says Shelagh.
Will the school be extended? And how?
If and when the number of pupils goes over 1,450 consent will be sought for an extension.
Shelagh said: “We did take the prudent decision when we were building the school to ensure that the core facilities – things like dining, services – were able to cope with a larger school roll should that be required.
“We also have built in space for the extension should that be required, in a way that should be the most effective at that point in time and create least disruption.”
Clever design by the architects, she said, would allow construction of extra accommodation in part of the school’s inner courtyard quadrangle.
These designs already exist and extension could be discussed as soon as this year’s school census figures are published by the Scottish Government in December, she said.
How much would extension cost and who pays?
The cost ‘should’, Shelagh said, be covered by contributions – or planning levies – from housing developers already agreed to mitigate impact on education services.
But she admitted that ‘might not cover everything’, so some public funds might be needed.
Extension costs were estimated at £4.5 million in 2019 when construction of the school was approved by Fife Council and may have changed since then.
Why not build a bigger school at the outset?
The size of the new Madras College – planned since 2006 – was based on earlier pupil projections without developments including St Andrews West, where 900 homes will be built.
Only when these housing developments were factored in did predicted pupil numbers exceed the school’s capacity of 1,450.
Rather than ripping up plans and starting again when these developments were confirmed, extending if and when required means this can be funded by developers.
Shelagh said: “What we are not allowed to do is ask for [developer] contributions if those projections don’t come to fruition.
“So if we had built it [a bigger school] and paid for it at the time, we couldn’t have asked for the developer obligation at that time because were weren’t at a point where we had confirmation of what the housing or what the [St Andrews West] masterplan was actually going to deliver.”
Conversation